RSD12 Four Seasons of Systemic Design Evolution

Peter JonesRSD, Strategic Innovation, Systemic Design

RSD12 was the twelfth iteration of the Relating Systems Thinking and Design Symposium, and held 12 RSD12 HUBS in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Local onsite symposia hosted by systemic design groups in China, Canada, Colombia, India, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, the UK, and the USA. The online RSD program was layered over the local experiences with a sequence of relevant presentations, providing complementary discussions. The first Hub was at UNAL Bogota, co-hosted with the 4th International Design Research congress. Both Tony Fry and Don Norman spoke remotely with bilingual accommodation for the Colombian audience. As there was too much to say at just one talk, I planned four talks for the four hub locations, and presented them in association with the natural cycle of seasons as they move from the “promising emergence” of systemic design in Latin America in Bogota, to the summer heat of practice in Mexico, …

Announcing RSD5, Relating Systems Thinking to Design 5

Peter JonesService Design, Social Systems Design, Strategic Innovation, Systemic Design

RSD5  Systemic Design for Social Complexity Relating Systems Thinking and Design 5 Symposium OCAD University      Toronto, Canada      October 13-15, 2016 The RSD series has advanced an agenda for exploring a strong integration between systems thinking and design to take on the most important challenges facing our planet today. RSD4 held in Banff, Canada September 2015 brought together nearly 200 people together from around the world to explore new dimensions in design-led systems design, transformation and research.  The keynote videos are now available, and the full proceedings are published online. Join us in the vibrant metropolis of Toronto, October 2016 for the fifth symposium hosted at OCAD University  to accelerate a convergence of design, social, and technology fields toward co-creating humanized (eco)systems. The theme of Systemic Design for Social Complexity represents our continuing focus on advanced systemic and service design for contemporary and futures-oriented societal concerns. All social systems become complex over time, developing …

RSD4 – Relating Systems Thinking to Design

Peter JonesStrategic Innovation, Systemic Design

The RSD symposium series has been held each year for four years now, sponsored by AHO (Oslo School of Architecture and Design) from 2012-2014 and this year in Banff. Organized by a four-person team of co-chairs, a group of great reviewers and capable volunteers, we’ve kept the symposium intimate and lightweight, affording a memorable experience. We’ve had extraordinary keynotes, again this year and as the Proceedings for each year show. This year, as the last two years we held 36-38 strong presentations, with a focus on quality design-led research in systemic design. We had 8 workshops held across all 3 days, an experiment in varying the tempo and level of engagement throughout each day. Although this year’s proceedings are still in process (we integrate papers, abstracts, sketchnotes and PPTs) we have videos and presentations from the keynote speakers to share. We have a tremendous trove of documentation and we’ll organize a compelling story over the …

Edge Practices: How Do You Measure Value?

Peter JonesDesign for Practice, Service Design, Social Systems Design, Strategic Innovation

Every design discipline (even industrial design) has had to develop its best rationale for the question “why should we keep/hire/use you guys?” If they keep asking, “what is it you do again?” you may have more work to do more on strategic communication. Emerging practices will always be considered marginal at first, within an organization. Practices (not processes) are formed from collective agreement, and are often tacitly formed.  When an organization first develops a core process, such as project management, it starts as a practice. Outcomes are uncertain, its value to cost is assessed. When a practice, such as user experience, becomes vital to every project, it becomes formalized as a process. You can tell practices because they have small in-groups, communities of practice that may form to develop methods, ensure quality, share learning, as in nearly all user experience groups in the past.  (I can speak as having been …