Design Innovation in Complex Systems Design: Integrating Design Thinking and Systems Thinking

In the current fast-paced and global context of design within organizations and enterprises, there is significant interest in integrating design approaches and methodologies across fields and industry sectors. Such an integration will provide a synthesis of design intent across user and stakeholder desirability, viability, feasibility, sustainability, and inclusivity. At the heart of this integration is the merging of design thinking and systems thinking (including systems engineering) processes. In this presentation, we provide a reflective case study of a ten month project between a large public organization, professional designers, and a university research center, focusing on the integration of design thinking and systems thinking. The project is cast in light of our broader efforts to develop Design Innovation (DI) within organizations, concentrating on people, process, methods, principles, and mind sets (Camburn, et al., 2017; Tushar, et al., 2020; Sng, et al., 2017) [1-7]. It is relies upon findings in the field across systems engineering, systems thinking, early stages of complex systems design, design thinking, and recent advances in integrating design thinking and systems thinking [ The reflective case study in this presentation entails the postscriptive analysis of a large infrastructure project in the transportation domain (research methodology shown in Fig. 1). This project, as the design of a large, complex system, included over 25 personnel (architectures, engineers and designers) from the public organization, and over 20 professional designers and researchers. The key outcomes from this collaborative project were two-fold: (1) teaching DI, inclusive of design thinking and systems thinking processes, to an in-house design (IHD) team from the organization, to create a shift in problem solving mindsets and approaches, and (2) actively applying DI process, methods, and principles in this context to the infrastructure design case. For the second outcome, we applied DI to two areas during the conceptual design stage: (a) choosing an appropriate infrastructure site, and (b) designing an innovative and optimized layout for key spatial components of the infrastructure. The organization’s inclusive in-house design (IHD) team of architects, engineers, and designers explored design in different perspectives to expand beyond their own field of knowledge, with the objectives of developing innovation mindsets, a new paradigm for problem solving, and better solutions for projects undertaken by the organization through the practice of the Design Innovation methods, principles and mindsets. 1Carlye Lauff Consulting LLC 2 Comcast Media and Technology Center (CMTC), College of Engineering, Design, and Computing, University of Colorado Denver 3 SUTD-MIT International Design Center (IDC), Design Innovation (DI) Program, Singapore University of Technology and Design 4 Oregon State University ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conference, Design Theory and Methodology (DTM) Conference, Presentation and Extended Abstract, 52938, August 2020. 2 Figure 1. Research methodology. The collaboration had three major phases. First, we engaged in a three-day DI sprint to start the project. This was to ensure that all team members were exposed to the full DI process and important methods, principles and mind sets. Second, we applied DI to choosing the infrastructure site location, as this was the first challenge/opportunity that presented itself during the collaboration. Third, we applied DI to the infrastructure spatial design with emphasis on optimizing layouts, while considering operations and maintenance needs. The project concluded with the team developing Design Innovation driven concepts and testing these concepts through multiple, iterative prototypes with stakeholders, along with a documented DI methodology handbook and project results with integrated design thinking and systems thinking methods and process (Fig. 2). Figure 2. Research outcome: DT+ST Handbook, Design Innovation. ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conference, Design Theory and Methodology (DTM) Conference, Presentation and Extended Abstract, 52938, August 2020. 3 As part of the reflective case study in this presentation, we investigate the project with a mapping of the DI process for the project across time and person-day efforts, known as design signatures (Seow, et al., 2018) [4], with state-the-art strategies for design prototyping (Lauff, et al., 2018) [7], and with quantitative and qualitative self-efficacy assessments by the participants. Findings from this reflective case study include: the clear need for meaningfully integrating design thinking and systems thinking approaches in complex systems design; the effectiveness of Design Innovation and the 4Ds process of design as a framework for this integration; and the insights, foresights, and innovation opportunities afforded by the integration (Fig. 3). Figure 3. Exemplar research findings. ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conference, Design Theory and Methodology (DTM) Conference, Presentation and Extended Abstract, 52938, August 2020.