Framing System Dynamics for Designers Innovating in Transitions

Written by Hannah Goss (me), Nynke Tromp and Rick Schifferstein

In recent years, designers have increasingly engaged with sustainability transitions, using design and innovation activity to drive systemic change. Yet, we still have a limited understanding of how designers can best frame complex system dynamics to understand what innovations will foster desired change. This study aims to better understand how design decisions are made when innovating for transitions and how to support this process. We take a research-through-design approach to explore the dimensions of scale and time and propose a conceptual framework to specify how to include these dimensions in framing transition challenges for design. In our view, exploring and specifying 1) systems principles that drive the future system, 2) organisational roles stakeholders can play in the transition, and 3) changes in people’s behaviour and capabilities that drive the transition is key to identifying what future practice(s) to design for to foster desired transitions. We discuss the design activities and process artefacts developed and used to support our investigation into framing for transitions in a way that aligns short-term innovation efforts with long-term systemic change. Our contributions advance our understanding of framing in transition design, and we hint toward some of the design activities and process artefacts to support this.

This journal article will be available in the International Journal of Design in April 2025. If you would like an advance copy feel free to contact me.