A transition design framework: Design activities and evaluation of proposed interventions

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

The urgent challenges of climate change, inequality, or declining societal well-being highlight the inadequacies of existing systems in meeting sustainability goals. Transition design—a field at the intersection of design, sustainability science, and transitions studies—has emerged as a response to these systemic issues. Despite growing interest in its practice, there remains a gap in understanding transition design processes, particularly regarding the effectiveness of resulting interventions in fostering systemic change. This study addresses this gap by proposing a conceptual framework that connects five essential transition design activities—navigating scales from micro to macro levels, considering temporality from present to far future, engaging and repositioning actors from individual actors to actor networks, framing and designing from single solutions to portfolios, and practising reflexivity from activities to outcomes—to three evaluative criteria for the outcomes: desirability, plausibility, and networkedness of interventions. Using this framework, we assessed a portfolio of 21 interventions designed to transition the food system to reduce waste, with evaluations conducted by consumers, companies, and experts through a narrative-based approach. Our findings reveal that while consumers and companies tend to favour near-future interventions that adapt existing consumption practices, experts demonstrate a preference for long-term interventions that disrupt existing consumption practices. Additionally, the results indicate that quantitative evaluations alone may not sufficiently capture the complex, systemic qualities of transition design interventions, suggesting a need for mixed methods that incorporate context-sensitive insights. We conclude by reflecting on avenues for methodological development to improve evaluation as a (reflexive) transition design activity. 

This journal article is currently under review for publication. Feel free to contact me to get more information about this study and paper.