Co-Design, Volume II Practical Ideas for Designing Across Complex Systems

Design is everywhere in our lives–but the nature of complex systems means that few people feel empowered or equipped to design better futures. This book is a guide to co-designing service systems. Although the places we live are full of material objects, they only become meaningful as they are used and experienced by people. We can think of objects not as finished products but as tools and processes for us to use in different situations. As tools become more sophisticated their function becomes more difficult to determine, and as they become easier to use they become less specialist and more participatory. As our focus moves away from material products, we travel into the world of services and experiences–health care, education, retail, and transport. However, are service systems designed in the same way as products? This book is about understanding the nature of design and organization in complex living systems. It looks at design as a way of thinking and acting. Design becomes an open-ended conversation with the world around us. This book is also about the shifting social relations of design–moving from an emphasis on elite individual engineers and designers toward the participatory process of making sense of tools to improve our lives: We call this process co-design. Those who are professionals working in any field, at the beginning or toward the end of their careers, organizational or system leaders, organizational consultants, designers, or educators will all find valuable ideas and practices.