Papers by Mieke van der Bijl-Brouwer
Design is today suggested as an alternative way of working in government contexts. Manydeveloped ... more Design is today suggested as an alternative way of working in government contexts. Manydeveloped nations are trying to embed design in their public organizations. Yet recentstudies have shown that design is not easily permeating into everyday practice of public organizations. This research therefore aims to understand what the current practice ofdesign-embedding in government is like and its limitations by interviewing six experts in the design for government field. The research findings reveal that the changes created by the current design-embedding practice in government are not being actively sustained or amplified. Based on an understanding of organisations as complex systems, we suggest a further practice of design-embedding in which designers steward and stimulate design-led change energy within public organizations. This study shows that embedding design capability in professional organizations is more about design-led organizational change than passing on a design skillset to the organizational members
In order for universities to flourish, we need to ensure that their staff and students are well m... more In order for universities to flourish, we need to ensure that their staff and students are well mentally, physically and socially. Improving wellbeing is an open, systemic and complex challenge, because it contains many interrelated and dynamic problems and concerns. Such challenges cannot be ‘solved’ by using traditional and reductionist problem-solving strategies. In this paper we demonstrate how we worked towards an integrated systemic design and transdisciplinary innovation approach to improve the wellbeing of staff and students at the University of Technology Sydney. We developed a systemic vision of university wellbeing which considers wellbeing a characteristic of the community as a whole, and an integral part of education and research, rather than an issue that needs to be addressed by a separate ‘service’. The transdisciplinary and systemic design approach is further characterised by an ongoing evolutionary action-approach; an integration of diverse ways of knowing includin...
This workshop introduces the Envisioning Use technique which is aimed at generating a shared visi... more This workshop introduces the Envisioning Use technique which is aimed at generating a shared vision on user experiences in product development teams. This shared vision could support decision making with regard to user experiences and inspire solution generation by making team members more dedicated to designing experiences.
Proceedings of the International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education, EPDE 2023
Technology Innovation Management Review, 2018
Policy Design and Practice
Introduction Design is increasingly adopted in the public and social sector as an approach to tac... more Introduction Design is increasingly adopted in the public and social sector as an approach to tackle complex societal problems. To embed these practices in these sectors new agencies or labs have been established that work within or alongside traditional public and social sector organisations to design products, processes, services, policies and strategies, aimed at generating value for society. These public and social sector innovation labs borrow many methods and practices from traditional design professions, but at the same time a new unique practice is emerging that is tailored to the requirements of working in this new context (Yee and White 2015, UK Design Council 2013, Burns et al. 2006).
Design is gaining popularity as an innovation approach in the public sector to address complex so... more Design is gaining popularity as an innovation approach in the public sector to address complex societal problems. Although some promising results have been achieved, public design innovation has also been critiqued in different ways. The application of design thinking in the public sector has often led to public servants not taking on the full potential of design as an innovation approach. At the same time, designers have often ignored the particular characteristics of the public sector context in their social designs, which has often failed to lead to long-lasting social innovations. In this paper we argue that part of the critique is caused by a lack of a clear vision on what the new practice should or could look like and how it could be developed. Based on indicators of the emerging practice, we describe a new type of public sector design innovation expertise. Furthermore we propose different ways forward to develop design innovation capability in the public sector through educational programs and mutual learning across designers, public servants, and public design innovators. We conclude with setting a research agenda for studying the emerging public sector design innovation practice and developing capability-building programs to support the development of the practice.
Many scholars in the design research field are involved in (post)-graduate design education on th... more Many scholars in the design research field are involved in (post)-graduate design education on the one hand, and some type of corporate education on the other. While there is a growing body of knowledge on educating design students, there is a gap in this research field with regard to the education of non-design professionals. This type of education has become more important now it is increasingly recognized that design can support innovation in businesses, so-called design led innovation. In this paper we focus on educating Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). We propose a learner-centred approach to the development of education, which means that insights in the learners’ needs are used to develop programs on design-led innovation. To illustrate this approach we present how the learning needs of SMEs were investigated through the qualitative evaluation of a ‘Building Design Competency’ program. From this study can be concluded that SMEs have specific emotional, social and cog...
Proceedings of DRS, 2022
Transdisciplinary research is claimed to be essential in tackling today’s com- plex societal chal... more Transdisciplinary research is claimed to be essential in tackling today’s com- plex societal challenges. Transdisciplinarity includes collaboration and integration across academic disciplines, non-academic ways of knowing, and the ‘real world’ of citizens, professionals and other stakeholders. Design can contribute to transdiscipli- narity by framing complex challenges, integrating knowledge towards synthesizing so- lutions, and providing participatory practices to engage with the real world. However, for design to be successful in transdisciplinary research contexts, a better understand- ing of transdisciplinarity and design is required. In this paper I present a conceptual and practical perspective on transdisciplinary design. I show how design relates to three different conceptions of transdisciplinarity: a multi-level disciplinary practice, a participatory practice, and a practice focused on complexity and social learning. Fur- thermore, I propose a set of transdisciplinary competences that enhance designers’ ability to contribute to tackling complex societal challenges, including epistemic intel- ligence, worldview awareness, power literacy and reflexive and dialogic skills.
Services delivered through the public and social sector play an important role in addressing comp... more Services delivered through the public and social sector play an important role in addressing complex societal problems. Services consist of interfaces between service consumer and deliverer, and infrastructures that support the service deliverer. Infrastructures such as protocols, scripts and blueprints are often intended to control the behaviour of service delivers. This is a linear top-down view of service organisations. This paper presents a different perspective, using Stacey’s theory of complex responsive processes: service organisations are ongoing iterated patterns of relationships between human beings. Infrastructures for complex service systems can therefore be considered ‘social infrastructures’. Two case studies are presented that each describe the design of a successful social infrastructure, in the education and health sector respectively. To analyse the human-centred design practice of these case studies the author introduces the NADI-model, which identifies different ...
DRS2016: Future-Focused Thinking, 2016
She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation, 2021
Complex societal challenges cannot be resolved with quick fixes, nor can they be successfully add... more Complex societal challenges cannot be resolved with quick fixes, nor can they be successfully addressed from disciplinary or institutional silos. In this article we propose an innovative approach to tackling contemporary societal challenges based on complexity theory and transdisciplinarity. The lens of complexity reveals that such challenges emerge within complex contexts. Complex challenges cannot simply be resolved, due to their dynamic, non-linear nature. Instead, the complex context itself can be steered in a certain desired direction through iterative action and learning cycles. Trans disciplinary approaches help us understand how different perspectives and ways of knowing held by relevant actors can be combined to serve effective action in complex contexts. We have integrated complexity theory and transdisciplinarity to create a co-evolutionary model of innovation illustrating that who we work with, how we work, and what we learn and create co-evolve over time. We show how an innovation approach based on building a vision and including a reflexive social learning method can provide a guiding structure to this co-evolutionary process. We illustrate this approach with a case study focused on improving the well-being of staff and students at a university. We conclude the paper with implications for design.
Although their intentions are not always made explicit, designers have long been aware of their c... more Although their intentions are not always made explicit, designers have long been aware of their capacity to do good in and through their work. To boot, echoes of Victor Papanek’s (1972) influential Design for the Real World can be heard in diverse areas of design such as design for public innovation, design for sustainability, social design, and designing for the common good more generally (Bason, 2014; Dorst et al., 2016; Junginger, 2017; Liedtka et al., 2017). The recognition that design has normative implications shapes design outcomes, design practices1, and, more broadly, the culture of design. The rise and evolution of participatory design from its Scandinavian origins (Ehn & Sjögren, 1991) is evidence of this, as is the growth of design for social innovation (Manzini, 2015). Simply stated, given the stakes involved in design, it stands to reason to involve in design projects those whose lives may be impacted as a result. While service design continues to incorporate more part...
DRS2018: Catalyst, 2018
Over the past decade a new type of design practice has emerged that is aimed at addressing comple... more Over the past decade a new type of design practice has emerged that is aimed at addressing complex societal problems through public and social sector innovation. As opposed to traditional product design teams, design processes in this sector tend to be distributed among numerous actors. In these 'designing networks' it is less clear which type and level of design expertise is required and who should have it. In this paper, we investigate design expertise in public and social innovation through a study of the practices of five innovation agencies. We particularly looked at the expertise of framing. The study provides preliminary answers to how much and what kind of design expertise we need, who should have it, and how we can teach and learn this expertise. The results indicate that designing for complex societal problems requires high level design expertise with regard to framing and managing a design process. This requires capability building beyond the methodical approaches that are currently being offered to public and social sector staff members.
DRS2016: Future-Focused Thinking, 2016
The world is increasingly faced with complex societal problems such as climate change, an ageing ... more The world is increasingly faced with complex societal problems such as climate change, an ageing population, radicalising youth and chronic health problems. Public sector organisations have a key role in addressing these issues. It is widely acknowledged that tackling these problems requires new approaches and methods. Design, and in particular human-centred design, offers opportunities to develop these methods. In this paper I argue that a new type of human-centred innovation practice is necessary to adjust traditional user-centred design methods and tools to the public sector innovation context. This context involves different types of stakeholders with conflicting needs and aspirations, and requires a precise articulation of the value of human-centred design. I will propose a possible answer to these challenges through a case study relating to severe mental illness, in which we applied Dorst's frame creation methodology, in combination with the NADI-model of Needs and Aspirations for Design and Innovation.
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Papers by Mieke van der Bijl-Brouwer