System Thinking for Service Design

Design is a powerful tool to influence the world and make it better if you have the ability to see it as a big interconnected ecosystem

By always focusing on the short-term impact of our developments, without looking at the long-term shifts that will derive from them, we each become victims and beneficiaries of our own inventions

We need to understand the concept of interdependence of human and non-human species and shift our attention towards the bigger scale of impact.

As designers of products and services, people are always our main priority. We work with a human-centered design approach in order to shape solutions that improve people's quality of life, while generating value for the organizations and companies that produce them. But... what if the perfect solution today wasn't the ideal one for tomorrow?

How are we dealing with the possible consequences of the services we are building? System thinking could guide us towards a more responsible design practice, leading to consider the ultimate impact of our design decisions on human behaviours, society and environment.

System Loops

FROM: System maps are synthetic representations that describe how a system is structured, by displaying all the actors and showing their connections.

TO: System loops enrich system maps by always showing the relationship among two actors as an exchange in which they are both giving and receiving something. This means analysing more in depth the dynamics that sustain the system, mapping out tangible and intangible exchanged values and immediately visualising critical issues, gaps and redundancies.

System Loops

FROM: System maps are synthetic representations that describe how a system is structured, by displaying all the actors and showing their connections.

Impact Roadmap

FROM: A project roadmap is a very functional tool that allows a company or organization to define all the steps needed to bring a certain service or product to life.

TO: An impact roadmap expands the project phases and milestones with additional layers, enlightening possibilities to generate value while moving along the process, as direct or indirect consequence of the main activities and actions. This means reflecting on all the actors sorrounding the development of a solution and identifying strategies to generate positive engagements.

How to drive behaviour change in the Internet world?

We used dynamic personas to analyse how different users relate to technology. The dynamic personas helped us identify opportunity to help them become more aware of internet-related issues and eventually take action to better protect themselves in the digital sphere.

DISCOVER MORE

How to simplify the citizen’s interaction with the Public Administration?

We used system loops to analyse the hospitality context. The system loops helped us analyse every single exchange of information, document and money that involve tourists, hosts and institutions, and identify opportunities for the optimization of the experience.

DISCOVER MORE

How to design a different fire response service for informal settlements?

We shaped a product-service system project around community engagement. While engaging the communities in redesigning fire detection and response in informal settlements, we came up with strategies to give something back (e.g. training certificates) and increase the value we were leaving behind.

DISCOVER MORE