{"id":2019,"date":"2021-06-10T13:33:56","date_gmt":"2021-06-10T13:33:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rosenfeldmedia.com\/design-at-scale-2021\/?page_id=2019"},"modified":"2021-06-10T13:33:56","modified_gmt":"2021-06-10T13:33:56","slug":"design-at-scale-2021-handling-complexity-framing-a-scale-of-design-cornelius-rachieru","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/rosenfeldmedia.com\/design-at-scale-2021\/design-at-scale-2021-handling-complexity-framing-a-scale-of-design-cornelius-rachieru\/","title":{"rendered":"Design at Scale 2021- Handling Complexity: Framing a Scale of Design (Cornelius Rachieru)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u2014> Thank you for the introduction.\u00a0I\u2019ve heard so many great things about the Rosenfeld community over the last few years, and I’m eager for the chance to meet others over next few days<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2014> The goal of today\u2019s talk is to provide a scale of complexity designers will encounter when doing modern design<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u2014> Let\u2019s begin with a historical view of design scales. Design scales provided a scaling perspective from which we look at Design and it\u2019s impact on the world<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
\u2014> Examples of Design Scales include those introduced by Elliel Saarinen and the\u00a0\u201cPower of 10\u201d video by Charles and Ray Eames<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u2014> In addition to these design scales, Richard Buchanan also made reference to four orders of design. Meanwhile, Jared Spool represented \u00a0design complexity as a\u00a0series of layers, ranging from screen to ecosystems<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
\u2014> There are other scales like Stewart Brand and Frank Duffy, but these four scales are what designers are primarily introduced to<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2014> So why consider another\u00a0 design scale?<\/div>\n
    \n
  • \n
    While historical models are\u00a0 well known, they don\u2019t deal with complexity and granularity we have to deal with as designers today<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

     <\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    \u2014> So what does a contemporary framing of a design scale look like?<\/div>\n

     <\/p>\n

    <\/div>\n
    \u2014> In my own work and in explaining design scale to clients, I use three layers:<\/div>\n
      \n
    • \n
      The lowest level is the foundational layer, or the theoretical concepts that underly design methods<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
    • \n
      The second layer is the artifact layer, which focuses on creating simple design artifacts and micro interactions<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
    • \n
      The third layer is the feature layer, which focuses on Sketching, Prototyping, and wireframes<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
    • \n
      The fourth layer is the product layer. This layer deals with \u00a0Advanced IA concepts, ergonomics, and human factors. It involves designing end-to-end\u00a0experience across all touch points<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
    • \n
      \u00a0The fifth layer is the ecosystem layer. This layer focuses on the impacts of designs on the system and societal level<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
    • \n
      The sixth layer is the global layer, which focuses on the impact the design has at the global level<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
      \u2014> People built successful careers on first and second layers, like Aaron Drauplin of the Drauplin Design Company<\/div>\n

       <\/p>\n

      <\/div>\n
      \u2014> For the the\u00a0fifth and sixth layers, there are\u00a0there are approaches from systems thinking and \u00a0system dynamics that can be applied<\/div>\n

       <\/p>\n

      <\/div>\n
      \u2014> One can look at design problems either inside-out, by starting on lower levels of the scale, or outside-in, \u00a0by starting on the\u00a0highest levels of the scale<\/div>\n

       <\/p>\n

      \"\"<\/p>\n

      \u2014> Experience design has\u00a0broken into the domains of product and service design, with no clear delimitation between the two<\/div>\n
        \n
      • \n
        \u00a0 \u00a0 Product designers are better at addressing problems at the lower-layers, while service designers are better at addressing problems at the higher-layers<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

         <\/p>\n

        \u2014> The deliverables product designers and service designers provide are not the same, so let\u2019s review the differences<\/div>\n

         <\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        \"\"<\/p>\n

        \u2014>\u00a0For\u00a0Product Design, the projects are led by\u00a0designers, and design perspective matters the most.\u00a0Designers drive the projects to completion<\/div>\n

         <\/p>\n

        \u2014> For Service Design, projects are co-facilitated by designers, and designers are one of many stakeholders. These projects are multi-disciplinary and multi-focused<\/div>\n

         <\/p>\n

        \u2014> Product Design focused on visual\u00a0artifacts, with an emphasis on precise, polished, and pixel perfect deliverables<\/div>\n

         <\/p>\n

        \u2014>\u00a0Service design focused on understanding the\u00a0problems being solved, and it\u2019s alright to be rough in designing outputs<\/div>\n

         <\/p>\n

        <\/div>\n

        \"\"<\/p>\n

        \u2014> In terms of domains like UX Research:<\/div>\n
          \n
        • \n
          For the bottom layers little or no research is\u00a0required, and research is generally restricted<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
        • \n
          For the middle three layers, is where UX designers excel in doing research. The design tooling has evolved a lot in many years, and the number of researchers has rapidly grown in the past few years<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
        • \n
          For the top two-layers research is lacking, since\u00a0design and design researchers have only recently started articulating and solving problems at that scale and\u00a0complexity<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
          <\/div>\n
          \u2014> What does this mean?<\/div>\n
            \n
          • \n
            At the feature level, our research insights are assumed to be\u00a0accurate<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
          • \n
            \u00a0At the product level, products are bunches of features, and while some research falls through the cracks, research is reasonably accurate<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
          • \n
            But at\u00a0the system \u00a0level, designers are dealing with multiple channel interactions,\u00a0touchpoint, and actors.\u00a0There is a need to balance human needs and business value. Research is\u00a0spot, and populations are unintentionally left out<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
            <\/div>\n
            \u2014> To resolve the gaps in system level design, UX design will need to partner with other research orgs like market research that have honed methods for space, which will let us be more comfortable<\/div>\n

             <\/p>\n

            \"\"<\/p>\n

            \u2014> Once you see a system you cannot unsee it<\/div>\n
              \n
            • \n
              If you are aware of existing systems as a concept, you will almost\u00a0automatically\u00a0consider the systemic perspective when it comes to design<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
              <\/div>\n
              \u2014> Designers are good at research at lower-level since problem space and parameters are well-framed. However, in the service design realm, the problem space is ambiguous and boundary setting is required<\/div>\n

               <\/p>\n

              <\/div>\n
              \u2014> At the \u00a0top-level of design scale , holistic approaches are name of the game, due to their complexity and non-linearity<\/div>\n

               <\/p>\n

              <\/div>\n
              \u2014> One takeaway from my graphic:<\/div>\n
                \n
              • \n
                Product can answer questions through design and visualization<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
              • \n
                Service asks questions through design, and needs to make sure you ask the right questions<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
                \u2014> Most of the projects spanning product design levels are built as customer experience project, which makes it easy for these items to be gravitated towards<\/div>\n

                 <\/p>\n

                \u2014> At service design, projects are not labeled as design projects, but labeled as change management projects, or innovation initiatives<\/div>\n

                 <\/p>\n

                \u2014> Why is this important to talk about?<\/div>\n

                 <\/p>\n

                  \n
                • \n
                  If you consider how design craft is scaled in organization, it happens in the lower half of design scale<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
                • \n
                  For designers to be ethical, we need to be system thinkers<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
                • \n
                  If focused on things like design systems, sprints, Agile, Lean UX, we are focused on\u00a0scaling simplistic projects as our results<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
                • \n
                  In name of efficiency and predictability we are commoditizing design and designers themselves<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                   <\/p>\n

                  \u2014> As we follow the upcoming presentations and the\u00a0Design at Scale conference, we should consider what can be done through our organization to scale design to make sure it manages the aspirations of our profession<\/p>\n

                   <\/p>\n

                  Q&A<\/span><\/div>\n

                   <\/p>\n

                  <\/div>\n
                  1. I\u2019m curious about the placement of community and user understanding in Cornelius\u2019s scale. I can see people taking his layers literally and starting with colors, but only later realizing a11y or cultural issues, for example.<\/div>\n

                   <\/p>\n

                  \u2014> The goal of the presentation is to provide a view of the consequences of design decisions at various levels of scale. Then designs will be better, and the world will be a better place as a result<\/div>\n

                   <\/p>\n

                  \u2014> The reason we are dealing with the impacts of negative enterprise products on society is that no one figured out the systemic impacts of these products<\/div>\n

                   <\/p>\n

                  \u2014> However, feel free to build a parallel swim-lane to organize yourselves, it would add a lot of value<\/div>\n

                   <\/p>\n

                  2. How could we work with these levels but make sure we center users, communities, and empower processes like user research, co-design, IA, etc?<\/p>\n

                  \u2014> The way to work with levels is to ask different types of questions than what we normally ask<\/div>\n

                   <\/p>\n

                  \u2014> We need to ask how we are doing harm, outside of the impact we have on the primary end user<\/div>\n
                    \n
                  • \n
                    Since we are designing for primary users, primary users likely won\u2019t be harmed<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
                  • \n
                    However at each levels of design scales, we have questions of secondary users who are being harmed by our\u00a0design decisions<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
                    \u2014> Important to ask \u00a0secondary communities how they will be impacted, as they will give insights much quicker and accurately then us as designers can provide<\/div>\n

                     <\/p>\n

                    <\/div>\n
                    3. How do we organize design (and cross-functional teams) to deliver on these higher levels of scale? Can that be done internally, or does it require engaging external consultants?<\/div>\n
                    <\/div>\n
                    \n
                    \u2014> Doesn\u2019t matter where the knowledge resides, \u00a0as there are more modern ways of organizing design, and designing at multiple scales, when building features to a product<\/div>\n

                     <\/p>\n

                    \u2014> As my quote pointed out: “Being aware of systemic lens will change way you practice designs and how practice operates and way practice operates”<\/div>\n

                     <\/p>\n

                    \u2014> Once awareness is there, people will migrate to different levels of craft scale<\/div>\n
                      \n
                    • \n
                      Some people will focus on product design, and not concern themselves with end-to-end service<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
                    • \n
                      As people get more senior migrate to more strategic roles, and roles align to higher-levels of scale<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n

                      4. Another way of asking my question: How do we operationalize your model? It’s a handsome model, but how do I deliver against it?<\/p>\n

                      \u2014> The model is to explain design to clients who don\u2019t understand design scales<\/div>\n

                       <\/p>\n

                      \u2014> How we operationalize depends on your organization and on how model is framed<\/div>\n
                        \n
                      • \n
                        Has not seen truly large corporation that can do design on all scales<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
                      • \n
                        Has noticed that pretty much every big company now has roles related to \u201cecosystems\u201d like principal designers who consider ecosystem approach<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
                      • \n
                        System-level insights are being made paramount to product design<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                        5. Since service design is fuzzier, more atmospheric work at the system level, what’s your advice about actually executing on service design within the org?<\/p>\n

                         <\/p>\n

                        \u2014> This is alluded to in the frame work itself. Service design is multi-disciplinary approach.<\/div>\n
                          \n
                        • \n
                          The more collaborative the projects were, the more designers focused on facilitation and co-facilitation, there was more understanding the designers were one perspective into wicked problems<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
                        • \n
                          There\u2019s a better chance for projects to succeed as a result<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
                          <\/div>\n
                          \u2014> Service design projects are two to three year\u00a0transformational projects and involve you being\u00a0friends with all stakeholders in organization<\/div>\n
                            \n
                          • \n
                            Intersection.Group covers a lot on system design to follow insights<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                            \u2014> Thank you for the introduction.\u00a0I\u2019ve heard so many great things about the Rosenfeld community over the last few years, and I’m eager for the chance to meet others over next few days   \u2014> The goal of today\u2019s talk is to provide a scale of complexity designers will encounter when doing modern design   […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":334,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2019","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rosenfeldmedia.com\/design-at-scale-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rosenfeldmedia.com\/design-at-scale-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rosenfeldmedia.com\/design-at-scale-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rosenfeldmedia.com\/design-at-scale-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/334"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rosenfeldmedia.com\/design-at-scale-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2019"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/rosenfeldmedia.com\/design-at-scale-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2197,"href":"https:\/\/rosenfeldmedia.com\/design-at-scale-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2019\/revisions\/2197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rosenfeldmedia.com\/design-at-scale-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}