12 RECOMMENDATIONS
for designing change within complex systems
By definition, designers place the user at the centre of the processes they are about to begin; the user of clothes, of payment systems or other services, the user of cars and traffic. But not only then; centering the user is also beneficial when designing change like we have been doing in the etrans project at Kolding School of Design. We have been with people who were very eager to create change, partly because they realised that they were standing on top of a burning platform. We have worked with people who were passionate about creating a greener and healthier world and perceived the electric car as part of the solution. And we have talked with the reactionary who is more than satisfied with the cars and systems that we already know. Where do you start when the change you are about to create is not what people want? That was the challenge we were facing, and we took our point of departure in what we do best, which is design. The task at hand was creating a platform for that change which makes sense to the people who will be using it, and we started out by placing the user at the centre. From there, we applied a number of design methods such as co-creation, prototyping, user journeys, etc. and gathered knowledge that we now want to share with others. Therefore, we have collected some of our experiences in these 12 recommendations. Our biggest task in etrans was to navigate the chaos which must embrace and push an enormous change on many different levels. We had to try and get an overall understanding of how economy, technology, behaviour, environmental considerations, infrastructure, culture, politics, etc. interact not only for the users of transport systems but also for all of those acting and doing business within that field or aspiring to start doing so. It became clear to us that if we were to succeed with our mission, there must be more awareness of the field across professions and conventional ways of working together, and the way all of us think and act within a highly complex system must change.
We have learned a great deal from the rather confusing process that we initiated; also about what not to do. Early on it became clear to us that our key collaborating partners were those who wanted to contribute to the process of making the Danes replace their conventional petrol and diesel cars with sustainable electric cars. These fireballs want innovation and can either be motivated by commercial reasons or by curiosity, environmental considerations or entirely different factors. These players are to be found in the network surrounding the electric cars. Consequently, we started mapping the many different products, services, and systems that are affected by the new technology. This process led us to the change agents which could help us get started. At the same time, we began getting acquainted with fireballs and entrepreneurs of the field in order to learn about their friends – and their enemies. We tried to put together an image of who could and would contribute to our process, and in particular we tried to discover who we could learn from as our knowledge of electric cars was limited or even nonexistent when we first started.