I recently attended a talk from Sheryl Cababa exploring her book “Closing the Loop: Systems Thinking for Designers” as part of UX Belfast. A particularly interesting point raised during the talk was the short fallings of “user centred design”. As interaction designers, we have been taught to design “for the user”, but this can lead to wider unforeseen consequences. Designing just “for the user” is not good enough as it doesn’t consider how design choices will effect other people or systems related to the user. In complex systems, a choice in favour of the user can unintentionally effect other parts of the system, whether that be for those who manufacture, maintain, or develop what the user needs. I think from a problem solving perspective, this is really interesting. I think we do too often only consider a primary or central user without consideration for how the wider system is effected. In a world that is increasingly interconnected, it’s vitally important we don’t just consider singular entities but rather the wider systems they exist in.

A second point I thought was really interesting and particularly relevant to my project was around how systems interconnect. A top level user facing system may rely on an internal system to provide information, and these can be independently managed and maintained. When designing for one layer, especially the user level, it’s important to understand the capabilities of the layers below. For my project, this is essentially what I’m trying to do–build a platform for use within an existing system. The work I do could be impossible to implement if I don’t understand what systems are in use by transport networks to provide and manage data. Off the back of this, I want to expand my project and consider the network management and use of their own systems with my new platform, which should hopefully make my project stronger and more viable as a solution to my problem.