John Maeda’s 4th Law of Simplicity states: “knowledge makes everything simpler”. In this post I lay out why this might be only partly correct, suggest that there are problems where this works better than other and illustrate how knowledge can also make things more complex, rather than simple.
Rethinking the Relationship Between Simplicity, Complexity and Knowledge Read More »
Design thinking may be more of a stance than a theory or method and Roger Martin’s recent talk on design thinking illustrates how teaching and encouraging new ways of viewing problems may provide better ways of solving them.
Design: A Stance for Competitive Advantage Read More »
The recent Science of Team Science conference used a lot of key phrases to describe the challenges and opportunities ahead, but design was not one of them. Can Stanford’s new dschool building and the way it puts itself together serve as a lesson for addressing these problems and challenges?
Structure of Team Science: Opportunities for Design Read More »
In the health sciences we are dominated by text as our primary means of communicating. This is a habit that doesn’t really account for how people come up with ideas and learn. Perhaps its time for a change: bring a sketchbook to your next meeting.
The Tyranny of Text in Creating Innovative Systems Read More »
The environmental problems of today require new ways of thinking says a recent Worldchanging post on environmental sustainability and increasingly this looks more like four pillars coming together: design, systems, integration and resilience.
Designing for Resilience Read More »
If design thinking is to escape the trap of being trendy towards impactful, the methods that it uses must improve their rigour and testing. This post explores the challenges and opportunities for design thinking to consider it as more than thinking, but also of action.
Design Thinking or Design Thinking + Action? Read More »
Does putting sick people together in one place (like a hospital) seem all that smart? We don’t consider alternatives. Systems and design thinking can offer some ways around this problem and get us back to questing the structures we’ve created and encouraging greater diversity in our conversations about health and healthcare.
Diversity and Structure Meets Systems and Design Thinking Read More »
It seems that the recipe for creating networks that reduce social inequalities may also be the one that helps create ‘stickier’, more robust knowledge translation networks as well.
Creating Sticky Networks Read More »
In my last post I wrote about the problems facing scientific discovery and how our system of research funding and support is stifling opportunities for young innovators. I’d like to expand on that by focusing on the larger system that this research is couched in, particularly the way in which education is tied to
Innovation and (Higher) Education Read More »
Thinking is a worthwhile term connected to ‘systems’ and ‘design’. New ways of visioning the systems we live in and how they are designed requires new ways of thinking and while it seemed funny at first, the use of the term ‘thinking’ seems more appropriate than ever to fit to both design and systems.
Thinking: Why the Word Matters to Systems and Design Read More »
