Design Journeys through Complex Systems

Design Journeys through Complex Systems combines systemic design, leading thinking practices, and years of the combined authors’ experiences into a practitioner’s handbook for design thinking. By drawing upon the authors’ Systemic Design Toolkit, this book provides detailed knowledge of systems science, expanding upon essential systemic design texts in order to demonstrate the power of visual sensemaking.

No matter if you’re a design professional or have never come across design systems, these pages allow the user to reassess, reorientate, and address complex issues. By using these methods, you’ll be able to visualize socio-technical systems, democratizing engagement as you simplify complex thought processes. 

Formed by leaders of and pioneers in systemic design, Dr. Peter Jones and Kristel Van Ael,  Design Journeys through Complex Systems is an illuminating text that ushers in a new era of systems change. If you’re a change-maker looking to become a thought leader, the methods embedded in systemic design will light your way to success.

Find more about the Systemic Design Toolkit

Author
Dr. Peter Jones is a professor teaching systemic design at Canada’s art and design school, Toronto’s OCAD University, in the Strategic Foresight & Innovation and Design for Health graduate programs.

Kristel Van Ael is managing partner at Namahn, a human-centered design agency in Brussels, and teacher in product-service-system design and systemic design at Antwerp University.

'Design Journey Through Complex Systems is an essential contribution to the systemic design field. Jones and Van Ael have masterfully curated tools and methods from a wide range of domains and integrated them into a Systemic Design Methodology for practitioners. They have built a path between theory and practice upon which future systemic design practitioners will learn to address change.' 

Liz Sanders, Associate Professor in Design at The Ohio State University and Principal at MakeTools, LLC