Designing Complex Systems

Karen Cham

Digital Transformation Design Consultant

Rhizometric Design Ltd www.rhizometricdesign.com
Professor of Digital Transformation Design
Academic Lead, Digital Catapult Centre Brighton
Academic Lead, Connected Futures
University of Brighton
Digital Transformation Design
DTD is a digital first, design lead, user centred
industrial method for engineering transformation of
complex human centred systems e.g.

• multi-platform global marketing campaigns

• large organizational infrastructures
• multiplatform markets & distibuted economies
• virtual worlds & simulations
Gen X Digital Grandma
• 1994 Website
• 1994 Touchscreen
• 1996 Microbusiness Model
• 1996 Live Locative Game
• 1997 AI
• 1998 Pan European Website PS2
• 1998 Interactive TV
• 1999 Sprint0 etc
Technical Experience
Sectors & Clients
my skillset is domain agnostic and I have
worked across the public, private and third
sectors, including :

• technology
• media & entertainment
• arts & heritage
• education & training
• health & wellbeing
• public sector & local government
• national & inter/national security & defence
 Simultaneously

• design and build digital artefacts

• develop digital production methods
• establish digital business, management and migration models
• devise transformational strategies
Defining Complexity
Complex or Complicated ?
In popular dialogues, describing a
system as 'complex' is often the
point of resignation, inferring that
the system cannot be sufficiently
described, predicted nor
managed

• transport networks
• management infrastructure
• supply chain logistics

2007 Cham, K.L. and Johnson, J.H., ‘Complexity Theory; a Science of

Cultural Systems?’, ‘M/C Journal’, Complex, 10: 3, J. Cahir and S. James
(eds.), http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0706/08-cham-johnson.php
Complex or Messy ?
In socio-cultural terms 'complex' is
used to describe those humanistic
systems that are

‘intricate, involved, complicated,

dynamic, multi-dimensional,
interconnected systems [such as]
transnational citizenship,
communities, identities, multiple
belongings, overlapping geographies
and competing histories’

(Cahir & Johnson, 2004)

Complex Systems Science
The study of complex systems is very interdisciplinary and encompasses
more than one theoretical framework, and has arisen from work in :

• artificial intelligence and robotics research

• thermodynamics
• biology
• sociology
• physics
• economics
• law
Complex Systems Theory
Complexity theory grew out of
General Systems Theory, an holistic
approach to analysis that views
whole systems based upon :
• the links and interactions between
the component parts
• their relationship to each other
• the environment within they exists
General Systems Theory
Bertalanfys 1969 ‘General Systems Theory’
allows us to have a common theoretical
perspective on diverse types of systems
such as :
• the mechanical systems of a car engine
• the biological system of a human heart
• the social systems of a school

(Bertalanfly, 1969)
Mother of All Models
Systems Thinking
More broadly, ‘‘systems thinking’ is best recognised as a dialectical
method that breaks with logical and causal analyses to emphasize
relationships within a whole

It can be traced from Socrates through Hegel to pragmatics as a

means of identifying systemic principles common to different
‘systems’ from different perspectives
Design is ’The Science of the Artificial’ Herbert Simon (1969)

“Professional designers are masters of complexity. They create systems that did not
previously exist, creating new knowledge about those systems. They deal with clients
who don't know what they want or what is possible within their constraints. They know
about system parts and the processes that can assemble parts to form new wholes with
desirable emergent properties. They know about regulations and deal with regulators and
authorities. They forecast and manage costs in the face of great uncertainty.”

Some designed system are complicated but do not have the hallmark features of complexity
Standing On The Shoulders of Giants
Professor George Rzevski is an academic,
entrepreneur and consultant. He is
Professor Emeritus, Department of Design
and Innovation at The Open University,
Milton Keynes, UK and Visiting Professor of
Multi-Agent Systems at Cologne University
of Applied Sciences, Germany and
Moratuwa University, Colombo, Sri Lanka,
where he is involved in a number of
advanced research projects in the fields of
Complexity and Multi-Agent Systems.
Professor Nigel Cross is a British academic, a design
researcher and educator, Emeritus Professor of Design
Studies at The Open University and Editor-in-Chief of
the journal Design Studies. He is one of the founder
members of the Design Research Society In 1982 Cross
published a journal article 'Designerly Ways of
Knowing',[7] drawing on design research to show
Design as having its own intellectual and practical
culture as a basis for education, and contrasting it with
cultures of Science and Arts and Humanities,
culminating in the book Design Thinking (2011).[9]
Founder & Director, Complexity Research Group,
London School of Economics & Political Science,
London, UK; Senior Fellow in LSE IDEAS, Centre for the
Study of International Affairs, Diplomacy & Grand
Strategy; Visiting Professor at the Open University.
Member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda
Council on Complex Systems (2012-2014). British Civil
Service, Department of Trade & Industry (1967-1983)
UK and international policy and negotiation of EU
Directives
Logical Causalities
Systems theory stands in stark contrast to
conventional science which, based upon
Descartes’s reductionism, aims to analyse
systems by reducing phenomena to its
component parts (Wilson, 1998)

Reductionism is most easily understood in the

context of the ‘natural sciences’ where the
nature of complicated phenomena is
understood by reducing them to a more
fundamental form, for example,
matter >molecule>atom>nucleus
Pipelines

Management, Communication, Logistics & Production

Top Down, Mass Communications
Siloes
Linear Business Models

An Industrial Manufacturing Model

Convergence
 the convergence of telecommunications, television and computing means

agile, human centred eco-systems that are in constant flux

Non Linear Eco-Systems
 companies that don’t adapt find that
digital disrupts livelihoods, marketplaces and economies
Pivot..Or Not
Complex Systems Attributes (Mittleton-Kelly, 2003)

• self-organisation (autopoeisis)
• emergence
• interdependence
• feedback
• space of possibilities
• co-evolving
• creation of new order
Embracing Comlexity in Design
• ‘Embracing Complexity in Design’ (ECiD) is a research project funded
by EPSRC(Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) and AHRC (Arts
and Humanities Research Council) under the ‘Designing for the 21st Century’
initiative. ECiD is a unique research programme with the objective of
understanding the part played by complexity science in design, and increasingly,
the potential for design to play a major role in the emerging science of complex
systems.
• In June 2007, a three day event was convened, in collaboration with the
University of Brighton, to explore the question of what contribution the arts
might make to the science of complex systems. An international, interdisciplinary
group of artists, scientists, mathematicians, musicians, poets and performers
were invited to explore the question from an academic research perspective and
were given an open opportunity to describe, present, install, perform, screen,
sing or dance their response to the brief below for open debate.
The Art of Complexity
• Complex systems are generally diverse and made up of multiple
interconnected elements. They are adaptive in that they have the capacity
to change and learn from events. The scientific study of complex adaptive
systems encompasses more than one theoretical framework and is highly
interdisciplinary, seeking the answers to some fundamental questions
about living, adaptable, changeable systems.
• Art is interpreted in its widest sense. It includes diverse media, from
painting to music and dance, from digital art to poetry and theatre, from
sculpture to opera and photography. There are precedents for exploring
interactions between art and science, and many art works can be viewed as
complex systems. For this event the specific question concerns the science
of complexity systems. Can art generate new ideas and help to solve
problems? Can give means of communicating complexity? Can art provide
new methods of scientific inquiry? Can art … ?
Disruptors
small catalysts can cause
large changes and that a
change in one area of a
system can adversely affect
another area of the system eg
The Jyllands-
Posten Muhammad cartoons
controversy (2006) to Charlie
Hebdo (2016)
A fairly straightforward Arabic writing of the name “Muhammad,”
accompanied, in much smaller letters, by the formula that typically follows
mention of his name by devout Muslims: “Blessings and peace be upon him”
Biomimesis
‘language is of the
universe, like galaxies and
eco-systems, it
participates in what it
represents’

Between Science and

Literature: AN
INTRODUCTION TO
AUTOPOETICS (2005)
Ira Livingston
A Little Light Reading
‘Reconstruction Theory, Designing the Space of
Possibility in Complex Media’ (2007)
in Special Issue: Performance Play: Technologies of presence in performance, gaming & experience design, International Journal of
Performance Arts & Digital Media, Vol 2&3: 3, Lizbeth Goodman, Deverill, Esther MacCallum-Stewart & Alec Robertson (eds),
Intellect http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1386/padm.3.2-3.253_1?journalCode=rpdm20

• A digital interface may, for example, allow multiple ‘authors’ and

multiple ‘readers’ to participate in a simultaneous and instantaneous
reproduction and dissemination of their divergent interpretations of
an artifact as part of a networked participatory process
• ‘reconstruction theory’ - a design methodology for the ‘space of
possibility’ in ‘complex media’
‘Reality Jamming; Beyond Complex Causality in
Mediated Systems’(2008)
2008 Cham,K.L., ISEA 08, Singapore http://www.isea2008singapore.org/abstract/i-l/p338.html

It is clear through experience that there is some significant relationship between

media representations and cultural effects. Yet as practice leads theory through the
sheer velocity of technological change, experience outstrips theoretical
understanding of the relationship between the sign and the signified, the
simulation and the social, the model and the real

The proliferation of digital media means it is increasingly important to

understand interaction per se, especially the interaction between systems of
signification and the real
…all representational systems have a performative capacity for transformation of
the real and that signification is a dynamic intermediate realm between the real
and the conceptual
‘The Art of Complex Systems Science’ (2009)
• 2009 Cham, KL., In: Alexiou, Katerina , Johnson, Jeffrey and Zamenopoulos, Theodore, (eds.) Embracing Complexity in
Design. Abingdon, U.K.: Routledge. pp. 121-‐142 http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415497008/

The scientific study of complex systems encompasses more than one

theoretical framework, as it is has had to be highly interdisciplinary in
seeking answers to fundamental questions about adaptable,
changeable systems.
This paper aims to set out the proposal that a post-structuralist
approach can deliver ontological bases that will provide complex
systems science not simply with diagrams and maps, nor even with the
workable metaphors of visualisation, simulation and embodiment but
with visualisability; that most elusive and 'scientific' of representations
that shares a generative semantic relation with that which it represents
‘Architecture of the Image’ (2011)
2011 Cham, K.L., Electronic Visualisation in the Arts, EVA Conferences International, British Computer Society,
London http://ewic.bcs.org/content/ConWebDoc/40614

as the abstractions of synergetic brand architectures and designed

identity systems are used more and more to underpin user
experiences, a type of distributed, networked, ‘cloud semantics’ can be
recognised as the soft engineering of participatory semantic systems,
where the emergent actual behaviours are the intentional result of
generating metaphoric ‘virtual’ avatars for us all to involuntarily inhabit
as part of the natural ‘autopoetics’ of the digital age
 ‘A Semiotic Systems Approach to User
Experience Design’ (2012)
• 2012 Cham, K.L., 1st International Conference on Semiotics & Visual Communication, the Department of Multimedia and Graphic Arts, Cyprus University of
Technology, Cyprus http://www.cut.ac.cy/icsvc/

This paper argues that the designer must successfully integrate visual
communication design, information architecture and usability by
purposefully designing for semiotic autopoesis

a fundamental dialectic between structure and function must be

designed into the system and its use
This proposal requires good UX designers to design
diachronic grammatical structures that can adapt and
evolve whilst consistently providing a coherent
synchronic experience under multitudinous variables
Good user experience design ..requires
designers to paint with language and
leave it wet
Designing Complexity
Complex Dive
analysis of the whole nested system
your brand, your company, your marketplace, your product or service and value chain

defining the users, user stories and user journeys

your individual employees, clients, prospects and shareholders

understanding contexts, deployments and situations

how all this pans out in deployment, in micro and macro contexts including legal, geographical, social, technical
Complex Mapping
existing behaviours, both socio-cultural and digital
such as in communications, manually taking minutes; using SAP, texting colleagues, CRMs, water cooler moments

stakeholders review and modelling complex relationships

between staff, managers, shareholders, partners, investors, collaborators, clients, prospects etc

holistic review of micro and macro interdependencies

systems analysis of ‘butterfly effect’ small to large /large to small scale dependencies
Micros and Macros
current and future opportunities and threats across the marketplace
future facing marketplace review isolating potential for dynamic change

current strengths and weaknesses of competitors

full competitor review, analysis and benchmarking of key competitors

aims & functionalities of all touchpoints

how your current and future touchpoints, internal and external, micro and macro perform in context
Designing The Space of Possibility
isolate the opportunities for change, both socio-cultural and technical
recommendations on embedding engagement and motivation

define the digital transformation blueprint

taking an agile, quick and dirty approach to picking up on the most dynamic points for quick and yet strategic wins

design and build of the bespoke digital intervention feedback loop

bespoke intervention that scrapes data from key touchpoints and accelerates migration towards full transformation
IoT FOG, AR/VR & 5G
Internet/Cloud/Servers

Core
Network/Routers/regional

Access Edge Nodes

(neighbourhood)

Gateway CPE
(building street)

Endpoint / Things

What makes sense of all the ‘things’ ?

 Internet/Cloud/Servers

Core Network/Routers/regional

Access Edge Nodes

(neighbourhood)

Gateway CPE
(building street)

Endpoint / Things

INTERFACE

USER
CUX in the FOG/AR/VR

Realtime,
Connected and a
Responsive
Feedback loop,
driven by an
intelligent Users Experience
architecture
User Experience

Human Motives
Value Mechanics

Consumer as Producer; Value

Mechanics in Digital Transformation
Design, Process, Practice and
Outcomes

in 'Cultural Policy, Innovation and the

Creative
Economy', Palgrave McMillan http://
www.palgrave.com/de/book/978134
9951116
R&D into cognitive UX patterns, data driven behaviour change
and how we might enable navigation by instinct in immersive
and mixed realities

23rd November, Marylebone