Managing Complexity and Creating Innovation through Design

Coping with complexities is an everyday reality for private, public and third sectors that face intricate, overlapping, obscuring and ever-changing challenges. Developments in technology and systems of value creation are driving a new need to understand, facilitate and manage complexity.

The book proposes design and design research as a solution to respond to the complexities associated with the intensifying and rapid changes in societies, technological fields and environments. A four-step design process for managing complexities is introduced in the four parts of this book, spanning from design research in the field to practice-based contexts. This publication collates high-level research and the latest scholarship on this topic, while many of the case studies described herein draw on rich experiences and applications in practice.

The ways designers work to overcome complexities through design, and the methods and frameworks presented in the chapters, provide critical insights and form an important scholarly contribution in this subject area.

Satu Miettinen is a professor in service design at the University of Lapland and the dean of the Faculty of Art and Design. Her research interests span the themes of design methods in engaging with the Arctic region, service design methods for inclusion, the participatory development of services and socially responsible art and design methods.

Melanie Sarantou is a post-doctorate researcher at the University of Lapland. She investigates how arts and narrative practices impact marginalised communities in various global locations. She is part of the Service Design Research Group, investigating marginality, empathy and improvisation.