Systems Thinking in Design: What is it? — Part 1

Chelsea Effendi

Published in

Somia CX Thoughts

9 min readSep 26, 2023

Welcome to the first article of Systems Thinking in Design, a Publication by Somia CX!

In the next few weeks, we will take you through our learnings and discoveries about systems thinking in design.

What is a system?

A system consists of parts that are connected to each other; if one of the parts is taken out or not working, the system will malfunction. In his article, Systems Thinking and Thinking Systems, Ackoff (1994) shared that a system has more than two parts interacting or connected that form a whole that cannot be divided into independent parts. The interactions among the parts are the core of the system.

The closest and most relatable system for all of us is our body. Our body consists of various organ systems, ranging from the nervous, and digestive, to the respiratory system. Each is composed of organs that work together. These systems also work together to support each other in order to run a bigger system, our body.

Systems in the human body. Image credit: Storyset on Freepik

What makes a system?

Daniel H Kim (1999) in his article, “Introduction to Systems Thinking”, highlighted 4 components of a system: purpose, interactions between components, arrangements of the components, and feedback.

Purpose: a system has a goal to achieve.

A system is made of connected parts that are interacting with each other. Without a purpose, the parts are just piling up as a collection instead of a system.

Here is an example.

A stack of tires is just a collection, it serves no purpose. If the tires are assembled as parts of a car, it becomes a part that supports the car as a system.

2. Interactions between the parts: to serve its purpose, a system is run by the connected parts as a whole.

To serve its purpose, all the parts of the car must be running together. If one of the parts fails to work accordingly, the system might be disrupted.

If the car wires that connect each part of the car are not working properly, the car will not be able to function.

3. Arrangements of the parts: the placement of the connected parts matter as displaced parts might result in malfunction of the system.

All the parts should be placed in their place as each serves their own purpose. Imagine if one of the many wires is uninstalled properly or if there is a flat tire. The car will not work in its best condition, potentially causing an accident.

4. Feedback: to ensure the parts of the system are running to achieve the purpose.

If we switch on the car engines and hear strange noises from our car, the first thing we will do is to pull over — to check what is wrong. The noise is feedback to us — a signal telling us how the car system functions.

Russel Ackoff's on Systems Thinking

What is not a system?

A system highlights the interactions and the relationships of its components. Various components piling up together are not considered a system. The components that make a car — tires, engines, seats — if not assembled together and work under a mechanical system to run a vehicle, is not a system.

“The performance of a system obviously depends on the performance of its parts, but an important, if not the most important, aspect of a part’s performance is how it interacts with other parts to affect the performance of the whole.” — Russel Ackoff

What is Systems Thinking?

It is a methodology — an approach for considering the whole problem space, rather than seeing problems in isolation.

Sheryl Cababa in her book, Closing the Loop, describes systems thinking as a way to understand a problem space, see a problem with a holistic view, and then plan the intervention to work on the problem.

“Systems thinking is an approach that designers use to analyze problems in an appropriate context. By looking beyond apparent problems to consider a system as a whole, designers can expose root causes and avoid merely treating symptoms. They can then tackle deeper problems and be more likely to find effective solutions.” — Interaction Design Foundation

Systems thinking encourages the view that incidents are not usually caused by a single decision/action but by dynamic interactions between people, tasks, technology, and working conditions (and policies).

Why does Systems Thinking matter?

Systems thinking promotes seeing things in a holistic view. There are several benefits to adopting this approach.

Identifying the root cause of a problem, instead of focusing too much on the symptom

Identifying the problem is not as simple as talking to the users or customers. Oftentimes, the problem we think of as the main problem is only touching the surface or merely a symptom of a deeper problem.

By looking beyond apparent problems to consider a system as a whole, designers can expose root causes and avoid merely treating symptoms. They can then tackle deeper problems and be more likely to find effective solutions.” — Interaction Design Foundation

Take dental health care for children.

In our recent independent project, we embarked on a journey to improve children’s experience in dentist visits. We learned that dental visits are associated with something scary and not pleasant. It is often filled with tears, tantrums, and borderline traumatic for some children.

The POV of a child sitting in the dental chair.

To children, going to the dentist is a journey into the unknown. The dentist clinic is a strange place with many unfamiliar tools, procedures, sounds, and people. If we stop at this discovery, we will be tempted to answer “How might we improve the children’s dentist experience to make it more pleasant?” or “How might we guide the journey to the dentist to be more familiar and comforting?”

However, delving deeper into the children’s dental care system, we learned that one of the reasons why children have bad experiences at the dentist is because their first visit is to fix their teeth problem. The ‘unknown’ place, meeting with a stranger who will work in close proximity with them, and don’t forget the painful teeth!

Should the children regularly visit the dentist for preventive care, the first experience would not be that unpleasant. However, unlike the regular vaccination for children, many parents are not aware that they need to bring their children to dentists for regular checkups from the first year of age. Looking at this, we may frame our problem differently to “How might we increase parent’s awareness of children’s dental care?”, or “How might we make dentist visit a must have regular check, just like vaccination?”

(PS: If you are curious to learn more about children's dental care in Indonesia, we will launch our independent study report soon. Stay tuned!)

2. Considering not only how a solution solves a problem, but also the possible unintended consequences

Most products or services are developed with the intention to solve certain problems. The products and the services are designed with the users in mind — which is the practice of user advocacy. Design thinking preached the importance of user advocacy. All the decision-making should revolve around the users in the name of solving the users’ problems.

“User advocacy has become core to business decision-making, which has been an advancement from the bad old days in which users of products were poorly understood, seen as just buyers, or considered to be an obstacle to a business’s profits. An understanding of users has become essential.”
— Sheryl Cababa, Closing the Loop

Now that we have taken our users into account, is it the end? When developing something, have we ever thought about the consequences that may arise because of our products? Enter the unintended consequences.

Unintended consequences are the overlooked consequences that potentially result from ignoring the systems thinking mindset. Not to be a killjoy but sometimes unintended consequences do exist.

Let’s talk about sweeteners! 🍬

Some people can not live without sweetened drinks or foods. Knowing that high sugar intake might cause diabetes, companies that come up with alternatives called non-sugar sweeteners. The products let people consume sweet food or drinks without ‘guilt’. The products are advertised as something that can be consumed safely during the weight loss program.

For some period of time, the products fly quickly from the supermarket shelves. People take their coffee or tea with stevia instead of sugar and replace sugar with stevia powder for dessert. But what if, the sugar alternatives actually come with unintended consequences?

Not long ago, WHO advised not to consume non-sugar sweetener products in the long run as it might potentially increase the risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Instead of consuming the non-sugar sweeteners, it was advised to reduce the sugar intake altogether or consume unsweetened food for weight loss. The ‘safe’ sweetener alternatives turned out to have hidden costs.

3. Embracing the collaborative process in solving a complex problem

The systems thinking mindset embraces and acknowledges the multiple perspectives of the many stakeholders as parts of the system. With the various inputs and considerations, we might come to conclude that the problem may be too complex to solve on our own–it needs bigger effort and support from bigger entities.

Let’s go back to our case earlier–dental care awareness for children. Who is responsible for tackling the problem?

Let’s take a moment to list down what makes the children’s dental care system. The stakeholders range from patients, dentists, and parents. Those are the ones who interact closely with the child as a patient which is the center of our system.

How about the stakeholders who are not interacting directly, and yet are also a part of the dental care system? The school, government, oral care brands, food manufacturers, and media are among the stakeholders considered as parts of the system although they are not interacting closely with the main system.

A child patient’s dentist visit with his guardian

The dentists or the parents alone could not possibly be able to ramp up the awareness. The private sector and the government side should also take part in supporting the agenda. The government as policymakers can step in with a program like “dentists go to school” to educate the children on the importance of dental hygiene and do some checkups.

In the private sector, oral care brands can also develop some products or programs to help promote knowledge of dental hygiene. The homework is not only on the main stakeholders, the parents and the dentists, but other stakeholders within the dental care system have different roles and responsibilities.

What is the difference between Systems Thinking and Design Thinking?

As designers, design thinking is something that is incorporated into our daily work. We approach many problems with design thinking, how about the systems thinking approach? What is the difference? And how can we marry the two?

Stay tuned for the next article!

Thank you for reading!

Don’t forget to follow us at SomiaCX Medium to be the first one to know when we release the next series!

Oh, if you are interested in learning more about System Thinking in Design with fellow designers, researchers, and leaders, we have an exciting announcement!

📣 Calling all design leaders, senior practitioners, and changemakers in Southeast Asia! 📣

SomiaCX is hosting a System Thinking in Design conference live in Jakarta, Indonesia this November. The early bird tickets are on sale, get yours at somiaconference.com.