Various tools may be used to support different stages of MSDS method. More tools are available on the LeNS website:
http://www.lens.polimi.it/index.php?M1=6&M=3&LR=1&P=tools_select.php
The sustainable system design support tools can be classified into two groups:
• Sustainable system design steering tools
• Stimulus and support tools for generation of ideas and strategies for system design
Sustainable system design steering tools:
These are tools that can aid in steering the system design process towards environmental, socio-ethically and economically sustainable systems. These tools are intended to:
• facilitate the identification of design priorities
• steer the generation of ideas towards sustainable solutions
• define the potential sustainable improvements brought by the solutions designed
• visualise the sustainability characteristics of the system innovation designed.
Examples of tools to orientate the design processes towards sustainable system innovation are:
• Sustainability Design-Orienting (SDO) toolkit:
The objective of this tool is to orientate the design process towards sustainable system solutions and has different functions like setting sustainability priorities, analysing best practices, using sustainable design orienting guidelines, checking and visualising the potential improvements in relation to an existing reference system. The SDO toolkit is open-source, copy-left software that can be used online (http://www.sdo-lens.polimi.it/ or downloaded from www.lens.polimi.it, “tools” section and installed for use on Local Area Network (LAN).
• Sustainability interaction story-spot:
It is a co-designing tool, above all for visualisation. Its purpose is to describe the salient elements of a product-service system in relation to given objectives. It is like an interaction table focussing only on specified interactions. The display, to be visualised on a screen/page, contains the following key elements:
• the key interactions of the client/end-user with the offer delivered by the system.
• the key interactions of the various actors during production and delivery of the offer.
• how the designed solution achieves given aims.
The tool is also useful when it is necessary to visualise, and communicate several hypothesis of system concepts to the actors involved.
Stimulus and support tools for generation of ideas and strategy to system design:
These are tools that are aimed at supporting and stimulating idea generation at system level as well as facilitating their organisation and communication.
Examples:
• Polarities diagram:
The polarities diagram aims to explore the possible and promising directions in which current systems may evolve. It is a tool that supports the definition of how the existing system can be reshaped, starting with specified design choices.
• Satisfaction system map:
The satisfaction system map is a support tool for generation of system ideas. The purpose of this tool is to identify and visualise the potential socio-economic actors who could be involved in the satisfaction of a given demand for wellbeing. This visualisation is used during ideation process.
Strategic tools for system design have been thought up to facilitate the co-production and visualisation of the various elements in a product-service system innovation. These tools are aimed at designing and visualising.
Examples:
• Offering diagram:
The offerings diagram is a static representation of the system functions; it can be used both as a design and a visualisation tool. It shows the functions delivered by the set of products and services that make up the offer. The tool is useful to the design team for defining in ever increasing detail the functions that the system delivers to the user.
Result:
The result is a diagram that visualises the functions (core, basic and added value) and sub-functions offered by the systems.
Lodi Children Centre
DARC, Domus Academy Research & Consulting:
"This representation is part of a project for a new children's centre in the Municipality of Lodi. The map represents what the centre will offer, locates the performances in different areas of the centre and describes the kind of users who will take advantage of those performances. The map was useful in identifying the performance issues and was useful during the designing of the space.”
Source:
http://darc.domusacademy.it
http://www.servicedesigntools.org/tools/38
References: Morelli, N. (2007) New representation techniques for designing in a systemic perspective, paper presented at Design Inquires, Stokholm.
• Ecology map:
The ecology map is a graph representing the system of actors with their mutual relations. It provides a systemic view of the service and of its context. The graph is built through the observation of the service from a specific point of view that becomes the centre of the whole representation; for example if the selected subject is the user, the graph will show all the actors starting from their relations with him.
Flat Multi + Actors
Live work:
Live Work uses this kind of representation in order to get a systemic view of the service and of the context it will operate in, a systemic view that helps them in finding opportunities, inspiring new ideas and establishing the overall service concept.
This map is also called ecology map because the idea of ecology implies the presence of a complex system but also has a connotation of sustainability, that means that all the actors exchange value in ways that are mutually beneficial over time.
Source:
http://www.livework.co.uk , interview with Chris Downs,
http://www.servicedesigntools.org/content/59
References: Morelli, N. (2007) New representation techniques for designing in a systemic perspective, paper presented at Design Inquires, Stokholm.
• [Stakeholder] system map:
The [stakeholder] system map’s purpose is to support the co-designing and visualisation of the structure, indicating the actors involved in their interactions. It is basically a graphic representation showing:
• the socio-economic actors involved in the system
• the different interactions between the various actors
Flicker User Model Diagram
Bryce Glass:
“The Flickr model diagram proposed by Bryce Glass in 2005 describes the ecosystem and the full potential of the well-known photo-sharing service.
The map combines together text and pictograms in an effective visual representation: the use of colors, the different sizes of the objects and the way in which they are related inside the space of the visualization help reading the graph and understand the system.”
Source:
http://soldierant.net/archives/2005/10/flickr_user_mod.html;
http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/project_details.cfm?id=336&index=336&domain=
http://www.servicedesigntools.org/tools/21
References: Morelli, N. (2007) New representation techniques for designing in a systemic perspective, paper presented at Design Inquires, Stokholm.
E-meal system map
Francois Jègou:
The “SystemMap” tool has been developed within the HiCS research project in order to support the representation of service solutions through the description of the system working. The tool is based on a given set of graphical elements -including objects, arrows and actions- that can be put together according to the specific service idea to visualize. The use of the same graphical set of elements allows a quick comparison between different concepts and the simplicity of the language ensures the comprehension also inside extended teams.
(2002) François Jégou, F. Manzini, E. Meroni, A. « Design plan, a tool for organising the design activities oriented to generate sustainable solutions » working paper, SusProNet conference, Amsterdam.
Source:
http://www.servicedesigntools.org/content/82;
http://www.servicedesigntools.org/tools/21
References: Morelli, N. (2007) New representation techniques for designing in a systemic perspective, paper presented at Design Inquires, Stokholm.
PPT-2
Source: http://www.lens.polimi.it/index.php?M1=6&M=3&LR=1&P=tools_select.php
• Interaction table (story-board):
The Interaction table (story-board) shows the interactions occurring between the client/end
-user and the system during offer delivery, and those that occur between the various actors in the system during its production and delivery. The purpose of this tool is to support co-designing and visualisation of a sequence of interactions between user and the product-service system designed.
Result- The result is a visualisation, made up of images and text elements, that shows the interaction sequence, between the various actors who make up the system and the user during production and delivery of the offer.
TABLE - 1
Source: http://www.lens.polimi.it/index.php?M1=6&M=3&LR=1&P=tools_select.php
Seattle Children's Hospital Process Map
Xplane:
This is an example of an illustrated storyboard used to support the explanation of the process during the staff internal meetings and to support the communication of the service to the final users, explaining how the hospital will take care of them. In particular this representation describes the complicated and frightening stages surrounding the children's surgery: what the family of a child who is being treated at the medical centre will experience. The representation shows the different steps of the storyboard taking into account their spatial position: we have four steps to arrive to the patient's surgery that is the central point of the experience and for steps after the surgery.
Each action is illustrated and supported by other two layers of information: one is given by the pictogram that indicates if it is a moment of wait, a moment of planning or a moment of interaction with the medical staff and the other is given by the text. “Going through the consulting session with XPLANE allowed us to hone in on the nine critical steps that we wanted to clearly communicate to families at the medical centre. We recognize that having a child undergo surgery is a life-altering experience for families and we want to do everything in our power to promote their peace of mind and understanding; we feel this map helps accomplish that goal.”
David Perry, vice president of marketing, Children’s Hospital
Source:
http://www.servicedesigntools.org/content/115 ;
http://www.xplane.com/;
http://www.servicedesigntools.org/tools/21
References: Morelli, N. (2007) New representation techniques for designing in a systemic perspective, paper presented at Design Inquires, Stokholm.
The Argo's Experience
Thinkpublic:
Thinkpublic showed an entire service encounter at Argos through a three page comic. This kind of storyboard gives the opportunity to notice some questionable aspects. First of all, the visualization is totally centred on the customer perspective, without giving information about what happens in the back-office. Moreover, the use of this graphic language -similar to a photographic composition- gives such a uniform degree of detail throughout the image that it becomes difficult to focus on the storytelling.
Source:
http://www.servicedesigntools.org/content/98;
http://thinkpublic.com/news/;
http://designforservice.wordpress.com/2009/01/20/thinkpublic-comic/;
http://www.servicedesigntools.org/tools/21
References: Morelli, N. (2007) New representation techniques for designing in a systemic perspective, paper presented at Design Inquires, Stokholm
E-Car Pooling
François Jègou:
In the interaction table, the actors (both the users and the service staff) are located vertically and divided by the different lines of interaction: the external line of interaction separates the real users -taking advantages from the service- from the other users involved in the service experience, the central line of interaction separates the users from the figures that are part of the service organization and finally the internal line of interaction separates the front line staff from the back-office. Each actor is the protagonist of a storyboard that illustrates the process with the support of detailed specifications. The process can be read horizontally, actors by actors, in order to get a description of the role and the activities of each figure, but the process can also be read vertically in order to find the correspondences between the activities of the different subjects.
Source:
http://www.servicedesigntools.org/content/77;
http://www.servicedesigntools.org/tools/21
References: Morelli, N. (2007) New representation techniques for designing in a systemic perspective, paper presented at Design Inquires, Stokholm.
• Stakeholder motivation matrix:
The Stakeholder motivation matrix shows the relationship between the various actors in the system. It is a co-designing and visualisation tool. Its purpose is to represent the solution from the point of view of the motivations of the single actors for taking part in the system. it is basically a tool for defining the role and the contributions each actor can supply to the general partnership, and to each of the other actors.
Result- The result is a graphic visualisation structured as a two way table, where for each actor in the system, the motivations, contributions, expected benefits and potential conflicts and synergies deriving from being part of the system are described.
E-Meal Motivation Matrix
François Jégou, Ezio Manzini, Anna Meroni:
This sample is taken from the context of the HiCS (Highly Customized Solutions) EU Research, whose objective was to define methodological tools for supporting and guiding network of firms in the development of highly customized solutions. As this sample shows, the motivation matrix gathers the real partners involved in the solution and their expected benefits and makes the interactions between partners emerge in terms of synergies and potential conflicts that the designers have to investigate.
Source:
http://www.dsource.in/course/systems_design_for_sustainability/methods_and_tools/c/index.html
http://www.servicedesigntools.org/tools/21
References: Morelli, N. (2007) New representation techniques for designing in a systemic perspective, paper presented at Design Inquires, Stokholm.
• Solution element brief:
The Solution Element Brief represents the role of the different actors in the design/production/delivery of the various (material and non-material) elements that make up the system. It is a co-designing and visualisation tool. Its purpose is to describe the elements required by the system, and which of the system actors must design/produce/deliver these elements. The tool basically helps define the roles of the individual actors in developing and delivering the solutions.
Result - The result is a graphic representation structured as a two way table showing the elements required for implementation of the system and the roles of the various actors in designing, producing and delivering each element.
Note:
This chapter is based on
Vezzoli, C., (2007) Chapter 5: Methods and tools for SDS. SYSTEM DESIGN FOR SUSTAINABILITY: Theory, methods and tools for a sustainable “satisfaction-system” design. Second Edition, Maggioli Editore. pp. 215-294.
