Wicked Problems: Flexible Characterizations and Visual Representations
Spring 2025
The term “wicked problem” is used to describe a wide range of challenges that defy definition or resolution. These descriptions often reference Rittel and Webber’s 1973 publication, repeatedly listing...
The Cross-pollination Approach: Conditions for Incubating and Cascading Collaborative Civic Design Initiatives
Spring 2025
Integrative civic leadership, which builds on the capabilities of individuals and organizations across sectors and communities, is essential to sustainable and inclusive placemaking. The article explores...
Contributors
Spring 2025
Realizing Accessible and Environmentally Sustainable Medical Devices in Low-Resource Healthcare Settings in Sub-Saharan Africa: Personal Narrative of the Designer’s Roles and Competencies
Spring 2025
This personal narrative outlines my evolving roles and competencies as a designer in developing a reusable medical device for low-resource healthcare settings in sub-Saharan Africa. The region suffers...
Isotype in Mexico: The Untold Story
Spring 2025
This article explores the influence of the International System of Typographic Education (Isotype) in Mexico during the 1930s. It reveals how social scientist Dr. Otto Neurath’s pictorial system of...
“We Cultivate Children’s Skillsets”: Figurations of the User’s Body in Design for Play
Winter 2024
In design for children’s play, the user’s body occupies a central position, not only because of the ever-changing bodily dimensions and skills of child users but because play is seen as a key driver...
The Future End of Design Work: A Critical Overview of Managerialism, Generative AI, and the Nature of Knowledge Work, and Why Craft Remains Relevant
Winter 2024
This article examines the transformation of design work under the influence of managerialism and the rise of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI). Drawing on John Maynard Keynes’s projections...
Ill-Defined Problems in Wicked Learning Environments
Winter 2024
Many of today’s global problems are complex and difficult to solve—some may even be impossible. They are characterized by interconnectedness, non-linear causality, and a lack of clear solutions or definitive...
Responsible Use of Large Language Models: An Analogy with the Oxford Tutorial System
Winter 2024
In the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence, large language models (LLMs) have emerged as powerful tools with the potential to revolutionize how we process information, generate content,...
Contributors and Acknowledgment to Referees 2024
Winter 2024
Dealing with Wicked Problems: Normative Paradigms for Design Thinking
Winter 2024
Wicked problems, such as climate change, poverty, and antibiotic resistance, are ethical problems, as moral plurality about the social good is one of their constituting factors. Although wicked problems...
Value Dimensions in Creative Collaborations for Social Innovation
Autumn 2024
Designers are increasingly involved in creative multi-stakeholder collaborations for social innovation, developing interventions to address complex societal challenges. Traditional impact measurement...
Contributors
Autumn 2024
Creating and Testing a Guideline for Governing Blockchain Ecosystems: A Study Informed by Design Science
Autumn 2024
The rise of blockchain technology implies a paradigm shift for many industries, especially those traditionally relying on third parties—such as banks, publishers, and art galleries—to establish trust...
Reconceptualizing the Notion of Values in Design Talk
Autumn 2024
Designers are encouraged to incorporate values in their practice as a way of making outcomes more ethical. Values are conceptualized as inner mental preferences that inform decisions. Methodologies...
The Tools of the Trade: Cultures, Devices, and Valuation Practices in Urban Design
Autumn 2024
This article interrogates how the practice of design is shaped by the devices designers use and the cultures in which they work. Specifically, it studies a case of urban design in Gothenburg, Sweden,...
Limits to Modeling: Design Lessons from the World Problematique
Autumn 2024
Over 50 years have passed since The Limits to Growth was published in response to the Club of Rome’s challenge to address the “world problematique.” This landmark study introduced a computer simulation...
Tame, Wicked, and Aporetic Problems in Design
Summer 2024
The article elucidates a type of problem Rittel and Webber did not acknowledge. The underlying assumption about tame and wicked problems is that they are mutually exclusive (any problem can be either...
Contributors
Summer 2024