Conference Agenda

Relational negotiation, contextual adaptation, and reflective exchanges between designers and non‑designers are central to how boundary objects shape knowledge creation and systemic insight in Systemic Co‑Design (SCD). Drawing on the ESCollab publication, this study examines two embodied SCD cases, the MelkSalon and the Co‑Design Canvas, which foreground sensory, experiential, and artefact‑based engagement. Using systems thinking, Relevance Theory, Aristotelian rhetoric, and affordance theory as lenses, we analyse how these boundary objects mediate boundary framing between designers and non‑designers. Findings indicate that boundary objects are most effective when grounded in contextual and cultural realities, fostering emotional engagement, trust, and adaptive participation to support collaborative meaning‑making and systemic change. However, challenges of replicability and scalability persist, as sustained facilitation, contextual sensitivity, and participant readiness remain critical for impact. We argue that deeper co‑ownership and transformation occur when SCD boundary objects are designed and used as embodied, pluralistic, reflexive “boundary experiences” rather than technical templates.

This paper explores the role of data within participatory systemic design, focusing on how structured and unstructured data influence participation, sensemaking, and representation. Through three interconnected applications, the research examines how systems’ visual representations function as boundary objects that enable dialogue, trust, and shared understanding among diverse actors. Drawing on the concept of unstructuring data, the paper discusses how transforming data from fixed, expert-driven artefacts into open, evolving representations fosters inclusivity and reflexivity in design processes. The findings highlight that structured data support decision-making in well-defined contexts, whereas unstructured data stimulate exploration and collective learning in complex or fragile territories. Ultimately, the paper reframes mapping as a translational and ethical practice that enables designers and stakeholders to co-create a systemic understanding through dialogue, negotiation, and iterative reflection, supporting sustainability transitions grounded in participation and situated knowledge.

This paper introduces design ethnographic methods—participatory observation and visual mapping activities—used in the discovery phase of a co-design project aimed at optimising blood culture pathways for potentially infectious patients across three NHS trust emergency departments in the UK. By integrating participatory systemic design with ethnographic approaches, the study enabled clinical staff to share their insights and shape service workflows. Their engagement reshapes systemic thinking for blood culture pathways used by clinical staff, enabling researchers to frame co-design workshops and later systemic interventions for the next stage of the research project. This paper emphasises the significance of systemic visual mapping activities as a transitional intermediate research method between participatory observations and co-design workshops in the discovery stage. It provides insights and strategies for design researchers on conducting participatory research activities and engaging with participants through accessible visual materials and participatory data collection tools in complex, high-pressure contexts.

Behavioral public policy design tends to take a top-down, evidence-based approach to prompting behavioral change through mechanisms like ‘nudges.’ Yet behavioral responses to evolving conditions in complex systems—such as the recent No Kings rallies and anti-ICE activities in the US—often manifest as emergent, self-organizing movements, representing a powerful ‘bottom-up’ form of behavioral change that provides an alternative to traditional behavioral policy. This paper proposes a behavioral systems framework to explore the dynamic of behavioral emergence in a systemic context, composed of two matrixed dimensions: 1) micro, meso, and macro system levels; and 2) mechanisms that support behavior, ranging from targeted interventions, to underlying infrastructures, to ideological influences such as underlying belief systems. It then illustrates this conceptual model more practically through the lens of No Kings and anti-ICE activities and reflects on how behavioral public policy can incorporate more systems-oriented approaches to better support similar emergent behaviors.

This paper examines how design-led activities function as micro-systemic interventions that can influence people’s perceptions, actions and decision-making towards the futures. Using the optical metaphor of a design lens, we reinterpret Voros’ (2003) Futures Cone as a flexible field of vision that can be focused, dispersed, or magnified through design. The “design lens” serves as a conceptual framework comprising three components: design settings, information, and collectiveness. We apply this lens to two projects: a speculative walking workshop for policymaking, and a creative engagement project with residents in a social housing redevelopment. The aim is to examine how these elements interacted and how design activities were reshaped in response to participants' interactions. Our discussion emphasises its potential to influence people’s worldview, addressing the importance of the ethical implications in micro-systemic design. We argue that systemic change can emerge through micro-interventions situated in collective, reflective, and crucially ethical design settings.