Rosenverse

Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.

Log in Create free account

100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.

Problems with Problems: Reconsidering the Frame of Designing as Problem-Solving (Videoconference)
Wednesday, June 19, 2019 • Enterprise Community
Share the love for this talk
Problems with Problems: Reconsidering the Frame of Designing as Problem-Solving (Videoconference)
Speakers: Hugh Dubberly
Link:

Summary

As a first approximation, many designers describe what they do as "problem-solving." This frame arose in the context of the industrial revolution, in early days of professional design. "Problem-solving" casts designers as objective experts, delivering the right answer. However, reality is messy; many answers might suffice — or none. "Problems" are not separate and clearly bounded; rather, they are deeply intertwined. As the information revolution increases scale and shifts the focus of designing to complex adaptive systems, problem-solving increasingly misses the mark; design needs a new frame.

Key Insights

  • Design’s traditional framing as problem solving, rooted in industrial manufacturing, is outdated for current digital, AI-driven systems.

  • Modern design is about creating conditions for systems to grow, learn, and adapt rather than delivering a finished solution.

  • Wicked problems are better understood as ongoing messes or tangles without fixed solutions or consensus frames.

  • Technological advances such as sensors, cloud computing, smart connected products, AI, and digital twins enable new forms of continuous system management.

  • Digital twins serve as dynamic, scalable replicas of objects or systems facilitating real-time monitoring, control, experimentation, and adaptation.

  • Organizations are evolving along a learning curve from data aware to autonomous, self-driving entities that optimize and automate operations.

  • Design roles are shifting from experts and solvers to facilitators and collaborators, enabling decentralized design and meta-design.

  • Systems design requires balancing fast-changing layers (commerce, technology) with slow layers (culture, nature), as per Stuart Brand’s pace layers concept.

  • Designers now must work with complexity, uncertainty, and ongoing evolution, supporting good-enough solutions and adaptability over perfection.

  • The interplay of humans and AI-driven systems raises ethical, political, and governance issues demanding stewardship rather than pure problem solving.

Notable Quotes

"Designers often describe what we do as problem solving and I think that’s fine but it’s tied to a 19th century manufacturing metaphor."

"You don’t think of raising a child as solving a problem; it’s an ongoing process—and that’s how we should see design today."

"Wicked problems have shifting definitions and you can’t really call them problems—they are messes or tangles."

"Every 10 to 15 years a new wave of technology transforms business—now it’s AI powered by massive data and digital twins."

"Digital twins can empower individuals and manage entire populations simultaneously—it’s about small scale and large scale replication."

"The future of design is complexity and computation—moving from objects to complex adaptive systems."

"Designers are no longer central planners but participants, facilitators creating conditions for systems to thrive and adapt."

"Corporations are already largely self-driving, often in a bad way, running on autopilot by virtue of policies."

"Design is not a purely scientific or objective activity, it’s firmly within the realm of politics and values."

"Steve Jobs said design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation, not just veneer or decoration."

Ask the Rosenbot
Robin Beers
Panel: Excellence in Communicating Insights
2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Gold
Erik Flowers
Introduction to MURAL for UX
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Victor M. Gonzalez
Practicing Learners and Learning Practitioners
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Jemma Ahmed
Collaboration: learning from other fields beyond our own [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
2024 • Advancing Research Community
Charlotte Lee
Theme 1 Intro
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Benjamin Real
Showing the Value of DesignOps by Not Having a DesignOps Team
2020 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Rachael Dietkus, LCSW
Everything You Need to Know about the Civic Design 2022 Call for Presentations (Videoconference)
2022 • Civic Design Community
Discussion
2017 • Enterprise Experience 2017
Gold
Helen Armstrong
Augment the Human. Interrogate the System.
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Taylor Jennings
Repository Retrospective: Learnings from Introducing a Central Place for UX Research
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Max Gadney
Assessing UX jobs for impact in climate
2024 • Climate UX Interest Group (Rosenfeld Community)
Harry Max
Prioritization for Leaders (2nd of 3 seminars) (Videoconference)
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Bria Alexander
Opening Remarks
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Shipra Kayan
Make your research synthesis speedy and more collaborative using a canvas
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Sam Proulx
Designing For Screen Readers: Understanding the Mental Models and Techniques of Real Users
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Tutti Taygerly
Make Space to Lead
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold

More Videos

Alex Hurworth

"We are witnessing the most rapid loss of biodiversity in human history."

Alex Hurworth Bonnie John Fahd Arshad Antoine Marin

Designing a Contact Tracing App for Universal Access

October 23, 2020

Laine Riley Prokay

"These brand new practitioners can bring fresh perspectives and new ways of thinking to hopefully see current problems in a new light."

Laine Riley Prokay Lisa Gordon

Carving a Path for Early Career DesignOps Practitioners

September 9, 2022

Eniola Oluwole

"Launching a design system is not a sprint, there’s no end, it’s always a continuous process."

Eniola Oluwole

Lessons From the DesignOps Journey of the World's Largest Travel Site

October 24, 2019

Nathan Shedroff

"If your budgets don’t connect to strategy goals, maybe those budget items shouldn’t exist."

Nathan Shedroff

Double Your Mileage: Use Your Research Strategically

March 31, 2020

Sam Proulx

"Mobile live captions can caption any sounds around the user in real time, making it a powerful accessibility tool."

Sam Proulx

Mobile Accessibility: Why Moving Accessibility Beyond the Desktop is Critical in a Mobile-first World

November 17, 2022

Feleesha Sterling

"If your design team cannot act quickly on findings, rapid research is not the method for you."

Feleesha Sterling

Building a Rapid Research Program (Videoconference)

May 18, 2023

Neil Barrie

"Bumble’s single feature of women making the first move addressed a huge cultural challenge and lifted the brand."

Neil Barrie

Widening the Aperture: The Case for Taking a Broader Lens to the Dialogue between Products and Culture

March 25, 2024

John Devanney

"You can’t measure long-term customer relationship value with short-term KPIs."

John Devanney

The Design Management Office

November 6, 2017

Katy Mogal

"The higher up you go, the more qualities like bravery matter compared to methodology."

Katy Mogal

But Do Your Insights Scale?

March 12, 2021