Closing the Loop: Systems Thinking for Designers

by Sheryl Cababa, Kevin Bethune (Foreword)

As design continues to impact our products, services, and solutions at scale, it is more important than ever to understand the systems and context that surround design decisions. Closing the Loop will introduce you to a powerful systems thinking mindset and provide you with the tools and frameworks to define the systems that surround your work. This book is for practitioners who want to incorporate systems-thinking methods into their practice. Design researchers, strategists, and experience designers will benefit from the book’s tools and instruction to broaden their perspectives, as well as people from technology, healthcare, education, and other spaces in which human-centered design is incorporated. Users will learn

Genres: Design, Nonfiction, Technology

280 pages, Paperback

Published February 21, 2023

Reviews

[Sergio Martinez · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a good resource for designers who want to broaden their understanding of systemic thinking and how our decisions impact the world. It challenges and expands the conventional design thinking approach by illustrating how to apply systemic thinking. It presents insightful and thought-provoking viewpoints from industry leaders to foster critical thinking and inspire well-informed concepts.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish this book had been available years ago when I first began adding design tools to my kit. It would have made my learning curve so much more gentle! Sheryl Cababa has put together a comprehensive yet easy to absorb guide to all things system thinking, which I believe is critical for anyone who is designing or implementing new products or services to understand. You can have the best product in the world but if you don't understand the context in which it must work, well, it won't.

I also admire Cababa's commitment to ethical design and inclusion, which shine through every page.

This would be a great choice for a work book club, a design meetup, or for anyone who wants to bring systems thinking into their life.

[Sachendra Yadav · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book offers a comprehensive guide for integrating systems thinking into design practices. It challenges the limitations of traditional user-centered design, emphasizing the broader impacts and unintended consequences of design decisions. The book presents practical tools and frameworks for systems thinking, advocating for a holistic approach to problem-solving.

Beyond user-centric design: Embracing a wider perspective

“Closing the Loop” challenges the traditional user-centered design model, urging designers to consider the broader impacts of their work. The book argues for a holistic approach, where design choices are evaluated not just for their immediate user benefits, but for their long-term effects on communities, environments, and economies.

For example, designing a new smartphone isn’t just about user interface and functionality. It also involves considering the device’s life cycle, from resource extraction and manufacturing to its eventual disposal. This broader view can lead to innovations in sustainable materials and recycling programs, reducing the overall environmental impact.
By expanding the scope of consideration beyond the end-user, designers can create more responsible and sustainable products. This approach fosters an awareness of the intricate web of consequences that design decisions can trigger in our interconnected world.


Embracing complexity in design

The book emphasizes the importance of embracing complexity in design. Systems thinking involves understanding and addressing the multifaceted nature of real-world problems, where various factors are interlinked and influence one another.

By adopting a systems thinking approach, designers can create solutions that are not only innovative but also beneficial in a broader social and environmental context. This approach is especially crucial in tackling large-scale problems like climate change or urban planning.


Tools and frameworks for Systems Thinking

Cababa’s book is a treasure trove of practical tools and frameworks that enable designers to apply systems thinking in their work. These tools help in visualizing complex systems, identifying key components, and understanding their interdependencies.

For instance, system mapping is a tool that can be used to visualize the entire lifecycle of a product. When designing a new electronic gadget, a system map would include raw material sourcing, manufacturing processes, distribution channels, user behavior, and end-of-life disposal or recycling. This comprehensive view can highlight areas for improvement and innovation.


Speculative design futures

The book explores how designers can envision and create future scenarios to better understand the potential long-term impacts of their designs. It might involve creating hypothetical products, services, or systems that reflect possible future trends, technologies, and societal changes. These speculative designs are often used as a tool to stimulate discussion, spark innovation, and identify potential challenges and opportunities in the design field. They are not necessarily intended to be practical solutions but rather thought experiments to expand the boundaries of current design thinking.


Conclusion: A call to action for holistic design

In today’s interconnected world, where the implications of design choices can be vast and complex, adopting a systems thinking approach in design is not just beneficial — it’s imperative for creating sustainable and responsible solutions.

The book serves as a call to action for designers to think more broadly, act more responsibly, and design with a deeper understanding of the systems they are influencing. It’s a step towards a future where design not only solves problems but also contributes positively to our world.

[Steve Brock · Rating 5 out of 5]

As Stevo’s Novel Ideas, I am a long-time book reviewer, member of the media, an Influencer, and a content provider. I received this book as a free review copy from either the publisher, a publicist, or the author, and have not been otherwise compensated for reviewing or recommending it. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

This book is Stevo's Business Book of the Week for the week of 4/9, as selected by Stevo's Book Reviews on the Internet and Stevo's Novel Ideas. "Closing the Loop" provides designers with the tools and frameworks to define the systems that surround their work.

For many of us, our careers are defined by the successful completion of projects. For most of us, though, organizing and scheduling the interaction of systems, processes, and teams is more of an art than a science. That's where systems thinking comes in: providing insight into the purpose of the project and the challenges, relationships, and incentives that need to be mapped and ordered.

"Closing the Loop," written primarily for designers but with incentives for other disciplines, is a colorfully illustrated manual for applying systems thinking to User-Centered Design. Author Sheryl Cababa says that UCD alone considers the ideal user solely by their relationship with and direct use of a product. Adding systems thinking makes the process more wholistic because it accounts for users as humans that experience unintended consequences at the margins.

The primary tools of systems thinking are mapping the status quo, envisioning the future, and integrating the systems to facilitate change. Among the design tools Cababa utilizes are the futures wheel (identifying and packaging primary, secondary, and tertiary consequences of the design) and speculative design (use of the design imagination to paint a vision of the future in terms of outcomes: possible, plausible, probably and the ideal: preferable).

"Closing the Loop" helps designers reframe the elements of desired outcomes to be more resilient in the face of uncertainty, more deliberate in their planning, and to celebrate and integrate the humanity of the users of their products.

Find more Business Books of the Week on my Goodreads Listopia page at https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9..., and find many more reviewed and recommended books and products by searching for me on Google.

[Ria Conley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid book on the introduction of systems design.

What I enjoyed:
- The expert opinions at the end of each chapter. Diverse perspectives beyond an “average” designer, company and mission
- Reference of resources throughout the book, that didn’t feel forced or the author duplicating/repeating another thought leader’s perspective

What I considered a miss:
- The case studies throughout the book. Too much emphasis on what happened 50-100 years ago in use cases such as sanitation; would’ve liked to see more timely (or relevant) examples shared
- A pattern for Rosenfeld, a lot of repetitive content explaining the same terminologies through each chapter as if not already described in great detail already

[Aline Aleixo · Rating 2 out of 5]

entendo perfeitamente que um livro precise defender um ponto de vista. mas quando a defesa desse ponto de vista parte de uma visão ingênua do próprio público do livro, o livro em si acaba perdendo o sentido pra mim. o discurso de que “designers precisam entender que seus designs se inserem em um contexto maior” logo nos primeiros capítulos me parece um pouco insultante, como se ninguém soubesse disso e a lente da autora fosse a única capaz de nos abrir os olhos pra isso.

[Andreas Kennardi · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who works in advertising to do problem solving using creativity, system thinking brings a rigid knowledge and steps how to deconstruct a problem from a systemic pov.

Some of the frameworks are really useful to be used. for me, it's the iceberg framework when mapping out social problem, and the mapping of systemic problems themselves.

Happy reading and learn new knowledge everyday!

[Rebecca Noran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Practical and inspiring guide that progresses the field. Appreciated the diagrams, case studies, perspectives, context, and her sense of humor.

[Bindu Upadhyay · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must read for designers if they are new to systems thinking

[Jeeky · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm often a sucker for Rosenfeld's consistently sexy book cover designs, but the books themselves, I've realized, are very hit and miss. Subpar editing made this one a miss.

On the whole, the book should've been shorter, but the writing was never reined in. How many times, for example, are we introduced, somewhat ironically, to the term "multifinality"? What's up with captions that directly contradict what's stated in the main text (p. 126)? Sprinkle in trivial things like errant punctuation and the same word spelled different ways in the span of a single paragraph (benefited/benefitted, p. 14), and you have a book that's begging you not to read too closely, lest you lose your mind.

Finally, most of the big diagrams printed in this book—crucial to really seeing and understanding systems thinking in action—are way too small to read or be of any use. All you get from them is that "Gee, these things can get pretty big! And they're pretty! And complicated!") This was the most frustrating thing of all. Why not print these sideways on a full page?

For the steep price, I expected a lot more.