- Carlijn Vis, SINTEF
Birger Sevaldson: Systems Oriented Design
On January 20, 2022 the Cluster for Co-Creative Service Design and Innovation organised a 'Digital Inspiration Day' about Design in Healthcare. This digital seminar featured various international speakers, addressing service design, innovation and systems oriented design in healthcare.
Birger Sevaldson gave an introduction to Systems Oriented Design.

Systems Oriented Design is a methodology and practice in design developed to make designers better able to handle complexity. Experience shows that design projects increasingly deal with complex issues where systems thinking is central. We must avoid the simple solutions to particular problems that risk making other problems worse simply because one has not seen the connection. This challenges us in interdisciplinary collaboration situations and in the dialogue between actors, stakeholders, and others affected by the system changes. The lecture will introduce system-oriented design and show some examples from research-based teaching and public and private activities. Although Systems Oriented Design is a design methodology, it is helpful for anyone confronted with complex situations. Systems Oriented Design includes tools with a low beginner threshold but the potential to grow into advanced applications.
Birger Sevaldson is professor at the Institute of Design at AHO - Oslo School of Architecture and Design at the Institute of Design.He is a design researcher and educator with practice from a broad field of design and architecture. As a design researcher, he focuses on design processes for uncertainty and complexity.
He has defined Systems Oriented Design as a designerly way of systems thinking and systems practice. He was the founder of the RSD symposia (Relating Systems Thinking and Design) and co-founder of the Systemic Design Association (SDA).
The video from Birger Sevaldson's presentation can be viewed here:
The slide-deck from Birger's presentation can be downloaded here.
The doctoral thesis that Birger Sevaldson mentions can be found on our webpage: https://www.ccsdi.no/enkeltinnlegg/2020/08/31/doctoral-defence-of-ccsdi-member-manuela-aguirre
More information about the entire program of the Digital Inspiration Day and other speakers can be found here:
https://www.ccsdi.no/enkeltinnlegg/coming-up-digital-inspiration-day-design-in-healthcare-20-01-2022