Zooming in and Out of Complex Systems: Exploring Frames in Incremental Participatory Design Projects

Designers are increasingly working with wicked problems in complex systems, which defy simple solutions. Such problems require flexible problem-solving approaches, and it has been suggested that designers and other change-makers can draw flexible boundaries around them. This chapter explores the concept of framing through a case of incremental participatory design in the complex system of Norwegian health care. We apply an analytical approach which zooms in and out across time and space, finding that for incremental design, participants work within frames which have shifted over time. However, some participants are more aware of and have more frame-defining and re-framing power than others. We also find that when zooming out, time is an important aspect. When trailing the relationships between components within the frames to components outside, current frames are invisibly and powerfully determined by current and past developments as well as future possibilities. When dealing with outdated frames, participants can re-frame in order to give new attention and momentum to the design endeavor, enrolling new actors that might facilitate implementation. However, it is vital to remember that re-framing tends to result in compromise, meaning that while some actors are included, others are not—and not all participants have the same framing capacity.