Gerry Scullion delivered a 60-minute keynote at UX Scotland in Edinburgh on complexity theory and why service design and experimentation are built to help design thrive in uncertain times.
The context UX Scotland is a well known design and innovation conference that brings together practitioners, researchers and leaders from across the UK and Europe. The 2023 edition was sold out, with an audience primarily made up of people working in design, innovation and digital service delivery. The programme needed a keynote that connected a big idea to the practical work of designing services — something that would help delegates think differently about the conditions they were designing inside. What we did Gerry Scullion delivered a 60 minute keynote at UX Scotland in Edinburgh on complexity theory and the future of design practice . The keynote explored: 1. Complexity theory as a lens for design. Why the world we design for is often unpredictable, interconnected and emergent — and why traditional problem solving approaches fall short in those conditions. 2. Why service design is suited to complexity. Service design's habit of zooming out, mapping systems, and looking at end to end experiences makes it a natural fit for messy, multi stakeholder contexts. 3. Experimentation as a core design practice. How small, continuous experiments help teams learn, reduce risk and adapt whe
Humana Design — service design and design research consultancy, Dublin, Ireland.