Rosenverse

This video is only accessible to Gold members. Log in or register for a free Gold Trial Account to watch.

Log in Register

Most conference talks are accessible to Gold members, while community videos are generally available to all logged-in members.

Handling Complexity: Framing a Scale of Design

Gold
Wednesday, June 9, 2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Share the love for this talk
Handling Complexity: Framing a Scale of Design
Speakers: Cornelius Rachieru
Link:

Summary

Designing "at scale" assumes conceptual consensus on what the particular levels of that 'scale' actually are. In the last few years, UX professionals have specialized into UX researchers, product designers, service designers design strategists, etc. Nowadays, we're also witnessing the debut of a new term: "system designers". But do we really understand how these job titles and subthemes of UX fit within that scale of complexity in design? In this presentation, we'll introduce the basic levels of a scale of design, articulate how common UX job titles fit on the scale, and map how the work we commonly tackle in both research and design should also be informed by the scale of the problem we're addressing. We're also going to critique the (somewhat misguided) ways the current world of UX is handling the widespread growth in the complexity of our work.

Key Insights

  • Design complexity is best understood as a scale with multiple layers, from foundational theory to societal impact.

  • Traditional design scale models do not fully address the granularity required by modern design challenges.

  • Lower layers of design focus on artifact creation and micro-interactions, exemplified by practitioners like Aaron Draplin.

  • Product design is discipline-led and emphasizes precise, polished deliverables, while service design is multidisciplinary and tolerates imprecision.

  • Research quality decreases substantially at higher levels of the scale due to ambiguity and systemic complexity.

  • Designers must consider secondary users and the potential harm their designs may inflict beyond primary users.

  • Service design projects often span years and require broad organizational collaboration, including policy, business, and HR perspectives.

  • Systemic and ecosystem thinking is crucial for ethical design and to avoid commoditization of design and designers.

  • Organizational adoption of ecosystem-focused roles is increasing as companies recognize the need for system-level insights.

  • Operationalizing design at scale requires awareness of these layers, multidisciplinary teamwork, and evolving research approaches.

Notable Quotes

"While the majority of design happens in the lower half of this scale, we create gaps at the higher, systemic levels that we must address."

"Design projects in product design are led by designers, but in service design they are facilitated or co-facilitated by designers among many perspectives."

"If you see a system, you cannot unsee it — systemic awareness changes how you approach design."

"On lower layers, research spaces are limited and focused, while at higher layers, problem spaces are ambiguous and require holistic approaches."

"We tend to put the end user first, but we must also ask who we might be doing harm to beyond primary users."

"In product design, we answer questions to design; in service design, we ask the right questions to design."

"Many big companies now have roles related to ecosystem design like VP or senior managers of ecosystem."

"Service design projects often last two to three years and necessitate ongoing stakeholder collaboration."

"Focusing exclusively on design systems, sprints, and agile commoditizes design and reduces it to cookie-cutter processes."

"Being aware of the systemic lens is a big first step that changes how teams operate and design."

Ask the Rosenbot
Tanya Snook
Designing the team experience: Building culture through onboarding
2021 • Enterprise Community
Changying (Z) Zheng
From prototype to production: Vibe coding design for real engineering systems
2026 • Designing with AI 2026
Conference
Kyria Stephens
Power to Heal: Civic Design in the Aftermath of Tragedy
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Mike Oren
Design Research Strategy & Strategic Design Research
2022 • Advancing Research Community
Sarah Brooks
Fireside chat with Sarah Brooks and Jen Pahlka
2021 • Civic Design Community
Jill Fruchter
Inconvenient Insights: The Researcher's Role is to Stay Curious
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Sam Proulx
Mobile Accessibility: Why Moving Accessibility Beyond the Desktop is Critical in a Mobile-first World
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Llewyn Paine
Coexisting with AI: A practical guide for researchers to navigate tools, ethics, and integration
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Sam Proulx
Designing For Screen Readers: Understanding the Mental Models and Techniques of Real Users
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Michal Anne Rogondino
Saving Outer Space: The First UX Design System for Our Nation’s Satellites
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Shipra Kayan
Make your research synthesis speedy and more collaborative using a canvas
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Samuel Proulx
Invisible barriers: Why accessible service design can’t be an afterthought
2024 • Advancing Service Design 2024
Gold
Sam Proulx
Online Shopping: Designing an Accessible Experience
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Dawn Ressel
Full-Stack User Experiences: A Marriage of Design and Technology
2016 • Enterprise UX 2016
Gold
Matt Bernius
Trauma-informed Research: A Panel Discussion
2021 • Advancing Research Community
Dave Hoffer
UX Job Search AMA #2 with Joanne Weaver and Dave Hoffer
2025 • Rosenfeld Community

More Videos

Sam Proulx

"If you partner with grassroots organizations, they can help not only with recruiting but trust building and getting your name out there."

Sam Proulx

Designing For Screen Readers: Understanding the Mental Models and Techniques of Real Users

September 30, 2021

Sam Proulx

"Magnification can cover the entire screen two to ten times, and users pan around to see different areas."

Sam Proulx

SUS: A System Unusable for Twenty Percent of the Population

June 9, 2021

Dave Gray

"If the corporate form collapses, we need to think about how to provide value to our actual communities, virtual or local."

Dave Gray

Connection, Community, and the Future of Work

May 28, 2026

Ron Bronson

"Every problem is a research problem."

Ron Bronson

Design, Consequences & Everyday Life

November 18, 2022

Raven Veal

"An AI algorithm that didn’t explicitly consider race still produced racial disparities by using healthcare costs as a proxy."

Raven Veal

Dark Metrics: Illuminating the Negative Impact of Digital Health Design

March 12, 2021

Angelos Arnis

"AI cannot extrapolate futures that have no precedent; it only recombines patterns from existing data."

Angelos Arnis

Our Fragmented Identity

June 12, 2026

Katie Johnson

"Alignment inevitably means changing minds."

Katie Johnson

Disrupting generative AI products with just-in-time consumer insights

June 4, 2024

Robert Schwartz

"We found that depending on what culture you’re in, words like insight and innovation can be very hard to translate."

Robert Schwartz

We're Here for the Humans

June 9, 2017

Joi Freeman

"To avoid bias in teams, it’s easier to gravitate toward what’s comfortable, but we need voices that challenge us."

Joi Freeman

A New Vantage Point: Building a Pipeline for Multifaceted Research(ers)

March 30, 2020