Activating key principles of systemic design through exploratory prototyping

Working towards sustainable futures demands competencies and methodologies that support system thinking and action. While prototyping has been designated as a promising method to facilitate complex systemic design processes, studies proving this potential are scarce, and scholars call for a shift in the definition and use of traditional prototyping when applied in design processes targeting complex systems. This paper describes the observed contributions of exploratory prototyping in the emergence of systemic design principles. Results from three systemic design workshops illustrate the role that exploratory prototyping played in the understanding and
framing stages of design processes targeting complex systems, particularly in the appreciation of the systems' complexity, the recognition of interdependence relationships among its elements, and the framing of the system's boundaries to set the systems' new vision. Our findings contribute to envisioning new definitions and uses of prototyping to respond to the demands of the systemic design practice.