New representation techniques for designing in a systemic perspective

Abstract

Industrial production is challenged to generate highly individualized solutions, which should adequate global production to local systemic conditions. This represents a paradigm shift both for industrial organization and for designers, who will need new tools to analyse and design the system, but also to communicate the system to a wider audience. This paper will emphasise the relevance of those issues in the design activity and outline the main methodological problems to be addressed. The authors will then offer a contribution in this area by providing an overview of different methods and tools used in previous projects and from teaching activities.