Integrating Systems, Design, and Futuristic Thinking for Sustainable Complex Systems Design

This paper utilizes a transdisciplinary framework that integrates systems thinking, design thinking, and futuristic thinking to address the intertwined challenges of designing sustainable complex systems. Through a workshop with PhD students, we explore how this framework can foster innovative, sustainable, and socially just solutions for complex systems and how the blended approach challenges the traditional practices. Our findings demonstrate the potential of this approach for promoting holistic design considerations, user-centered sustainability, and anticipatory thinking in complex systems development. This work contributes to the growing body of research at the intersection of transdisciplinary design methods, sustainability, and critical computing, offering insights for educators and practitioners in the field of human-computer interaction and complex systems design.