(Re)positioning uncertainty in design processes: How to address the complex challenges we face.

Abstract

This article is part of a research that tries to analyse how different attitudes towards uncertainty in design processes are influencing the evolution of the discipline itself -its raison d'êtreand the role that designers are acquiring as managers of uncertainty, as facilitators of unconventional approaches, with the ability to address complex and systemic challenges, in short, as agents of change helping to make better decisions. We bring together prior works on uncertainty perception in the design and management literature, focusing mainly on new approaches, and we map different design attitudes towards uncertainty, detecting two main approaches a) reducing it versus b) taking advantage of it. We analyse how the attitude towards uncertainty allows us to (re)define the role of design at the present time in terms of its ability as a discipline to address complex and systemic challenges.