The transformation of design platform under system thinking

Figures & data

Table 1. The definition of three key terms: DDP, user, and context.

	What	Who	When
Term	Digital Design Platform (DDP)	User	Context
Explanation	In the research, we specifically focused on DDP with the three different service offerings: (A) design competition, (B) design professional association, and (C) design company.	We used the term users in the study to indicate designers, design students, and design educators. In general, people want to receive award recognition through DDPs.	Since we made the analysis in 2020 at the early stage of the pandemic, most research was conducted through virtual communication channels.

Table 2. ARIES enterprise element model (Nightingale and Rhodes 2015).

Element	Description
Ecosystem	The external regulatory, political, economic, market, and societal environment in which the enterprise operates and competes/cooperates with other enterprises
Stakeholders	Individuals and groups who contribute to, benefit from, and/or are affected by the enterprise
Strategy	The strategic vision along with associated business model and key strategic thrusts, goals, and performance management system
Information	Information the enterprise requires to perform its mission and operate effectively in accordance with its strategy
Infrastructure	Enterprise-enabling systems and information technology, communication technology, and physical facilities that enable enterprise performance
Product	Products the enterprise acquires, markets, develops, manufactures, and/or distributes to stakeholders
Services	Offerings derived from enterprise knowledge, expertise, and competencies that deliver value to stakeholders, including support of products
Process	Key leadership, lifecycle, and enabling process by which the enterprise carries out its mission and creates value for its stakeholders
Organization	Culture, organizational structure, and underlying social network of the enterprise
Knowledge	Competencies, expertise, explicit and tacit knowledge, and intellectual property resident in and generated by the enterprise

Figure 1. ARIES framework (Nightingale and Rhodes 2015).

Figure 2. Research flow and process.

Table 3. Brief definition of OPM key terms: object, process, and state.

	Object	Process	State
Modified Explanation (De Weck 2022)	Objects are things that can exist unconditionally and there are two types of objects: physical one (e.g. organisms, people) and informational one (e.g. ideas, concepts).	Processes are a shift of object status changes through consuming, modifying, or transforming them. Processes can only exist under conditions and require objects to act on.	State is a part of the characteristic of an object to reveal the effectiveness and outcome caused by the process. For example, the new value proposition of DDP (process) has turned its business (object) from breaking even to being profitable (status).
Representative Icon and Example (Crawley, Cameron, and Selva 2016)

Table 4. Expert interviewee backgrounds and information.

#	Expert’s Background and Introduction	Occupation	Design Experience	Location
1	He has taught in the department of design at the university for 40 years and served on a jury for multiple international design awards.	Professor in department of design at an university	40 years	China
2	She manages a group of people for an international design competition brand with the main responsibility to plan the brand’s marketing strategy and business development.	Vice President of an international design competition company	10 years	Germany
3	As a second-year undergraduate student, he majors in industrial design and has a keen interest in learning product design and manufacturing processes.	Undergraduate student majoring in industrial design	3 years	USA
4	She has worked in the field of design research and strategy for 20 years with rich user experience and interaction knowledge.	Leadership role in a medium-sized design company	30 years	Taiwan
5	After graduating from a prestigious design school in France, he joined an international design consultant as a communication designer for 5 years.	Young design talent majoring in graphic design and recent graduate from university	5 years	UK
6	She enjoys the freedom to work with the clients she likes. As the founder of the company, she wants to extend its scale by having more projects and investments.	Founder of a 10-employee design startup	15 years	Tokyo
7	He is in his senior year of college with a huge interest in design, without majoring in it. He would love to explore design knowledge and learn design skills to prepare for his work application.	Senior year of college student who is interested in design in general	1 year	Singapore

Table 5. The list of selected ten DDPs for research and analysis.

#	DDP’s Name	Category
DDP1	International Design Award (IDA)	Category A – Design competition
DDP2	iF Design Award	Category A – Design Competition
DDP3	Core77 Design Award / Student Showcase	Category A – Design competition
DDP4	Global Grad Show (GGS)	Category A – Design competition
DDP5	Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA)	Category B – Design professional association
DDP6	Design for America (DFA)	Category B – Design professional association
DDP7	World Design Organization (WDO)	Category B – Design professional association
DDP8	OpenIDEO	Category C – Design company
DDP9	Fast Company	Category C – Design company
DDP10	Whipsaw	Category C – Design company

Figure 3. IDA highlighted the importance of design and designers’ roles in solving the large complex and systemic challenges caused by the pandemic (source: IDA).

Figure 4. iF Design Award changed its business model and provided customized feedback on participants’ works by integrating reviewers’ suggestions (source: iF Design Award).

Figure 5. Core 77 Design Award extended its service offering by establishing a student showcasing platform with mentorship from industry experts (source: Core77 Design Award).

Figure 6. GGS modified their yearly themed design challenge by focusing on COVID-19-related topics (source: GGS).

Figure 7. IDSA created a one-page webpage to gather COVID-19-relevant information to make it easy for their design community members to access the material and also stay connected (source: IDSA).

Figure 8. DFA reconfigured its website to focus on communities’ support for and with designers (source: DFA).

Figure 9. WDO initiated a new virtual community: Young Designers Circle in response to the pandemic (source: WDO).

Figure 10. OpenIDEO leveraged its open platform and co-design process to jointly solve the pandemic problems with participants across the globe (source: OpenIDEO).

Figure 11. Fast Company quickly created a section of COVID-19 to inform the audience of the latest information and provide a transparent communication channel to express ideas (source: Fast Company).

Figure 12. Whipsaw turns its brand’s online identity from a design solution provider to an education service provider by connecting industry experts with students’ graduation shows and giving students not only constructive feedback in design but also invaluable mentorship in life (source: Whipsaw).

Figure 13. DDP’s System Diagram (SD) level 0.

Figure 14. DDP’s System Diagram (SD) level 1.

Table 6. Apply ARIES enterprise element model in the context of DDP.

Element	Description in the context of DDP
Ecosystem	How does DDP make alliances with other different types of DDPs to partner with more resilient organizational/platform structures with sound business models and service offerings to make ecosystems not only sustainable, but also meaningful to contribute invaluable social impact through DDP?
Stakeholders	Besides the designers and design companies who submit their work to DDPs, who are other key stakeholders that will influence DDPs? We also need to consider the people who use, invest in, partner with, and contribute to, and benefit from DDPs in various scenarios.
Strategy	Suggested DDP strategies need to be designed in a way that is flexible to adapt to transformational conditions, encapsulating DDP’s functions with different modules, and considering the essential needs of participants connecting to business potentials.
Information	Since DDP is a digital-based platform, we can consider the future DDP events combined with offline activities e.g. exhibitions and workshops to promote omnichannel service offerings to bring more digital traffic and attention from the public.
Infrastructure	What are the fundamental digital and physical infrastructure that we can use to improve DDP services through four angles: people, product, process, and platform to elevate the current design platform.
Product	During the transformational era, the definition of a DDP product can shift from a one-single-usage product to scribed service offerings that can be modified and evolved based on people’s habits, needs, and expectations.
Services	Apart from award recognition services for individuals or companies, we can consider other services that can motivate participants of DDP by increasing their engagement level, building design community and connections, helping people grow, and cultivating creative culture within DDP.
Process	The typical DDP process can think about and expand its process from award evaluation to people’s growth and empowerment.
Organization	The boundary of DDP has been redefined, especially since the pandemic has fostered the transformational process. DDP can be viewed as an organization for internal employees, as well as a platform for external participants.
Knowledge	Knowledge includes the section DDP wants to provide to participants and design communities, whereas another part is that DDP needs to generate by itself for the purpose of updating its system or services.

Figure 15. The landscape of DDPs and four key takeaways.

Figure 16. OPD of crafting new partnership connections.

Figure 17. OPD of criteria for transformation.

Figure 18. OPD of creating for the engagement level.

Figure 19. OPD of collective talents and source.

Nightingale, Deborah J., and Donna H. Rhodes. 2015. Architecting the Future Enterprise. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.

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De Weck, Olivier L. 2022. Technology Roadmapping and Development: A Quantitative Approach to the Management of Technology. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-88346-1

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Crawley, Edward F., Bruce Cameron, and Daniel Selva. 2016. Systems Architecture: Strategy and Product Development for Complex Systems. Boston: Pearson.

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