Logical Design Matrix (LDM): How to operationalize systemic projectual design thinking in complex contexts.

Abstract

In recent years, the design discipline has achieved a leading role in fields of knowledge where complex projects requiring a systemic scope are addressed and implemented. This has created the challenge for designers to communicate to others the way in which this discipline generates knowledge in applied research projects. For most design practitioners, this is implicit in the way projects are carried out, however, professionals from other disciplines that make up teams do not always have the same understanding of the process, making it difficult to move forward together within a project framework. Simultaneously, nowadays the complexity of situations being addressed has escalated exponentially. Problems are no longer bounded, where there is a one-way solution, instead they exist within complex ecosystems and are in constant movement, where responses must be systemic and have the same mutation potential to evolve as the context and its issues do. In this context, designers as part of interdisciplinary teams have a double challenge. On the one hand, to contribute from and for the design discipline itself, by displaying and communicating the design process methods within the design spectrum. And, on the other hand, to implement and demonstrate to others the methodological contribution of the design projective thinking in the general process of the multidisciplinary team. This article proposes and discusses a model and a systemic instrument that addresses the complexity present in the materialization and operationalization of the contribution of the projectual design thinking process. The synthesis of the model and subsequent instrument is presented through the review, systematization and discussion of cases where this tool has been applied. Both methodological and systemic elements are relevant for the internal organization of the applied research project as well as for the interdisciplinary team that develops it and the stakeholders involved.