May 2026

 

 

 

 

 

 

Presentation one

In a first for our community as part of our May 2026 session, we were joined by Dr. Dulmini Perera. She is a Systems Researcher working at the intersection of design, cybernetics, and critical humanities. And is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Limerick, Ireland. They presented on When the Map Is Not the Territory - where she explored interesting insights into systems thinking. The written piece has been created from the presentation given by Dr. Dulmini Perera as their session was not recorded. 

Systems thinking and double bind 
This paper will be a great read if you're feeling stuck when working on system-level change. What if we saw that stuckness not as a failure, but as an opportunity to think and work differently? This paper explores health and social care as a living system, rather than a mechanical one, and offers four practical takeaways for everyday practice.

Presentation two

We were delighted to be joined by Dr. Silvia Grimaldi Professor of Service Design and Transformation and Co-Leads the Service Futures Lab at London College of Communication, University of the Arts London. They presented on Service Design and Anticipatory Futures in Health. The talk demonstrated how service design can be used to envision health futures, through several examples of past projects.

A few helpful creative methods and tools discussed by Dr. Grimaldi

  • tips for doing public engagement through co-design
  • trust-building with scientific teams – this could be useful for those working with highly specialised groups such as clinical teams including how to navigate insider–outsider barriers and collaborate effectively across expertise boundaries
  • challenges of working with lived experience – including ethical dilemmas you may come across, and how to navigate or overcome them through alternative approaches
  • the value service design can bring in connecting science and the public – including tools such as personas and stakeholder mapping to help make this more tangible and accessible
  • interconnected maps to better understand complex systems
  • research through design as a process for generating insights
  • horizon scanning to explore emerging signals and trends, and identify associated threats and opportunities
  • evidence safari to collaboratively gather, analyse and generate insights from large sets of data and information
  • speculative design to imagine possible futures
  • “What if” questions to reframe research challenges in different ways
  • future world-building to explore fictional future contexts
  • backcasting to work backwards from a possible future
  • diegetic prototypes - objects or artefacts designed as if they already exist in a future world

The recording of part two of the May Design Community of Practice is available for you to view:

Find out more

Last Updated: 16 October 2026