Systems maps

A product of OCAD’s Strategic Foresight and Innovation masters degree in Design, these large-scale synthesis maps visually express a social, environment and economic system within a boundary. Synthesis maps contain rich images that visualize complex system problems, and are used as design artifacts in health to public policy, from service experiences to social change. They are used with stakeholders for advising, planning, and designing for social and systemic challenges (wicked problems).

Synthesis maps are typically designed as communicative artifacts that translate multiple knowledge perspectives about social systems to illustrate the dilemmas and challenges within a complex system scenario. The maps shown here visually expresses the processes and systematics of a problem space in the world of fast fashion and regional centers of innovation.