Systemic Design as an Epistemic Agent: Contributing to Applied Research

Abstract

This article examines how systemic design can be integrated into applied scientific research to produce situated, actionable knowledge beyond its traditional role of materializing or communicating findings. We draw on a case study developed through an undergraduate thesis conducted at the Environmental Observatory of Mining Projects (OA)—a project funded by the National Agency for Research and Development through FONDEF IDeA (ID20I10084) and its subsequent technological research phase (IT23I0066). The thesis resulted in a support service designed to facilitate access, understanding, and use of public environmental information. Drawing on a subsequent analysis framed by Research through Design (RtD), this study explores how the integration of systems-oriented design (SOD) and the UC Public Innovation Laboratory's Triple Diamond framework shaped an iterative process of observation, modeling, co-design, prototyping, and validation. Methodologically, we used gigamaps, customer journey maps, service blueprints, and prototypes reframed from a systems perspective to represent actor networks, information flows, institutional dependencies, temporalities, and conditions of access and use. The findings combine a specific service and touchpoints with structural insights into capacity asymmetries, fragmentation of sources, traceability gaps, and temporal mismatches in participation processes. The case suggests that design artifacts can generate process evidence and contribute to formulating and testing situated hypotheses.