Becca's Visual Diary

[carefullyadamantcreator]

Module 1: Wicked Design Problems

[My dad, brother, and I, pictured above]

In the next example I'm expanding into a realm that has less to do with the design of a "product" although I'm choosing to share about it because it entails all of the same types of challenges that a designed product might, and that is raising children. I chose this also because childhood is something that literally every living person experiences and a notably large percentage of people eventually become parents. I believe it’s an extremely important “problem” to decipher in that it collectively imposes a high impact on the world.

First off, “successful parenting” is entirely subjective. Each parent and each culture (and indefinite sub-cultures) have their own definition… A parent’s main objective could be a multitude of things, like to ensure happiness, independence, worldly success, etc… The subjectivity of the concept means there is no “true or false” and no “right and wrong” way to do it. Nor is there any “immediate or ultimate test” to determine successful parenting.

The questions a parent must ask themselves is infinite… What is the “right” level of dependence that a child should maintain? At what age should a child be able to things on their own? How much “risk” should a parent allow to support a child’s mental and emotional growth? What type of learning environment is best for my child? What are the most important values I’d like to instill in my child?

Also, the nature of genetic and environmental diversity and how this plays together with the natural plasticity of our brains, each child has the capacity to be entirely unique, which requires an infinite and ever-changing list of new problems to solve and therefore there’s no way to exhaustively define the problem.

These infinite problems must be solved with “one-shot solutions”—brains develop over time and there is no way to undo or erase a child’s prior experiences.

Raising kids presents the “no stopping rule” because there is no real end point or finality to the goal—kids continue to grow and change and where parenting is “done” is left up to each individual. Even once kids are grown and into adulthood, parental support throughout a persons' life may prove useful.

“Every problem is a symptom of another problem” in that parenting overlaps with a multitude of other “wicked problems” such as education, social equality, and healthcare to name a few.

REFERENCES:

Nelson, H. G., & Stolterman, E. (2012). The design way: Intentional change in an unpredictable world (2nd ed.). MIT Press.

[carefullyadamantcreator]

Module 1 – Wicked Design Problems

I’d like to share about an example of a wicked problem that I’ve seen at work in the Aviation industry—that is, the increase in capacity and exponential demand for global air travel, despite antiquated and insufficient Air Traffic Control (ATC) systems. There are several reasons why this situation is a textbook example for a “wicked design problem.”…

There is a risk paradox in that there are long-term risk implications if technology is not upgraded, such as outages, inefficiencies, user experience discrepancies, and cyber threats—there are also risks associated with upgrading a system and also upgrading too quickly, such as unknown failure points, human error when adapting to new technology, and inoperability gaps due to the interdependency of many systems. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is a common phrase in the industry for the reasons mentioned.

Updates to one system has a cascading effect such that “every problem is a symptom of another problem.”(1)  The complexity of systems and operating bodies make it extremely difficult to form an exhaustive list of operations.(1)

There is also a “no stopping rule”(1) scenario in that success looks more like an ever-changing progress management problem rather than full problem elimination.

A specific example of where my team members at work have started working through this wicked problem is FAA’s NextGen modernization plan for the National Airspace System (NAS). This includes a partnership with Collins Aerospace to create the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS), which is a system intended to give controllers the ability to verify spacing, direction, headings, vectors, conflict alerts, and weather advisories for an increased capacity of flight traffic.

My team members are currently working towards modernizing the user interface to integrate features like mouse and cursor technology and the standard, QWERTY layout keyboard. Yes, you heard that right! The systems in use do not currently include a mouse and cursor and operates mostly through key commands on a non-standard keyboard. This example makes it easy to imagine how such an antiquated system might result in slowed, inefficient and therefore highly limited operations.

REFERENCES:

Nelson, H. G., & Stolterman, E. (2012). The design way: Intentional change in an unpredictable world (2nd ed.). MIT Press.

Collins Aerospace. (n.d.). Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS). Retrieved September 7, 2025, from https://www.collinsaerospace.com/what-we-do/industries/air-traffic-management/automation-systems/stars

[carefullyadamantcreator]

Module 1 – Example of Design Leadership

My next example of Design Leadership is the Product User Personas Repository that I am currently working with my team and business partners to create. Not to say that a user personas repository is particularly notable or unique in the UX design industry at-large, but it does present new, user-centric, Empathetic Design method in which our “Connected Aviation” business operates.

The Problem:

Being a UX Designer, I observed many instances of disconnect and lack of a shared domain understanding that results in missed opportunities. For instance…

Misinformed understanding of job roles and inconsistent nomenclature between products, even when they were serving the same user personas, leading to solving the wrong problems

Lack of awareness of product functions and use cases resulting in duplicity in development efforts, which slows development progress

Fragmented business strategy despite clear opportunities for collaboration to unlock more advanced and useful solutions.

The Solution:

With some time, I came to realize the need for a focus on research operations in pursuit of a more holistic design approach for our business, beginning with a shared understanding of our product users through User Persona research artifacts. I took advantaged the recent mandate for all products to work within one single product Management System (Aha!) and began building a User Personas Repository through the provided Aha! documentation template. Along with my manager and several business stakeholders, I altered the template to include key user persona details as well as user needs as they pertain to our business’s product and feature specific data. With this user personas repository, we can…

Gain a shared understanding of industry nomenclature and our users’ pain points, needs, goals, and product use cases

See how user personas link to product features so that we can recognize opportunities for shared development

Link user personas to future roadmap items to build a clear, informed view of our solutions landscape and ensure roadmaps are aligned

[carefullyadamantcreator]

Module 1 – Example of Design Leadership

For my first post and design leadership highlight, I chose an example of urban planning and design—that is, the Dilworth Community Garden.

Julie Nofsinger, a resident of the Charlotte suburb, first created this garden by approaching one of the largest US utility holding companies, Duke Energy, inquiring about an unused parcel of their land. After working together to establish an agreement, Duke Energy licensed the land to the Dilworth Community Association at no cost. Today, the garden is maintained by a collaboration between local business and community volunteers.

I visited the garden in my research for this post and found many variations of flowers, such as Mexican Sunflowers (Tithonia rotundifolia), the Cosmos Flowers (Cosmos dipinnatus), Zinnias (Zinnia elegans), and Dahlias (Dahlia pinnata), as well as harvestable fruits, vegetables, and herbs like Roma tomatoes, butternut squash, Okra, and Rosemary. The garden is both a spectacular display of natural beauty and a vehicle for self-sustained food source.

This community garden’s concept and history showcase design leadership through a bold decision to confront a massive corporation about their land. The creators and maintainers of this garden display intention in their approach to offer psychological benefits of experiencing and working with nature, social and communal benefits to promote teamwork and a sense for joint responsibility, and physical health benefits of civilians and the environment through a sustainable food source.

Not only is this an objectively display of design leadership, but there is a subjective quality in its draw for me. Given that I am a computer-based, urban-living, remote worker, it’s not as easy for me to experience nature and feel like an active part of a community, so I have an exceptional appreciation for Dilworth Community Garden’s emphasis on nature and its social and communal benefits.