Scale and the wicked problem in fourth order design

User-centred design evolved in the context of product design – projects with client-defined goals and comparatively short lead-times (Sanders and Stappers, 2008; Herriott, 2014). These conditions are not standard in product design. Yet the need remains to involve users appropriately and effectively (to do with matters of equity) in larger scale projects such as transport and architecture. To explore the effect of scale and duration on user-centred design, this paper compares cases of hospital design and public transport design. This paper has synthesises empirical studies of user involvement in public transport and hospital design. The paper draws comparisons between large design projects and case of “wicked problems”. Using this link, the paper argues for the reasons outlined in Rittel and Webber (1973) that large systems projects are not readily amenable to tackling using standard design processes. The paper then tries to show that the success of design approaches in the first three orders of design (Buchanan, 2001) are not automatically transferrable to what Buchanan terms Fourth Order design.