For the 2025 rendition of the seven week compulsory Introduction to Systems Oriented Design (ISOD), 60 third year design students tackled two pressing global challenges: ensuring fairness in critical minerals mining, and nurturing information integrity in the digital age.
Working in close collaboration with our course partner, the UNDP Global Policy Centre for Governance (GPCG), students explored these topics through the lens of systems thinking and design. Each team identified key governance challenges, mapped leverage points, and proposed interventions aimed at systemic change. Their final outputs—a comprehensive report and a gigamap—were presented at the conclusion of the course
Tackling Two Wicked Problems: The Briefs
🧠 Information Integrity
One of the exemplar teams interpreted the briefs as follows:
“In this project, we’re tackling the issue of information integrity, or more specifically, how to move from simply reacting to disinformation to actually preventing it, and designing systems that promote trust, inclusiveness, and accountability.
The brief we received from our school and UNDP Global Policy Centre for Governance highlights how the digital age has made it easier than ever for misinformation to spread, threatening democracy, public trust, and social cohesion, especially in vulnerable regions.
Right now, most efforts focus on fact-checking and moderation after false information has already done damage. Our task is to explore how policy, technology, and systemic interventions can create a more resilient information landscape without excessive government control”
You can see their work by clicking through to a post on the following image
⚒️ Fairness in Critical Minerals Mining
Students exploring this topic were immersed in the complex global race for resources such as lithium, copper, and cobalt—minerals essential for the clean energy transition. They were urged to move beyond the question of “how much can we dig up?” toward questions of how fairly and sustainably it can be done.
“You’ll be diving into the governance of critical minerals—where major powers compete, producing nations wrestle with corruption, and communities bear the cost. Your task is to map the system and surface leverage points that balance profit, people, and planet.”
You can see an exemplar project on this brief by clicking through to a post on the following image
Team Structure and Global Reach
Ten teams were formed—five focusing on each theme—and were each assigned a case country connected to their topic. These countries spanned four UNDP regions, including one case from the Global North to allow for comparative analysis. This diversity encouraged students to think contextually and critically about how governance operates differently across regions.
Overview of teams divided into regions, REAs and the matrix team which
Bridging Policy and Design with the UNDP
While systems thinking is familiar territory for the UNDP, working with design students was a new experiment. What began with curiosity developed into a robust partnership, where students gained real-world guidance, and the UNDP was introduced to the potential of design as a tool for insight and communication.
Through this collaboration, the GPCG saw first-hand how design thinking, combined with systems thinking, could enhance both understanding and communication of complex issues. This wasn’t about beautifying reports—it was about accelerating the sense-making process through visualization and pattern recognition.
How the UNDP engaged as context navigators
To support the students, UNDP GPCG provided four subject-matter governance experts—Santiago Cunial and Olivia Haugsbo (environment and development), Zana Idrizi (information integrity), and Julia Kercher (team lead)—who served as Context Navigators. Through weekly check-ins and structured feedback milestones, they helped teams navigate the messy realities of geopolitics, digital media, environmental justice, and institutional accountability.
Their mentorship played a crucial role in grounding the students’ work in real-world relevance, while still allowing room for innovation and provocation.
Julia Kercher, Team Lead of the Research and Innovation Team and the UNDP Global Policy Centre for Governance, addresses the students after their final presentations.
Crossing time zones with Microsoft Teams
Despite time zones and travel schedules, we maintained a vibrant hybrid learning environment. A dedicated Microsoft Teams workspace allowed students and UNDP staff to share progress, exchange feedback, and stay connected. Channels were set up for each topic, team, and region, enabling smooth digital collaboration.
A Microsoft Team was created to support the hybrid engagement with stakeholders, and to digitally organise the work of students into relevant channels
Surfacing Leverage Points in Complex Systems
Throughout the course, students were not only challenged to understand complexity—they were challenged to navigate it responsibly. Working with contested data, polarized narratives, and fast-evolving geopolitical contexts, they had to be hyper-aware of bias, propaganda, and the importance of rigorous fact-checking. This critical lens became foundational to their systems work.
Rather than jumping to quick solutions, students focused on identifying leverage points—strategic places in the system where targeted change could create wide-reaching effects. This required a shift from linear thinking to systemic analysis, asking not just what is happening, but why, who benefits, and what forces are reinforcing the status quo.
By visualizing these systemic relationships—often through gigamaps—students were able to show how deep structural change can emerge from addressing the right pressure points. This work exemplified design’s role not just as a creative practice, but as a tool for strategic insight and ethical sense-making.
Reflections and Looking Forward
Designers and policymakers don’t often share classrooms—but maybe they should. This year’s ISOD course showed what’s possible when systemic design meets real-world complexity. Our students gained deep, practice-based insights. The UNDP GPCG walked away with actionable ideas and a renewed appreciation for the power of visual systems thinking and design.
We’re proud of this partnership and grateful to the UNDP for their openness, mentorship, and deep engagement. Here’s to more unexpected collaborations that push the boundaries of both education and global governance.