Tom Wujec has a simple design activity that he’s used for decades to better understand complex issues. He asks people how they make toast and through their answers creates a structure for the way we use systems to solve problems.
In his TED Talk Got a wicked problem? First, tell me how you make toast Wujec outlines his process and shows several toast diagrams from his book of toast. First the participants take a blank sheet of paper and without using any words draw the process of making toast. Drawings might focus on the transformation of the bread, the people eating the toast, or the electrical control diagram for the toaster.
The most common characteristics of the drawings is what Wujec calls the nodes and links. There are definite steps to everyone’s toast making process (the nodes) and generally arrows are drawn to show the sequence of events or the passage of time (the links.)
Moving from a mental model to a visual diagram of nodes and links gives each specific user a system model of their process. Different cultures make toast with a frying pan, toaster or campfire. An average illustration contains between four and eight nodes. Regardless of a participant’s drawing skill everyone has the ability to break down complex processes into short simple tasks.
Users next draw each node on a separate sticky note. The drawings in this phase generally become more detailed but more clear as the user has a better idea of what exactly is happening at each step of the process. Being able to move the notes around and really analyze why each part of a process needs to come before or after its partners helps to give a deeper understanding of the process.
Finally Wujec groups the users to create a hybrid team model of toast making. He says that it starts out messy but becomes clearer through interaction between different ideas. An iterative process starts and a unified systems model at the end of the process can represent the diversity of every member’s point of view.
Wujec is a great engaging speaker and his narration of the process is fascinating. His experience gained from running this experiment hundreds of times allows him to bring in different experiences and industry examples. Making our ideas visible, tangible and consequential can definitely lead to better solutions to design problems.