Two kinds of systems

Over the past couple of years I've been heavily influenced by systems thinking. I think a systems perspectives is essential for understanding and analyzing user experience problems. So I've been happy to see the folks at Adaptive Path talking about systems in design.

But after Peter's recent post I've been thinking our ideas of systems are different.

When I think of systems I think of dynamic systems, collections of interdependent "things"--like technology, laws, people's tastes, beliefs, standards, companies, policies, etc.--that together make an irreducible whole.

Peter's illustration gives us an example of another kind of system:

I'm going to call this an Ikea System, a collection of products and services that fit together well. They may be virtually seamless--the way the iPod, iTunes and ITMS are. But they don't exhibit many of the characteristics of dynamic systems.

For example, you can own an iPod but never acquire music through iTMS. In fact, I'd bet that the more strongly you connect playing and acquisition the less successful your music player will be--people tend to prefer open systems. So while a positive play-acquisition feedback loop exists in the iPod-iTMS system, it's balanced by external forces.

By the way, Ikea System is not meant to be a dismissive label; if you think about what Ikea has accomplished--from design to manufacturing to retailing--it's obvious that effective Ikea Systems are immensely challenging to build.

But Ikea Systems live within larger dynamic systems that influence, if not determine, how successful they can be. Ikea's adoption of The Natural Step in 1990s shows how sensitivity to the larger system can become a competitive advantage.

In the case of the music industry, the dynamic system might look like this:

Read the arrows as "influences"... so lobbies influence laws, which influence DRM, which influence players, etc. This is certainly an incomplete picture, but it gives you a sense of the complexity of the dynamic system.

And Steve Jobs's recent musings on DRM show that--despite owning the most popular music player and digital music store--he is only influencer in this larger system.