The sustainability crisis entails high levels of complexity, not approachable from linear or reductionist stances. Unveiled from a holistic stance as a multilevel phenomenon characterized by qualitative novelty, emergence pertains to complex self‐organizing systems. Emergent properties and behaviors arise only when system parts interact in a wider whole. This article positions emergence for enhancing solution processes to meet sustainability challenges. It proposes the systemic approach as a catalyst for the emergence of wise creative solutions tackling wicked unsustainability problems. This requires observation and entails analyzing open systems altogether and recognizing the impact of navigating across macro‐ and micro‐scales on causal and creative emergence. Sustainable development requires circumventing past conventional practices, in an accelerated way. The emergence phenomenon at work between systems levels, coupled with purposefully structured creative processes, holds the potential for catalyzing sustainable development efforts. Systemic analysis at varying scales is to foster creative emergence aligned with sustainability‐oriented innovation.

This paper focuses on Quirky, a social product development (SPD) company, in order to explore the SPD phenomenon, as well as the self-assessed level of the experience quality arising from participation in SPD. The study investigates the perceived benefits to designers arising from their participation, the motivators of participation, as well as the participants’ perception of SPD characteristics. It involved a focus session with seven industrial design engineering master students, and yielded results from which a questionnaire was developed within the study. The questionnaire was completed by voluntary participants (7 trained designers and 26 non-design trained participants) from the worldwide community of platform users of the selected SPD company. The questionnaire results suggest that the positive aspects of the SPD participants’ experience include the interest caused by participation and motivation to earn money, as well as the perception of a wide range of ideas and contributions available in the SPD platform. Negative aspects of the participants’ experience found in the analysis of the questionnaire data include high individual ratings for learning caused by participation as well as a keen awareness of too many unnecessary ideas in the SPD platform. The analysis also suggests that formally trained designers have some advantage in SPD participation compared to non-design trained participants. Finally, the results support the conclusion that the questionnaire respondents did not view SPD as detrimental to designers’ future job prospects.

The effect of antecedent group interaction on individual ideation is investigated, through an experiment based on generation of concepts by two groups of industrial design students following the same design brief. The underlying hypothesis is that preceding individual ideation with group interaction promotes increase in effectiveness of individual ideation. Results were analyzed for maximum novelty of individual ideation, showing a positive post-treatment effect, departing sharply from the novelty degradation in the control group in the second phase of the experiment. Analysis of the ideation outcomes using a variety metric, complement the findings obtained for novelty, in characterizing the effect of group interaction in creative ideation, demonstrating an inverse effect of previous group interaction leading to decreased variety of ideation.

Prevention of musculoskeletal disorders is supported by use of slanted rather than horizontal pointing devices, but user acceptance of the former may be compromised due to lower perceived ease of use. This study compares subjectively rated usability (N = 37) for three sizes of slanted computer mice and includes a horizontal small conventional device as a reference. For a random subset of the sample (n = 10), objective usability parameters were also elicited. Participants followed a standard protocol which is based on executing graphical pointing, steering, and dragging tasks generated by a purpose-built software. Subjective ratings were collected for each of the four pointing devices tested. The three slanted devices differed in size but were chosen because of an approximately similar slant angle (around 50–60 degrees relative to the horizontal plane). Additionally, effectiveness and efficiency were objectively calculated based on data recorded for the graphical tasks’ software for a random subset of the participants (n = 10). The results unveil small differences in preference in some of the subjective usability parameters across hand size groups. This notwithstanding, the objective efficiency results are aligned with the subjective results, indicating consistency with the hypothesis that smaller slanted devices relative to the user’s hand size are easier to use than larger ones. Mean values of weighted efficiency recorded in the study range from 68% to 75%, with differences across devices coherent with preference rank orders.

This paper proposes a data-driven approach to develop a taxonomy in a data structure on list for triple bottom line (TBL) metrics. The approach is built from the authors reflection on the subject and review of the literature about TBL. The envisaged taxonomy framework grid to be developed through this approach will enable existing metrics to be classified, grouped, and standardized, as well as detect the need for further metrics development in uncovered domains and applications. The approach reported aims at developing a taxonomy structure that can be seen as a bi-dimensional table focusing on feature interrogations and characterizing answers, which will be the basis on which the taxonomy can then be developed. The interrogations column is designed as the stack of the TBL metrics features: What type of metric is it (qualitative, quantitative, or hybrid)? What is the level of complexity of the problems where it is used? What standards does it follow? How is the measurement made, and what are the techniques that it uses? In what kinds of problems, subjects, and domains is the metric used? How is the metric validated? What is the method used in its calculation? The column of characterizing answers results from a categorization of the range of types of answers to the feature interrogations. The approach reported in this paper is based on a screening tool that searches and analyzes information both within abstracts and full-text journal papers. The vision for this future taxonomy is that it will enable locating for any specific context, discern what TBL metrics are used in that context or similar contexts, or whether there is a lack of developed metrics. This meta knowledge will enable a conscious decision to be made between creating a new metric or using one of those that already exists. In this latter case, it would also make it possible to choose, among several metrics, the one that is most appropriate to the context at hand. In addition, this future framework will ease new future literature revisions, when these are viewed as updates of this envisaged taxonomy. This would allow creating a dynamic taxonomy for TBL metrics. This paper presents a computational approach to develop such taxonomy, and reports on the initial steps taken in that direction, by creating a taxonomy framework grid with a computational approach.

The nature of the sustainability crisis is characterized by high levels of complexity, thus it is not amenable to be approached from the linearity or reductionist paradigm. Emergence is a multilevel phenomenon that is characterized by qualitative novelty and is recognized as an important attribute of complex systems produced by self-organized processes, unveiled from a holistic stance. This conceptual-analytical article explores the emergence phenomenon and questions whether it can be a way of enhancing the solution process to meet the sustainability challenges. Emergent properties or behaviors emerge only when the system parts interact in a wider whole. Moreover, a systemic approach is proposed as an intermediary component in the process of emergence of creative and wise solutions to the wicked problems of unsustainability. This requires observation and entails analyzing open systems as a whole and recognizing the impact of traversing macro- and micro- scales on causal and creative emergence. The study also emphasizes synergies between emergence and creativity aimed at sustainability. Sustainable development requires leapfrogging past conventional practices, in an accelerated way, and the emergence phenomenon at play between systems levels, coupled with purposefully structured creative processes, holds the potential for catalyzing sustainable development efforts.