Events & Updates
Panel Discussion · Design Museum of Chicago
Confronting Complexity through Design: Ambition of Change
This panel explored design’s role in navigating today’s complex systemic challenges. Deaa Bataineh, in conversation with André Nogueira, Alvaro Delgado-Aparicio, and Cecilia Tham. Together, they highlighted how design shapes strategic choices, drives innovation, fosters interdisciplinary language, and empowers communities. The discussion emphasized design’s evolving responsibility in creating resilient, inclusive, and future-ready systems.
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In a world rapidly evolving beyond traditional paradigms, this panel explores design’s critical role in navigating and addressing the complex systemic challenges of our time and the future. The panel brings thought-provoking experts illustrating how design should shape choices through transforming narratives, driving innovation, and empowering communities.
In an era marked by significant social, ecological, and technological shifts, leaders across various sectors are looking to design as a tool to navigate these changes and seize tomorrow's opportunities. The panel highlights design's evolving role in transitioning from the patterns of the world we're leaving behind to those shaping the world we're entering. Through exploring themes of 'intersections,' 'choices,' 'language,' and 'pathways,' the panelists demonstrate how design interplays with these domains to amplify the impact of value creation, ultimately shaping a resilient and inclusive future. Panelists will discuss how design enables the mapping and navigation of complex systems, informs strategic choices, fosters a shared language for interdisciplinary synergies, and guides us through the pathways of transformational change. This conversation showcases the diverse ways through which emerging conceptual models and related design practices support ambitious leaders as they navigate through complex spaces of innovation and create systems value.
In the Media:
Talk · The United Nations Global Compact
Designing Platforms for Impact: How to Design Infrastructures for Everyday Life
Deaa Bataineh led a session for the UN Global Compact’s Global Deep Dive series on “Design Thinking for Social Impact,” presenting the Strategic Choice-Making model. The session explored how design can drive impactful interventions across sectors—regenerative supply chains, EV charging, embedded finance—showcasing design as a critical tool for shaping equitable, resilient, and sustainable infrastructures.
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This session is part of the United Nations Global Compact’s Global Deep Dive series on “Design Thinking for Social Impact.” The session introduced Strategic Choice-Making, a model developed through Deaa’s research at the Institute of Design (ID) at Illinois Tech, in collaboration with Carlos Teixeira.
This conversation explored how design is central to creating the infrastructures that shape everyday life globally—from equitable access to healthcare and clean energy to regenerative supply chains and local innovation ecosystems. The session highlighted platforms such as in-flight meals driving regenerative supply chains, EV charging stations accelerating energy transition, and embedded finance expanding financial inclusion.
Held within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Innovation Accelerator for Young Professionals—a program engaging 1,000 emerging leaders from diverse industries—the session emphasized design as a tool for creating resilient, inclusive, and sustainable systems.
Attendees learned how the Strategic Choice-Making model can help leaders navigate complexity and design platforms that drive systemic impact.
In the media:
Lecture · The Institute of Design at Illinois Tech
How can Design offer Strategic Choice-Making© in Complex Spaces of Innovation?
This lecture presents Deaa Bataineh’s Strategic Choice‑Making© model for navigating complex innovation. He demonstrates how micro‑level design choices, aligned with institutional priorities, orchestrate resource flows, guide platform‑infrastructure transitions, and enable large-scale systemic transformations.
Watch the full lecture here. Read the full Dissertation.
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This lecture is about Deaa Bataineh’s research positioning design as a Strategic Choice‑Making© practice for navigating complex innovation environments. In this session, he unveils the Strategic Choice‑Making Model (SCMM)—a structured framework for aligning design decisions with institutional priorities, bridging multi‑system integrations, and guiding platform‑infrastructure transitions.
Deaa illustrates how micro‑level design interventions can orchestrate resource flows across interconnected systems, enabling large‑scale transformations. Examples include transforming EV charging stations, cashless payments, and emergency response systems into platforms for equitable, sustainable, and intelligent futures.
The presentation draws from case studies across sectors like energy, mobility, health, and food, demonstrating how SCMM drives value creation and systemic impact.
Deaa also shares insights from his career as a designer, researcher, and consultant. His work has been honored with awards such as National Designer of Jordan (2008) and recognitions from Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas, Innovation by Design, One Show, and Core77 Design Awards.
He serves on the Auxiliary Board of the Design Museum of Chicago, co-founded the design department at Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST), and hosts the espresso? podcast—offering concise insights on design, systems, and strategy.
Watch the full lecture here. Read the full Dissertation.