Online Collaborative Design: An online Viable System Model application in practice

This presentation reports preliminary observation on an ongoing exercise concerning the design of a logistics App that will support farmers' market operations in Mexico. Initial plans were to conduct this collaborative design exercise through a workshop based on the Viable System Model (VSM); however, the lockdown due to COVID-19 forced researchers to adjust this exercise to be able to perform it online.
VSM had to be adapted for its use on a free-to-access electronic platform (Miro), in a way that would be informative enough for all the participants. This presentation will describe the format and visual appearance of the framework, its application, and the lessons learnt in this exercise. Two points deserve to be highlighted: First, although the exercise outcome was very valuable for the next stage of the design, the participants' capacity for personal reflection during the workshop was reduced. Second, participants continued adding comments after the workshop ended, showing an understanding on the process and commitment beyond researchers' expectations.
The outcomes from this experiment are promissory, suggesting that this online VSM framework deserves further development.