CS Grad Show 2026: Livia Solin
This is our interview with CS Arts graduate Livia Solin.
Electronic waste is a major contemporary challenge, and smartphones are a significant part of it. While much repairability research focuses on the product level, my thesis explored smartphone repairability from a systems perspective, treating it as a wicked problem. Based on existing literature, I developed a causal loop diagram and used it in participatory interviews with people who had repair experience. The thesis identified leverage points for lowering barriers to repair, reducing the consequences of temporary phone loss, and aligning broader incentives to better support smartphone repairability.
What inspired your thesis?
The starting point was new legislations that will impact design, and the right to repair directive was identified as one. The scope was narrowed down to smartphone repairability because it is a product that everyone uses and that therefore is a major part of electronic waste. Later on, it seemed insufficient to only focus on product level since more repairable phones are already on the market, but the problems with smartphone repairability persist. Because of this, I choose to adapt a systems thinking approach to analyze the problem.
What would you like readers to take away from your project?
The method itself was of importance since it can be applied to other types of problems and not only smartphone repairability. It was heavily based on Donella Meadows work on systems thinking, but printing out the causal loop diagram and using it as a communication tool was an addition. I hope to inspire readers/viewers to recognize that the product level is not the only level to work on as a designer, and that sometimes there's not only one solution.
What was your favourite part about working on your thesis?
I liked how a lot of the work felt philosophical, but could still be connected to real life applications. I appreciated how I felt like I found a meaningful subject to do my thesis on.
What was the most surprising thing that you learned from this process?
One thing that comes to mind is that I wanted to view the problem of smartphone repairability from a systems perspective and "bigger picture" perspective. However, I had to draw borders on the systems map because it was still impossible to include everything. Therefore, how complicated the problem is and how many factors play into it was a surprise. I believe that especially the business perspective could have been analyzed deeper, and how it interacts with the rest of the system, as there seem to be important leverage points there.
Livia SolinI think problem analysis and problem framing from a systems perspective will be useful, as it can be applied to other contexts and projects.
Livia Solin is a multidisciplinary designer and recent graduate from the Creative Sustainability programme. In her thesis, she embraced problem analysis from a systems perspective. This was especially a great learning journey because she considers that there are so many wicked problems surrounding us that don’t have one clear solution, and that thinking deeper about the problem itself therefore is of interest. She is also interested in user experience, product development, sustainable design, and service design.