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Dark Matter and Trojan Horses: A Strategic Design Vocabulary
We live in an age of sticky problems, whether it’s climate change or the decline of the welfare state. With conventional solutions failing, a new culture of decision-making is called for. Strategic design is about applying the principles of traditional design to "big picture" systemic challenges such as healthcare, education and the environment. It redefines how problems are approached and aims to deliver more resilient solutions. In this short book, Dan Hill outlines a new vocabulary of design, one that needs to be smuggled into the upper echelons of power. He asserts that, increasingly, effective design means engaging with the messy politics – the “dark matter” – taking place above the designer’s head. And that may mean redesigning the organisation that hires you.
86 pages, ebook
First published May 22, 2012
36 people are currently reading
1117 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
January 3, 2015
The case studies and the suggested strategic design vocabulary save this from becoming a too hand-wavy affair. It is also nice and short, which radically increases the chances of people reading it. And it should be read—by designers interested in more meaningful work, and by anyone looking to change the organisation they work in or the society they live in. Even though I was already familiar with these ideas from Dan Hill's recent lectures, having them all written down in one place for deeper contemplation has given me new handles for thinking about my own practice. Good.
August 31, 2012
A concise, 90-page definition of the difference between strategic design and it's shallower cousins: design thinking, management consulting, scenario planning, et al. By "dark matter" he means something like "the oft-overlooked politics between the stakeholders of any system which strategic design hopes to address."
March 4, 2022
One of the most clear and concise books in design / strategy I’ve written
August 9, 2020
20% wheat, 80% chaff. An extremely dense, mostly designer pretentious, book about using strategic design to change the works. There are some interesting and useful concepts but the majority of the book seems to be recounting design war stories and speculating about how impactful design could be in different social and political situations.
August 9, 2016
Though the author jumps from partial case studies to broad generalizations a bit quickly, the core of the argument is sound and the concepts introduced are useful and sticky.
January 2, 2026
An excellent long form essay that I wish I read years ago as I was embarking on a UX research journey. If you are looking to shift towards real design, i.e. strategy, this is an essential work to test whether your proposal is actually a design strategy.
Hill articulates what anthropologists struggle to explain what applied anthropology is and meaningful change and social transformation. Hill gives you four concepts: the McGuffin, the Trojan horse, platform, and dark matter as a way to think about your projects beyond a singular product or goal. Rather, it's a form of design systems intervention and thinking that tinkers with culture. (As I said, replace design with culture, and this could have been a fantastic anthropology work).
No, it is NOT design thinking as he spends a whole section railing against its failures. It is not simply a workshop module or a one off consultancy thing. It is a long term total approach to driving change, in his case, the challenge to remake the social contract in a welfare state or the Nordic model where Hill is embedded in. How do you balance diversity and homogeneity to think about innovation in Finland? Since I visited the country recently, I do agree with much of his observations and admire the Finns. A book club member also was a resident of Newcastle so she can attest to the radical changes in the city that transformed it from an industrial ghost town to a destination area.
The main idea is to be aware of the dark matter, the known unknowns that touch any points of intervention i.e. food systems but also health safety laws or hawking laws but even food packaging laws and transport. It's a wide net and if you manage to zero in on the first three concepts you can see initial projects cascade into greater trickle points towards changes to other levers i.e. law, policy, practice, materials, etc.
Alas, this type of strategy design and in my case research, is rare in companies. Hill looks like he has only worked with larger entities like the government who has a longer term mandate than let's say large businesses. He doesn't have many examples on business per se and I'd be interested to see if there are any truly transformative attempts in design beyond the product. (He is a designer and urbanist). He isn't talking about profits which is possibly why this isn't interesting to most companies unless the founder really is into this and not merely lip service to sustainability or other keywords floating around. (He calls this putting lipstick on the pig instead of changing the pig itself).
As a former UX researcher, and anthropologist in companies, you want to know if you are asking the right question. This is a work dedicated to finding whether you are indeed asking the right question or know what the real question is—and it's not launching the next app but could be part of it.
This is an easy to read and finish and a must for those frustrated about other strategy books. (This is much much better than Escobar's pluriverse book). This gives you some working concepts and definitions to help you in your practice. I should have read this early on when I was transitioning to corporate.
I'm on to another strategy book because he only does a design for social change and I'm eager to see other business examples.
Hill articulates what anthropologists struggle to explain what applied anthropology is and meaningful change and social transformation. Hill gives you four concepts: the McGuffin, the Trojan horse, platform, and dark matter as a way to think about your projects beyond a singular product or goal. Rather, it's a form of design systems intervention and thinking that tinkers with culture. (As I said, replace design with culture, and this could have been a fantastic anthropology work).
No, it is NOT design thinking as he spends a whole section railing against its failures. It is not simply a workshop module or a one off consultancy thing. It is a long term total approach to driving change, in his case, the challenge to remake the social contract in a welfare state or the Nordic model where Hill is embedded in. How do you balance diversity and homogeneity to think about innovation in Finland? Since I visited the country recently, I do agree with much of his observations and admire the Finns. A book club member also was a resident of Newcastle so she can attest to the radical changes in the city that transformed it from an industrial ghost town to a destination area.
The main idea is to be aware of the dark matter, the known unknowns that touch any points of intervention i.e. food systems but also health safety laws or hawking laws but even food packaging laws and transport. It's a wide net and if you manage to zero in on the first three concepts you can see initial projects cascade into greater trickle points towards changes to other levers i.e. law, policy, practice, materials, etc.
Alas, this type of strategy design and in my case research, is rare in companies. Hill looks like he has only worked with larger entities like the government who has a longer term mandate than let's say large businesses. He doesn't have many examples on business per se and I'd be interested to see if there are any truly transformative attempts in design beyond the product. (He is a designer and urbanist). He isn't talking about profits which is possibly why this isn't interesting to most companies unless the founder really is into this and not merely lip service to sustainability or other keywords floating around. (He calls this putting lipstick on the pig instead of changing the pig itself).
As a former UX researcher, and anthropologist in companies, you want to know if you are asking the right question. This is a work dedicated to finding whether you are indeed asking the right question or know what the real question is—and it's not launching the next app but could be part of it.
This is an easy to read and finish and a must for those frustrated about other strategy books. (This is much much better than Escobar's pluriverse book). This gives you some working concepts and definitions to help you in your practice. I should have read this early on when I was transitioning to corporate.
I'm on to another strategy book because he only does a design for social change and I'm eager to see other business examples.
July 12, 2025
This short book does make good on its promise of offering a strategic design vocabulary. I can definitely see how this design lexicon can be applied to my every day work in order to improve my impact and strategic influence. Dan's critique of the limits of Design thinking (especially delivered in a consultant format) also seems pretty spot on.
However, it falls short in a few ways. For one, I am deeply skeptical of the scope and broadness of the idea of strategic design. It's so amorphous in the way it's described that it often feels like a way for designers to larp as someone with influence like a policy maker or entrepreneur while still retaining the title and aesthetic of a designer. Why not simply be an entrepreneur or a policy maker with designer and systems thinking sensibilities?
I think stretching the more conventional conception of design to this degree is hubristic, and can ultimately hurt the perception field of design because the lofty goals of strategic design are simply unrealistic. If you want proof of this, simply look at how the highlighted opportunity areas in the public sphere have progressed. We have the benefit now of looking back on how strategic design has ripened as a field and performed this past decade.
It also doesn't provide much guidance on how to develop the skills of a strategic designer outside of loosely defining some desired qualities, mainly systems, strategic thinking, and maybe the ability to prototype? Although to be fair, given the brevity of this work it would probably be a lot to expect it to.
However, it falls short in a few ways. For one, I am deeply skeptical of the scope and broadness of the idea of strategic design. It's so amorphous in the way it's described that it often feels like a way for designers to larp as someone with influence like a policy maker or entrepreneur while still retaining the title and aesthetic of a designer. Why not simply be an entrepreneur or a policy maker with designer and systems thinking sensibilities?
I think stretching the more conventional conception of design to this degree is hubristic, and can ultimately hurt the perception field of design because the lofty goals of strategic design are simply unrealistic. If you want proof of this, simply look at how the highlighted opportunity areas in the public sphere have progressed. We have the benefit now of looking back on how strategic design has ripened as a field and performed this past decade.
It also doesn't provide much guidance on how to develop the skills of a strategic designer outside of loosely defining some desired qualities, mainly systems, strategic thinking, and maybe the ability to prototype? Although to be fair, given the brevity of this work it would probably be a lot to expect it to.
October 18, 2020
Must read for designers or anyone who has engaged in design training. Definitely put the thoughts I've had for years on papers (in a much more eloquent manner) about how design should not be confined to projects that are essentially "putting lipstick on a pig." If designers held positions in public institutions and had the power to use their strategic design toolkit/mindset to address structural/systemic issues that plague our societies, we'd all be much better off. The only reason I didn't give it five stars is because I was having trouble discerning the difference between the five different "plays", and his points about the Nordic Model being used as a case study didn't seem to track with the rest of the book. I am glad he pointed out that "design thinking" has become a buzzword that management consults use to puff themselves up. As someone who went through four years of training, I can't take people seriously that think they can use "design thinking" to address their project when they've taken one, three unit seminar about it in their MBA program.
I would say that this book might be a little hard to digest if you haven't been exposed to any material on design or strategic and systems thinking.
I would say that this book might be a little hard to digest if you haven't been exposed to any material on design or strategic and systems thinking.
June 28, 2024
This book thinks bigger than most books on this topic: it's not about apps or websites, but about how everything is design, and how designers can effectuate real change by applying strategic design - not just online. That sounds very complex, but the book is to the point and the definitions are concise. Although it did jump to conclusions at times, it certainly helped me getting a better grasp of the concept of strategic design.
April 21, 2025
"Dark Matter and Trojan Horses: A Strategic Design Vocabulary" is an interesting read for whom wants to know more about strategic design. Even though it is an introductory text to the complexity of the strategy aspect of the discipline it outlines several of the current challenges that design is facing now and probably will face in the future. I would recommend it to design professionals who want to steer their design practice towards strategy too.
September 5, 2021
At some point in a design leader's career, he/she will need to read this book to understand where a life of design leads. It's challenging and convicting what Hill proposes, that design has the power to change organizations and cultures. He encourages the design community to think beyond the pretty pixels and even successfully critiques design thinking.
March 8, 2020
Nice short and good description of strategic design embedded in the current cultural and political situation. I really love the analogy to dark matter, it is very fitting. A little bit to much focus on urban planning and civil service
August 23, 2018
"we need to believe that reorienting our various cultures of decision-making may be the only civilised way forward."
November 18, 2020
I found the book incoherent. It may have some interesting metaphors.
September 27, 2021
Read for school- interesting theories but didn't keep me too engaged.
February 1, 2023
Read for work — found it very interesting and quick read 👍🏼
February 28, 2016
Dan Hill gets to the heart of a meaningful frame & vocabulary for the type of design that deals with the messiest of societal / systemic problems. Includes quick case studies to illustrate major themes and a slightly self-referential set of definitions for the realm of strategic design. I want to hear more about embedded design practices taking the strategic design approach, and the outcomes of their efforts. Recommended as a higher level systems point of view for anyone thinking critically about driving real change in delivering products / services, or in a planning field.
January 14, 2013
I enjoyed this up until a point. Some very good thoughts about society and a designers role in applying design at a higher strategic level than we do but around half way I found the going tough and it seemed to get bogged down in too many examples. Reading it on the iPhone Kindle app didn't help as the screen is too small for reading.
December 28, 2014
This book was so relevant to the things I experience as a designer at Microsoft. I often tell people that designing for a canonical software product like Excel is more like urban planning than any other form of design. Dan Hill lays out a vocabulary and framework for thinking about how best to affect change when designing for large, complicated systems.
January 28, 2013
Brilliant little book that makes the case for designers doing more than making things pretty. I especially found it useful to frame the things we had already been doing as activists into terminology that makes it easier to communicatie and apply.
August 27, 2013
easy to understand, powerful ideas, excellent primer for role of strategic design in transforming organizations. makes clear the need for both powerful theory and rooted projects and ways to transition back and forth between the two
December 6, 2016
Fascinating theoretical framework, and explored in some very unique design contexts, but I wish it was taken to more critical ends. This book has opened up excellent room to explore, a topic it could not possibly cover in its short scope.
September 20, 2014
A great primer on the reach of Design as a practice, its struggle in leveraging capital to earn a seat at the table of problem solving, and how "Design thinking" was a complete failure.
July 29, 2015
I already want to read it again. It gives you a wonderful vocabulary to use as a designer who works outside of only the field of graphics.
May 31, 2015
Must read for everyone who are interested in the next step following DesignThinking.
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January 19, 2017Apr 19 - Megan
September 6, 2016
Excellent, well-argued and grounded primer on design in the broadest sense. Very good mix of theory and practical tips. Loved cheeky football references too. Go read!
November 22, 2020
A well written, short read for anyone interested in systems thinking and strategic design. Provides a critical view of design thinking with some great case studies sprinkled throughout.
Read
December 30, 2017An interesting approach on design thinking, more an introduction with examples of ways to approach design thinking.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews