Making Complexity Understandable.
Helping people see the hidden systems that shape communication, adaptation, and change.
The world’s greatest challenges rarely fit neatly within a single discipline.
Climate adaptation. Artificial intelligence. Public health. Organizational change. Community resilience.
These challenges emerge through the relationships among people, technology, institutions, and the environments they inhabit.
My work explores how communication, design, and systems thinking help people understand complexity, strengthen trust, and translate knowledge into meaningful action.
Whether through research, writing, teaching, or speaking, my goal is simple:
Help people see the systems they couldn’t see before.
Design Ecology – A Different Way of Seeing
Design Ecology is an interdisciplinary framework for understanding how communication, design, environments, and human behavior interact across complex systems.
Rather than studying individual problems in isolation, design ecology asks how relationships between people, information, institutions, technology, and place create the conditions for adaptation—or prevent it.
It is a way of making the invisible visible.
Research Themes
Exploring the Systems That Shape Human Experience
My research sits at the intersection of communication, environmental systems, organizational learning, and human-centered design.
Communication, Meaning & Designed Systems
How do people decide what information to trust, what actions to take, and what places, organizations, or technologies mean?
Environmental Health & Risk Communication
How can communication improve decision-making under uncertainty while strengthening trust and adaptive capacity?
Resilience & Adaptation
Why do some communities and organizations learn and adapt while others struggle?
Research Translation & Public Understanding
How does knowledge become action?
BOOKS
Books That Bridge Research and Practice
From design education to systems thinking and communication, my books are written to help students, young professionals, and future leaders connect ideas with action.
SPEAKING
Conversations That Build Understanding
I speak with universities, organizations, government agencies, nonprofits, and professional groups about communication, organizational and community resilience, design ecology, environmental symbology, and research translation.
My presentations combine research, storytelling, and practical frameworks that help audiences think differently about the challenges they face.
About
About Lindsay Tan
I am an interdisciplinary researcher, educator, and author whose work explores how communication, design, and human behavior interact across complex systems.
My research spans strategic communication, Design Ecology, environmental symbology, One Health, resilience, human-computer interaction, and research translation, with a common goal of helping people understand complexity and make better decisions together.
Better Questions. Better Understanding. Better Decisions.
The future belongs to people who can connect ideas across disciplines, communicate across boundaries, and design systems that help people adapt.