Design thinking
Encyclopedia
Design Thinking refers to the methods and processes for investigating ill-defined problems, acquiring information, analyzing knowledge, and positing solutions in the design and planning fields. As a style of thinking, it is generally considered the ability to combine empathy for the context of a problem, creativity in the generation of insights and solutions, and rationality to analyze and fit solutions to the context. While design thinking has become part of the popular lexicon in contemporary design and engineering practice, as well as business and management, its broader use in describing a particular style of creative thinking-in-action is having an increasing influence on twenty-first century education across disciplines. In this respect, it is similar to systems thinking
in naming a particular approach to understanding and solving problems.
Currently, there is a momentum to create awareness about design thinking among designers and other professions by teaching design thinking in higher education. The premise is that by knowing about the process and the methods that designers use to ideate, and by understanding how designers approach problems to try to solve them, individuals and businesses will be better able to connect with and invigorate their ideation processes in order to take innovation to a higher level. The hope is to create a competitive advantage in today’s global economy.
While in retrospect much design activity of the 20th century (and earlier) can be considered "design thinking," the term first emerged prominently in the 1980s with the rise of human-centered design. The notion of design as a "way of thinking" can be traced in the sciences
to Herbert Simon
's 1969 book The Sciences of the Artificial, and more specifically in design engineering to Robert McKim's 1973 book Experiences in Visual Thinking. Rolf Faste
expanded McKim's work in the 80s and 90s in his teaching at Stanford, defining and popularizing the idea of "design thinking" as a way of creative action that was adapted for business purposes by IDEO
through his colleague David M. Kelley
. Peter Rowe's 1987 book Design Thinking was the first noteworthy usage of the term in the literature on design, providing a systematic account of problem solving procedures used by architects and urban planners. The 1992 article by Richard Buchanan titled "Wicked Problems in Design Thinking" expressed a broader view of design thinking that has been highly influential with regard to addressing intractable human concerns through design. Today there is considerable academic and business interest in understanding design thinking and design cognition, including an ongoing series of symposia
on research in design thinking.
resolution of problems or issues that looks for an improved future result. In this regard it is a form of solution-based, or solution-focused thinking that starts with the goal or what is meant to be achieved instead of starting with a certain problem. Then, by focusing on the present and the future, the parameters of the problem and the resolutions are explored, simultaneously. This type of thinking most often happens in the built environment, also referred to as the artificial environment (as in artifacts).
This differs from the scientific method
which starts with defining all the parameters of the problem in order to define the solution. Rather, the design way of problem solving starts with a solution in order to start to define enough of the parameters to optimize the path to the goal. The solution, then, is actually the starting point.
For example, a client might come to an architect’s firm after having seen one of the houses they built. Having bought the perfect piece of land, the client may ask for the same “perfect” house. The architect then has a solution as a starting point to flesh out the many parameters (of site slope, facing, views, familial needs, future needs, etc.) in order to create new resolutions within the original scope for the considerations of this new client, new site, needs, wants, codes, etc.
Lawson found that:
The scientists adopted a technique of trying out a series of designs which used as many different blocks and combinations of blocks as possible as quickly as possible. Thus they tried to maximize the information available to them about the allowed combinations. If they could discover the rule governing which combinations of blocks were allowed they could then search for an arrangement which would optimize the required color around the design. By contrast, the architects selected their blocks in order to achieve the appropriately colored perimeter. If this proved not to be an acceptable combination, then the next most favorably colored block combination would be substituted and so on until an acceptable solution was discovered.
Nigel Cross concludes from Lawson’s studies that scientific problem solving is done by analysis, while designers problem solve through synthesis.
analysis requires a subsequent synthesis in order to verify and correct its results.
This is not to say that Design Thinking does not use analysis to inform the final solution, however the approach of a Design Thinker in terms of problem solving is from a the perspective of the end goal. The architects in The Blocks Experiment worked the problem from creating coherent wholes to find the optimum solution rather than breaking the problem down into its parts as in the engineers’ approach.
and convergent thinking
to explore many possible solutions. Divergent thinking is the ability to offer different, unique or variant ideas adherent to one theme while convergent thinking is the ability to find the “correct” solution to the given problem. Design thinking encourages divergent thinking to ideate many solutions (possible or impossible) and then uses convergent thinking to prefer and realize the best resolution.
is encouraged in these earlier processes since this can often lead to creative solutions.
An example of a design thinking process could have seven stages: define, research, ideate, prototype, choose, implement, and learn. Within these seven steps, problems can be framed, the right questions can be asked, more ideas can be created, and the best answers can be chosen. The steps aren't linear; they can occur simultaneously and can be repeated.
Although design is always subject to personal taste, design thinkers share a common set of values that drive innovation: these values are mainly creativity, ambidextrous thinking, teamwork, end-user focus, curiosity.
For wicked problems, the general thrust of the problem may be clear, however considerable time and effort is spent in order to clarify the requirements. A large part of the problem solving activity, then, consists of problem definition and problem shaping
.
The A-Ha Moment is usually described as a gut feeling. As designers move from novice to expert in their field, the exact point where the A-Ha Moment occurs is increasingly recognizable. This happens through the practice of actual doing and the reflection upon their personal design process.
Fear keeps a designer from the actual doing of using their methods and process to achieve goals. Both are internal psychological hesitations that can distract the designer from creating or focusing on solutions by shifting the focus, instead, to doubts of self-worth, anxieties of “will it be good enough,” or procrastinations.
Resistance can be encountered through internal psychological disruptions. Resistance stops design thinking by confusing the goal with all sorts of other things that need to be done first. Resistance shifts the focus from solutions and ways to get to those solutions to anything other than realization. Resistance can also be encountered through other people. Donald Schön talks about the resistance of students towards their professors and the resistance of professors towards students in the learning process.
The Devil’s Advocate is that one person who never has anything productive to say, but immediately knows and voices exactly why every initially proposed solution will not work. This personality goes further than critical thinking and analysis into negative criticism. This person has the ability to kill projects by shifting the focus from potential solutions to hypercritical problems that might not even matter in the end. The goal of this person is to stop any further ideation towards a solution, and ought to be banned from the room.
Design Methods
are all the techniques, rules or ways of doing things that are employed by a design discipline. Some of these methods for Design Thinking include creating user profiles, looking at and understanding other designer’s solutions, creating prototypes or study models, mind-mapping, asking the five-whys to get to a crux of the problem, site-analysis, etc.
Design Process is the way in which the methods come together through a series of actions, events or steps. There is no solitary process that can define Design Thinking. There are as many different design processes as there are designers multiplied by design problems.
Many of the early Design Processes stemmed from Soft Systems Methodology in the 1960s. Koberg and Bagnall’s wrote The All New Universal Traveller in 1972 and showcase a circular seven-step process to problem-solving; although they also proposed that these seven steps could be done lineally or in feed-back loops. Stanford’s D. School came up with an updated seven step process in 2007. In between there has been many different proposed design processes including a three-step simplified triangular process (or the six-part, less simplified pyramid) by Bryan Lawson or any of the processes documented in Hugh Dubberly’s e-book How Do You Design: A compendium of models.
One of the first Design Science
theorists, John Chris Jones
, postulated that design is different than the arts, sciences and mathematics in the 1970s. In response to the question ‘is designing an art, a science or a form of mathematics’ he says:
The main point of difference is that of timing. Both artists and scientists operate on the physical world as it exists in the present (whether it is real or symbolic), while mathematicians operate on abstract relationships that are independent of historical time. Designers, on the other hand, are forever bound to treat as real that which exists only in an imagined future and have to specify ways in which the foreseen thing can be made to exist.
Design can be seen at its own culture in education with its own methodologies and ways of thinking that can be systematically taught in both K-12 and higher education. Nigel Cross sets out to show the differences between the humanities, the sciences, and design in his paper Designerly Ways of Knowing. He shows that:
or an object language. Symbols, signs, and metaphors are used through the medium of sketching, diagrams and technical drawings to translate abstract requirements into concrete objects. The way designers communicate, then, is through understanding this way of coding design requirements in order to produce built products.
The first has been described by Tim Brown
, CEO of IDEO
, at a TED
lecture, though his blog also considers an element of the second.
In organization and management theory, design thinking forms part of the Architecture/Design/Anthropology (A/D/A) paradigm, which characterizes innovative, human-centered enterprises. This paradigm also focuses on a collaborative and iterative style of work and an abductive mode of thinking, compared to practices associated with the more traditional Mathematics/Economics/Psychology (M/E/P) management paradigm.
Companies that integrate the principles of design thinking in their innovation processes often share a certain mindset or are striving to cultivate a more creative and human-centred company culture.
Faste, Rolf, "The Human Challenge in Engineering Design." International Journal of Engineering Education, vol 17, 2001.
Kelly, Tom. Ten Faces of Innovation. London: Profile, 2006.
Lockwood, Thomas. Design Thinking: Integrating Innovation, Customer Experience and Brand Value. New York, NY: Allworth, 2010.
Martin, Roger L. The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win through Integrative Thinking. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School, 2007.
Nelson, George. How to See: a Guide to Reading Our Man-made Environment. San Francisco, CA: Design Within Reach, 2006.
Pink, Daniel H. A Whole New Mind: Why Right-brainers Will Rule the Future. New York: Riverhead, 2006.
Rittel, Horst, and Melvin Webber. "Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning." Policy Sciences 4.2 (1973): 155-69.
Schön, Donald. Educating the Reflective Practitioner. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc., 1987.
Systems thinking
Systems thinking is the process of understanding how things influence one another within a whole. In nature, systems thinking examples include ecosystems in which various elements such as air, water, movement, plants, and animals work together to survive or perish...
in naming a particular approach to understanding and solving problems.
Currently, there is a momentum to create awareness about design thinking among designers and other professions by teaching design thinking in higher education. The premise is that by knowing about the process and the methods that designers use to ideate, and by understanding how designers approach problems to try to solve them, individuals and businesses will be better able to connect with and invigorate their ideation processes in order to take innovation to a higher level. The hope is to create a competitive advantage in today’s global economy.
Origins of the Term
(For a detailed evolution, see History, below)While in retrospect much design activity of the 20th century (and earlier) can be considered "design thinking," the term first emerged prominently in the 1980s with the rise of human-centered design. The notion of design as a "way of thinking" can be traced in the sciences
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
to Herbert Simon
Herbert Simon
Herbert Alexander Simon was an American political scientist, economist, sociologist, and psychologist, and professor—most notably at Carnegie Mellon University—whose research ranged across the fields of cognitive psychology, cognitive science, computer science, public administration, economics,...
's 1969 book The Sciences of the Artificial, and more specifically in design engineering to Robert McKim's 1973 book Experiences in Visual Thinking. Rolf Faste
Rolf Faste
Rolf A. Faste was an American designer who made major contributions to the field of human-centered design and design education. He was director of the Stanford Joint Program in Design from 1984-2003.-Early life and education:...
expanded McKim's work in the 80s and 90s in his teaching at Stanford, defining and popularizing the idea of "design thinking" as a way of creative action that was adapted for business purposes by IDEO
IDEO
IDEO is an international design and innovation consultancy founded in Palo Alto, California, United States with other locations in San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Boston, London, Munich, Shanghai, and Singapore, as well as Mumbai, Seoul, and Tokyo. The company helps design products, services,...
through his colleague David M. Kelley
David M. Kelley
David M. Kelley is an American businessman, entrepreneur, designer, engineer, and teacher. He is founder, chairman, and managing partner of the design firm IDEO and a professor at Stanford University. He has received several honors for his contributions to design and design education.-Personal...
. Peter Rowe's 1987 book Design Thinking was the first noteworthy usage of the term in the literature on design, providing a systematic account of problem solving procedures used by architects and urban planners. The 1992 article by Richard Buchanan titled "Wicked Problems in Design Thinking" expressed a broader view of design thinking that has been highly influential with regard to addressing intractable human concerns through design. Today there is considerable academic and business interest in understanding design thinking and design cognition, including an ongoing series of symposia
Academic conference
An academic conference or symposium is a conference for researchers to present and discuss their work. Together with academic or scientific journals, conferences provide an important channel for exchange of information between researchers.-Overview:Conferences are usually composed of various...
on research in design thinking.
Solution-Based Thinking
Design thinking is a methodology for practical, creativeCreativity
Creativity refers to the phenomenon whereby a person creates something new that has some kind of value. What counts as "new" may be in reference to the individual creator, or to the society or domain within which the novelty occurs...
resolution of problems or issues that looks for an improved future result. In this regard it is a form of solution-based, or solution-focused thinking that starts with the goal or what is meant to be achieved instead of starting with a certain problem. Then, by focusing on the present and the future, the parameters of the problem and the resolutions are explored, simultaneously. This type of thinking most often happens in the built environment, also referred to as the artificial environment (as in artifacts).
This differs from the scientific method
Scientific method
Scientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of...
which starts with defining all the parameters of the problem in order to define the solution. Rather, the design way of problem solving starts with a solution in order to start to define enough of the parameters to optimize the path to the goal. The solution, then, is actually the starting point.
For example, a client might come to an architect’s firm after having seen one of the houses they built. Having bought the perfect piece of land, the client may ask for the same “perfect” house. The architect then has a solution as a starting point to flesh out the many parameters (of site slope, facing, views, familial needs, future needs, etc.) in order to create new resolutions within the original scope for the considerations of this new client, new site, needs, wants, codes, etc.
Bryan Lawson Architects vs. Engineers, 1979
In 1972, psychologist, architect and design researcher Bryan Lawson created an empirical study to understand the difference between problem-based solvers and solution-based solvers. He took two groups of students – final year students in architecture and post-graduate science students – and asked them to create one-story structures from a set of colored blocks. The perimeter of the building was to optimize either the red or the blue color, however, there were unspecified rules governing the placement and relationship of some of the blocks.Lawson found that:
The scientists adopted a technique of trying out a series of designs which used as many different blocks and combinations of blocks as possible as quickly as possible. Thus they tried to maximize the information available to them about the allowed combinations. If they could discover the rule governing which combinations of blocks were allowed they could then search for an arrangement which would optimize the required color around the design. By contrast, the architects selected their blocks in order to achieve the appropriately colored perimeter. If this proved not to be an acceptable combination, then the next most favorably colored block combination would be substituted and so on until an acceptable solution was discovered.
Nigel Cross concludes from Lawson’s studies that scientific problem solving is done by analysis, while designers problem solve through synthesis.
Analysis versus Synthesis
The terms analysis and synthesis come from (classical) Greek and mean literally "to loosen up" and "to put together" respectively. In general, analysis is defined as the procedure by which we break down an intellectual or substantial whole into parts or components. Synthesis is defined as the opposite procedure: to combine separate elements or components in order to form a coherent whole. However, analysis and synthesis, as scientific methods, always go hand in hand; they complement one another. Every synthesis is built upon the results of a preceding analysis, and everyanalysis requires a subsequent synthesis in order to verify and correct its results.
This is not to say that Design Thinking does not use analysis to inform the final solution, however the approach of a Design Thinker in terms of problem solving is from a the perspective of the end goal. The architects in The Blocks Experiment worked the problem from creating coherent wholes to find the optimum solution rather than breaking the problem down into its parts as in the engineers’ approach.
Divergent Thinking versus Convergent Thinking
Design Thinkers also use divergent thinkingDivergent thinking
Divergent thinking is a thought process or method used to generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions. It is often used in conjunction with convergent thinking, which follows a particular set of logical steps to arrive at one solution, which in some cases is a "correct" solution...
and convergent thinking
Convergent thinking
Convergent thinking is a term coined by Joy Paul Guilford as the opposite of divergent thinking. It generally means the ability to give the "correct" answer to standard questions that do not require significant creativity, for instance in most tasks in school and on standardized multiple-choice...
to explore many possible solutions. Divergent thinking is the ability to offer different, unique or variant ideas adherent to one theme while convergent thinking is the ability to find the “correct” solution to the given problem. Design thinking encourages divergent thinking to ideate many solutions (possible or impossible) and then uses convergent thinking to prefer and realize the best resolution.
Design Thinking as a Process for Problem-Solving
Unlike analytical thinking, design thinking is a creative process based around the "building up" of ideas. There are no judgments early on in design thinking. This eliminates the fear of failure and encourages maximum input and participation in the ideation and prototype phases. Outside the box thinkingThinking outside the box
Thinking outside the box is to think differently, unconventionally, or from a new perspective. This phrase often refers to novel or creative thinking....
is encouraged in these earlier processes since this can often lead to creative solutions.
An example of a design thinking process could have seven stages: define, research, ideate, prototype, choose, implement, and learn. Within these seven steps, problems can be framed, the right questions can be asked, more ideas can be created, and the best answers can be chosen. The steps aren't linear; they can occur simultaneously and can be repeated.
Define
- Decide what issue you are trying to resolve.
- Agree on who the audience is.
- Prioritize this project in terms of urgency.
- Determine what will make this project successful.
- Establish a glossaryGlossaryA glossary, also known as an idioticon, vocabulary, or clavis, is an alphabetical list of terms in a particular domain of knowledge with the definitions for those terms...
of terms.
Research
- Review the history of the issue; remember any existing obstacles.
- Collect examples of other attempts to solve the same issue.
- Note the project supporters, investors, and critics.
- Talk to your end-users, that brings you the most fruitful ideas for later design.
- Take into account thought leaders' opinions.
Ideation
- Identify the needs and motivations of your end-users.
- Generate as many ideas as possible to serve these identified needs.
- Log your brainstormingBrainstormingBrainstorming is a group creativity technique by which a group tries to find a solution for a specific problem by gathering a list of ideas spontaneously contributed by its members...
session. - Do not judge or debate ideas.
- During brainstorming, have one conversation at a time.
Prototype
- Combine, expand, and refine ideas.
- Create multiple drafts.
- Seek feedback from a diverse group of people, include your end users.
- Present a selection of ideas to the client.
- Reserve judgment and maintain neutrality.
- Create and present actual working prototype(s)
Objectives
- Review the objective.
- Set aside emotion and ownership of ideas.
- Avoid consensus thinking.
- Remember: the most practical solution isn't always the best.
- Select the powerful ideas.
Implement
- Make task descriptions.
- Plan tasks.
- Determine resources.
- Assign tasks.
- Execute.
- Deliver to client.
Learn
- Gather feedback from the consumer.
- Determine if the solution met its goals.
- Discuss what could be improved.
- Measure success; collect data.
- Document.
Although design is always subject to personal taste, design thinkers share a common set of values that drive innovation: these values are mainly creativity, ambidextrous thinking, teamwork, end-user focus, curiosity.
Wicked Problems
Design Thinking is a solution-based approach to solving problems, and is especially useful when addressing what design thinkers refer to as Wicked Problems. Wicked problems are wicked in the sense that they are ill-defined or tricky, not wicked in the sense of malicious. For ill-defined problems, both the problem and the solution are unknown at the outset of the problem-solving exercise. This is as opposed to “tame” or “well-defined” problems where the problem is clear, and the solution is available through some technical knowledge.For wicked problems, the general thrust of the problem may be clear, however considerable time and effort is spent in order to clarify the requirements. A large part of the problem solving activity, then, consists of problem definition and problem shaping
Problem shaping
Problem shaping means revising a question so that the solution process can begin or continue.It is part of the larger problem process that includes problem finding and problem solving. Problem shaping often involves the application of critical thinking.Algorithmic approach to technical problems...
.
The A-Ha Moment
The A-Ha Moment is the moment where there is suddenly a clear forward path. It is the point in the cycle where synthesis and divergent thinking, analysis and convergent thinking, and the nature of the problem all come together and an appropriate resolution has been captured. Prior to this point, the process seems nebulous, hazy and inexact. At this point, the path forward is so obvious that in retrospect it seems odd that it took so long to recognize it. After this point, the focus becomes more and more clear as the final product is constructed.The A-Ha Moment is usually described as a gut feeling. As designers move from novice to expert in their field, the exact point where the A-Ha Moment occurs is increasingly recognizable. This happens through the practice of actual doing and the reflection upon their personal design process.
Resistance, Fear and The Devil’s Advocate
For Design Thinking, there are several players who can stop the process. These enemies of Design Thinking are Fear, Resistance and the Devil’s Advocate. These enemies distract from design thinking by stopping creative production by use of unconstructive negativity.Fear keeps a designer from the actual doing of using their methods and process to achieve goals. Both are internal psychological hesitations that can distract the designer from creating or focusing on solutions by shifting the focus, instead, to doubts of self-worth, anxieties of “will it be good enough,” or procrastinations.
Resistance can be encountered through internal psychological disruptions. Resistance stops design thinking by confusing the goal with all sorts of other things that need to be done first. Resistance shifts the focus from solutions and ways to get to those solutions to anything other than realization. Resistance can also be encountered through other people. Donald Schön talks about the resistance of students towards their professors and the resistance of professors towards students in the learning process.
The Devil’s Advocate is that one person who never has anything productive to say, but immediately knows and voices exactly why every initially proposed solution will not work. This personality goes further than critical thinking and analysis into negative criticism. This person has the ability to kill projects by shifting the focus from potential solutions to hypercritical problems that might not even matter in the end. The goal of this person is to stop any further ideation towards a solution, and ought to be banned from the room.
Methods and Process
Design methods and design process are often used interchangeably, but there is a significant difference between the two.Design Methods
Design methods
Design Methods is a broad area that focuses on:* Divergence – Exploring possibilities and constraints of inherited situations by applying critical thinking through qualitative and quantitative research methods to create new understanding toward better design solutions* Transformation – Redefining...
are all the techniques, rules or ways of doing things that are employed by a design discipline. Some of these methods for Design Thinking include creating user profiles, looking at and understanding other designer’s solutions, creating prototypes or study models, mind-mapping, asking the five-whys to get to a crux of the problem, site-analysis, etc.
Design Process is the way in which the methods come together through a series of actions, events or steps. There is no solitary process that can define Design Thinking. There are as many different design processes as there are designers multiplied by design problems.
Many of the early Design Processes stemmed from Soft Systems Methodology in the 1960s. Koberg and Bagnall’s wrote The All New Universal Traveller in 1972 and showcase a circular seven-step process to problem-solving; although they also proposed that these seven steps could be done lineally or in feed-back loops. Stanford’s D. School came up with an updated seven step process in 2007. In between there has been many different proposed design processes including a three-step simplified triangular process (or the six-part, less simplified pyramid) by Bryan Lawson or any of the processes documented in Hugh Dubberly’s e-book How Do You Design: A compendium of models.
Differences from Science and Humanities
Although many design fields have been put in a category somewhere between Science and the Arts and Humanities, it can be seen as its own distinct way of understanding the world based on a culture of solution-based problem solving, problem shaping, synthesis, and appropriateness in the built environment.One of the first Design Science
Design Science
The term design science was introduced in 1963 by R Buckminster Fuller who defined it as a systematic form of designing. Design science was taken up in Gregory’s 1966 book of the 1965 Design Methods conference where he drew the distinction between “design as a science” and the “science of design”...
theorists, John Chris Jones
John Chris Jones
John Christopher Jones is a Welsh designer. He was born in 1927, in Aberystwyth, Wales. He studied engineering at the University of Cambridge, and went on to work for AEI in Manchester, England...
, postulated that design is different than the arts, sciences and mathematics in the 1970s. In response to the question ‘is designing an art, a science or a form of mathematics’ he says:
The main point of difference is that of timing. Both artists and scientists operate on the physical world as it exists in the present (whether it is real or symbolic), while mathematicians operate on abstract relationships that are independent of historical time. Designers, on the other hand, are forever bound to treat as real that which exists only in an imagined future and have to specify ways in which the foreseen thing can be made to exist.
Design can be seen at its own culture in education with its own methodologies and ways of thinking that can be systematically taught in both K-12 and higher education. Nigel Cross sets out to show the differences between the humanities, the sciences, and design in his paper Designerly Ways of Knowing. He shows that:
- The phenomenon of study in each culture is
-
- in the sciences: the natural world
- in the humanities: human experience
- in design: the artificial world
-
- The appropriate methods in each culture are
-
- in the sciences: controlled experiment, classification, analysis
- in the humanities: analogy, metaphor, evaluation
- in design: modeling, pattern-forming, synthesis
-
- The values of each culture are
-
- in the sciences: objectivity, rationality, neutrality, and a concern for ‘truth’
- in the humanities: subjectivity, imagination, commitment, and a concern for ‘justice’
- in design: practicality, ingenuity, empathy , and a concern for ‘appropriateness’
-
The Language of Design
Designers communicate in a visualVisual language
A visual language is a system of communication using visual elements. Speech as a means of communication cannot strictly be separated from the whole of human communicative activity which includes the visual and the term 'language' in relation to vision is an extension of its use to describe the...
or an object language. Symbols, signs, and metaphors are used through the medium of sketching, diagrams and technical drawings to translate abstract requirements into concrete objects. The way designers communicate, then, is through understanding this way of coding design requirements in order to produce built products.
Design Thinking in Business
Design Thinking has two common interpretations in the business world:- Designers bringing their methods into business - by either taking part themselves in business process, or training business people to use design methods.
- Designers achieving innovative outputs, for example: 'the iPod is a great example of design thinking.'
The first has been described by Tim Brown
Tim Brown
Timothy Donell Brown is a former American football wide receiver. He played college football for Notre Dame, where he won the Heisman Trophy, becoming the first wide receiver to win the award. He spent sixteen years with the Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders, during which he established himself as one...
, CEO of IDEO
IDEO
IDEO is an international design and innovation consultancy founded in Palo Alto, California, United States with other locations in San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Boston, London, Munich, Shanghai, and Singapore, as well as Mumbai, Seoul, and Tokyo. The company helps design products, services,...
, at a TED
TED
TED may refer to:* TED , an annual multidisciplinary conference* TED spread, the yield spread between U.S...
lecture, though his blog also considers an element of the second.
In organization and management theory, design thinking forms part of the Architecture/Design/Anthropology (A/D/A) paradigm, which characterizes innovative, human-centered enterprises. This paradigm also focuses on a collaborative and iterative style of work and an abductive mode of thinking, compared to practices associated with the more traditional Mathematics/Economics/Psychology (M/E/P) management paradigm.
Companies that integrate the principles of design thinking in their innovation processes often share a certain mindset or are striving to cultivate a more creative and human-centred company culture.
History
| -1960 | The origins of new design methods in the 1960s lay further back in the application of novel, ‘scientific’ methods to the pressing problems of the 2nd World War from which came operational research methods and management decision-making techniques, and in the development of creativity techniques in the 1950s. |
| 1960s | The beginnings of computer programs for problem solving, the so-called soft-systems approach. The 1960s marked a desire to “scientize” design through use of the computer science soft-systems approach. |
| 1962 | The First ‘Conference on Design Methods,’ London, UK. The first design methods or methodology books start appearing: Asimow (1962), Alexander (1964), Archer (1965), Jones (1970). The first creativity books Gordon (1961), Osborn (1963). |
| 1965 | Bruce Archer, professor of Design Research at the Royal College of Art states – “The most fundamental challenge to conventional ideas on design has been the growing advocacy of systematic methods of problem solving, borrowed from computer techniques and management theory, for the assessment of design problems and the development of design solutions.” |
| 1969 | Herbert Simon Herbert Simon Herbert Alexander Simon was an American political scientist, economist, sociologist, and psychologist, and professor—most notably at Carnegie Mellon University—whose research ranged across the fields of cognitive psychology, cognitive science, computer science, public administration, economics,... notable for his research in artificial intelligence and cognitive sciences establishes a “Science of Design” which would be “a body of intellectually tough, analytic, partly formalizable, partly empirical, teachable doctrine about the design process.” Visual psychologist Rudolf Arnheim publishes his book "Visual Thinking," inspiring the teaching of Robert McKim in the design program at Stanford University Stanford University The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San... . The class McKim creates, "ME101: Visual Thinking," is still taught today. |
| 1970s | Notable for the rejection of design methodology by many, including some of the early pioneers. Christopher Alexander Christopher Alexander Christopher Wolfgang Alexander is a registered architect noted for his theories about design, and for more than 200 building projects in California, Japan, Mexico and around the world... , architect and theorist wrote – “I’ve disassociated myself from the field. There is so little in what is called ‘design methods’ that has anything useful to say about how to design buildings that I never even read the literature anymore. I would say forget it, forget the whole thing.” John Chris Jones John Chris Jones John Christopher Jones is a Welsh designer. He was born in 1927, in Aberystwyth, Wales. He studied engineering at the University of Cambridge, and went on to work for AEI in Manchester, England... , designer and design thinking theorist stated - “In the 1970s I reacted against design methods. I dislike the machine language, the behaviourism, the continual attempt to fix the whole of life into a logical framework.” |
| 1973 | Robert McKim publishes Experiences in Visual Thinking. One important theme in the book is the idea of "Express, Test, Cycle" (or ETC) as an iterative backbone for design process. Horst Rittel Horst Rittel Horst Willhelm Jakob Rittel was a German-born design theorist and university professor. He is best-known Horst Willhelm Jakob Rittel (* 14 July 1930 in Berlin, † 9 July 1990 in Heidelberg) was a German-born design theorist and university professor. He is best-known Horst Willhelm Jakob Rittel (*... and Melvin Webber write Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning showing that design and planning problems are Wicked Problems as opposed to the tame problems of science. Horst Rittel also proposes that the developments of the 1960s had been only ‘first generation’ methods (which naturally, with hindsight, seemed a bit simplistic, but nonetheless had been a necessary beginning) and that a new second generation was beginning to emerge.” This suggestion was clever, because it let the methodologists escape from their commitment to inadequate ‘first generation’ methods, and it opened a vista of an endless future of generation upon generation of new methods. |
| 1979 | Bruce Archer starts off the next decade’s inquiry into designerly ways of knowing stating – “There exists a designerly way of thinking and communicating that is both different from scientific and scholarly ways of thinking and communicating, and as powerful as scientific and scholarly methods of inquiry when applied to its own kinds of problems.” |
| 1980s | Engineering design methodology of the systematic variety developed strongly, the International Conferences on Engineering Design (ICED) forms. Early engineering developments were especially strong in Germany and Japan. Series of books on engineering designs starts to form: Hubka (1982), Pahl and Beitz (1984), French (1985), Cross (1989), and Pugh (1991). Series of Design Journals starts to form: Design Studies in 1979, Design Issues appeared in 1984, and Research in Engineering Design in 1989. Other important developments include: the publications of the Design Methods Group and the continuing series of conferences of the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA). The national Science Foundation initiative on design theory and methods led to substantial growth in engineering design methodology in the late-1980s. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) launched its series of conferences on Design Theory and Methodology. The 1980s also sees the rise of human-centered design and the rise of design-centered business management. |
| 1980 | Bryan Lawson, professor of architecture at University of Sheffield, pens the seminal text How Designers Think about design cognition. |
| 1981 | Nigel Cross, Professor of Design Studies and Editor of Design Studies Journal writes Designerly Ways of Knowing showing Design as its own culture to be taught in schools by contrasting it with Science culture and Arts and Humanities culture. This is based on the idea that “There are things to know, ways of knowing them and ways of finding out about them that is unique to the design fields.” |
| 1983 | Donald Schön Donald Schön Donald Alan Schön was an influential thinker in developing the theory and practice of reflective professional learning in the twentieth century.- Education and career :... , professor and theorist in organizational learning Organizational learning Organizational learning is an area of knowledge within organizational theory that studies models and theories about the way an organization learns and adapts.... , pens his seminal text Educating the Reflective Practicioner in which he sought to establish “an epistemology of practice implicit in the artistic, intuitive processes which [design and other] practitioners bring to situations of uncertainty, instability, uniqueness and value conflict.” |
| 1986 | The business management strategy Six Sigma Six Sigma Six Sigma is a business management strategy originally developed by Motorola, USA in 1986. , it is widely used in many sectors of industry.Six Sigma seeks to improve the quality of process outputs by identifying and removing the causes of defects and minimizing variability in manufacturing and... emerges as a way to streamline the design process for quality control and profit. |
| 1987 | Peter Rowe, professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, pens Design Thinking the first significant usage of the term “Design Thinking” in literature. |
| 1988 | Rolf Faste Rolf Faste Rolf A. Faste was an American designer who made major contributions to the field of human-centered design and design education. He was director of the Stanford Joint Program in Design from 1984-2003.-Early life and education:... , director of the design program at Stanford, creates "Ambidextrous Thinking," a required class for graduate product design majors that extends McKim's process of visual thinking to design as a whole-body "way of doing." |
| 1990s | Ideas of organizational learning and creating nimble businesses come to the forefront. |
| 1991 | IDEO IDEO IDEO is an international design and innovation consultancy founded in Palo Alto, California, United States with other locations in San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Boston, London, Munich, Shanghai, and Singapore, as well as Mumbai, Seoul, and Tokyo. The company helps design products, services,... combines from three industrial design companies. They are one of the first design companies to showcase their design process, which draws heavily on the Stanford curriculum. The firm was the subject on ABC’s American Broadcasting Company The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948... Nightline Nightline Nightline, or ABC News Nightline is a late-night news program broadcast by ABC in the United States, and has a franchised formula to other networks and stations elsewhere in the world. It airs weeknights, usually for 31 minutes. Created by Roone Arledge, the program featured Ted Koppel as its main... in 1999 in an episode called “The Deep Dive.” |
| 1992 | Richard Buchanan's article "Wicked Problems in Design Thinking" is published. |
| 1995 | Ikujiro Nonaka Ikujiro Nonaka is an influential writer and Professor Emeritus at Hitotsubashi University Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy; the First Distinguished Drucker Scholar in Residence at the Drucker School and Institute, Claremont Graduate University; the Xerox Distinguished Faculty Scholar,... writes The Knowledge-Creating Company on how to transfer knowledge from expert to novice within a business based on the work of Michael Polanyi Michael Polanyi Michael Polanyi, FRS was a Hungarian–British polymath, who made important theoretical contributions to physical chemistry, economics, and the theory of knowledge... ’s tacit versus explicit knowledge Explicit knowledge Explicit knowledge is knowledge that has been or can be articulated, codified, and stored in certain media. It can be readily transmitted to others. The information contained in encyclopedias are good examples of explicit knowledge.... . |
| 2000s | The 2000’s have seen a boom in design thinking as the term becomes a buzzword in business. There is a rise of books written for the business sector about how to create a more design-focused workplace where innovation can thrive: Florida (2002), Pink (2006), Martin (2007), Gladwell (2008), Brown (2009), Lockwood (2010). This shift of design thinking away from the design fields and into the business sector sparks a debate about the hijacking and exploitation of design thinking. |
| 2000 | The Rotman School of Management Rotman School of Management The Joseph L. Rotman School of Management commonly known as Rotman School of Management is the University of Toronto's business school, located in St. George Street in Downtown Toronto. The school, named after Joseph L... develops a new model for business education based on Dean Roger Martin Roger Martin Roger Martin is Dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and an author of several business books. Martin has originated several important business concepts in use today, including integrative thinking... ’s use of integrative thinking Integrative thinking Integrative Thinking is a field in Applied Mind Science which was originated by [Graham Douglas] in 1986.-Definition:Integrative thinking is a discipline and methodology for solving complex or wicked problems... for solving wicked problems. |
| 2005 | The Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (or the d.school) forms at Stanford. |
Further reading
Cross, Nigel. Designerly Ways of Knowing. Boston: Birkhauser Verlag AG, 2007.Faste, Rolf, "The Human Challenge in Engineering Design." International Journal of Engineering Education, vol 17, 2001.
Kelly, Tom. Ten Faces of Innovation. London: Profile, 2006.
Lockwood, Thomas. Design Thinking: Integrating Innovation, Customer Experience and Brand Value. New York, NY: Allworth, 2010.
Martin, Roger L. The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win through Integrative Thinking. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School, 2007.
Nelson, George. How to See: a Guide to Reading Our Man-made Environment. San Francisco, CA: Design Within Reach, 2006.
Pink, Daniel H. A Whole New Mind: Why Right-brainers Will Rule the Future. New York: Riverhead, 2006.
Rittel, Horst, and Melvin Webber. "Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning." Policy Sciences 4.2 (1973): 155-69.
Schön, Donald. Educating the Reflective Practitioner. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc., 1987.
See also
- Service DesignService designService design is the activity of planning and organizing people, infrastructure, communication and material components of a service in order to improve its quality and the interaction between service provider and customers....
- Creativity techniquesCreativity techniquesCreativity techniques are methods that encourage creative actions, whether in the arts or sciences. They focus on a variety of aspects of creativity, including techniques for idea generation and divergent thinking, methods of re-framing problems, changes in the affective environment and so on. They...
- Design managementDesign managementDesign Management is a business discipline that uses project management, design, strategy, and supply chain techniques to control a creative process, support a culture of creativity, and build a structure and organisation for design...
- Design methodsDesign methodsDesign Methods is a broad area that focuses on:* Divergence – Exploring possibilities and constraints of inherited situations by applying critical thinking through qualitative and quantitative research methods to create new understanding toward better design solutions* Transformation – Redefining...
- Universal designUniversal designUniversal design refers to broad-spectrum ideas meant to produce buildings, products and environments that are inherently accessible to both people without disabilities and people with disabilities....
- Human centered design
- User experienceUser experienceUser experience is the way a person feels about using a product, system or service. User experience highlights the experiential, affective, meaningful and valuable aspects of human-computer interaction and product ownership, but it also includes a person’s perceptions of the practical aspects such...
- Problem solvingProblem solvingProblem solving is a mental process and is part of the larger problem process that includes problem finding and problem shaping. Consideredthe most complex of all intellectual functions, problem solving has been defined as higher-order cognitive process that requires the modulation and control of...
- Creative Problem Solving ProcessCreative Problem Solving ProcessThe Creative Problem Solving Process , also known as the Osborn-Parnes CPS process, was developed by Alex Osborn and Dr. Sidney J. Parnes in the 1950s. CPS is a structured method for generating novel and useful solutions to problems...
- Lateral thinkingLateral thinkingLateral thinking is solving problems through an indirect and creative approach, using reasoning that is not immediately obvious and involving ideas that may not be obtainable by using only traditional step-by-step logic...
- MetadesignMetadesignMetadesign is an emerging conceptual framework aimed at defining and creating social, economic and technical infrastructures in which new forms of collaborative design can take place...
- Systems thinkingSystems thinkingSystems thinking is the process of understanding how things influence one another within a whole. In nature, systems thinking examples include ecosystems in which various elements such as air, water, movement, plants, and animals work together to survive or perish...
- Wicked problemWicked problem"Wicked problem" is a phrase originally used in social planning to describe a problem that is difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize. Moreover, because of complex interdependencies, the effort to solve...