Design thinking

The educational technology and digital learning wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Draft

Introduction

Design thinking is a concept used in many contexts and it is rather ill-defined. Most often it is used to describe a king of design methodology. Dorst (1997) [1], distinguishes two paradigms of current design methodology: design seen as a rational problem solving process and design considered as a reflective practice.

According to Callahan (2019)[2], “Researchers have conducted studies inside and outside the design fields to improve understanding and control of the design process. Within the design fields, these researcher seek to understand the nonverbal processes of designers and how these processes are linked to design theory and practice. Outside the fields, the desire to understand the design process is driven by a need to harness its innovative power. The term “design thinking” links these two approaches to the investigation of design.”

Design thinking usually implies a user-centered approach that includes prototyping. There are similarities between design thinking initiatives in larger organizations and the "maker" movement. Design thinking is not the same as design science. Within design science one can find various types of design thinking, but design thinking also exists in other areas, e.g. management and, more recently, education.

Sometimes, design thinking is presented as an answer to current complicated problems. Brown (2008) [3] concludes: “No matter where we look, we see problems that can be solved only through innovation [..] These problems all have people at their heart. They require a human-centered, creative, iterative,and practical approach to finding the best ideas and ultimate solutions. Design thinking is just such an approach to innovation.”

Design thinking in business

Design thinking probably originated in product design, but then spread to other areas, e.g. business: “Design thinking, first used to make physical objects, is increasingly being applied to complex, in-tangible issues, such as how a customer experiences a service. Regardless of the context, design thinkers tend to use physical models, also known as design artifacts, to explore, define, and communicate. Those models—primarily diagrams and sketches—supplement and in some cases replace the spread-sheets, specifications, and other documents that have come to define the traditional organizational environment. They add a fluid dimension to the exploration of complexity, allowing for nonlinear thought when tackling nonlinear problems.” (Harvard Busisness Review) [4]. Another example of more interest to educational technology is also described by Kolko [4]: “The MIT Media Lab formalizes this in its motto, “Demo or die,” which recognizes that only the act of prototyping can transform an idea into something truly valuable—on their own, ideas are a dime a dozen.”.

Prototyping is only one aspect of design thinking in business organizations, the other, related, refers to more flexible ways of thinking.

Design thinking can be linked to innovation. According to management scholars Carlgren, Rauth, & Elmquist, M. (2016)[5]. “The innovation potential in design has been highlighted by several scholars (Bruce & Bessant, 2002; Von Stamm, 2003, 2004; Perks, Cooper, & Jones, 2005; Borja de Mozota, 2010).”. The authors also point out that “In the managerial discourse, DT typically does not refer to classic design disciplines such as engineering design, industrial design or communication design; rather it is presented as a general human‐centred approach to problem solving, creativity and innovation (e.g., Brown, 2008, p. 92). [3][..] Roger Martin (2006) [6] argues that companies should become more like design shops, with the main emphasis on the cognitive processes of designers, which in his view could also help managers. Martin describes these processes as ‘integrative thinking’, which is a way of thinking that ‘combines the generation of new ideas’ (abductive logic) ‘with their analysis and evaluation of how they apply’ (deductive, inductive logic) (Dunne & Martin, 2006, p. 518). [7]”

According to Carlgren et al. [5]“Despite the ambiguity in these main works (e.g., discipline vs. approach vs. way of thinking), several renowned universities such as Rotman School of Management and Stanford University have introduced DT programmes [..] The d.school at Stanford University (2010), which has been partly credited for the spread of DT, has proposed a stepwise, iterative process framework which is often depicted as a sequence of activities that can be interpreted as linear: empathize (data collection based on, for example, ethnographic studies), define (data synthesis to gain a refined problem understanding), ideate (suggest ideas for solving the problem), prototype (develop tangible and experienceable representations of the ideas) and test (with potential users).”

Carlgren, Rauth, & Elmquist, M. (2016)[5] conclude their 2015 literature review with a critical summary:

  • Many representations of design thinking in the literature are vague and ambiguous
  • They either focus on design thinking as an abductive way to problem solving or some "typical process"

As result of their empirical study of five organizations that claim to use design thinking, the authors [5] found five themes that define design thinking and that can be associated with sets of principles (mindsets), practices and techniques. We summarize the table on page 50:

  • User focus: empathy building, deep user understanding and user involvement.
  • Problem Framing: widen, challenge and reframe it.
  • Visualization: making ideas tangible by means of low‐resolution representations or mock‐ups of ideas or solutions.
  • Experimentation: testing and trying things out in an iterative way,
  • Diversity: encompassing collaboration in diverse teams, and the integration of diverse outside perspectives

Types of design thinking

Johansson-Sköldberg et al. (2013). [8] distinguish five types of design thinking. Quotes below are from the online version of their article.

1. Design and designerly thinking as the creation of artefacts (Simon, 1969) [9] “Simon understood ‘design’ to encompass all conscious activities to create artefacts, and thereby differentiated it from natural science, social science and humanities – but not from engineering. [..] His point of departure was that design [research] is about creation, while other sciences deal with what already exists.”

2. Design and designerly thinking as a reflexive practice (Schön, 1983).[10] “In contrast to Simon, Schön constructed a picture of the designer through a practice‐based focus on the relation between creation and reflection‐upon‐the‐creation that allows for constantly improved competence and re‐creation.”

3. Design and designerly thinking as a problem‐solving activity (Buchanan, 1992 based on Rittel and Webber, 1973). [11], [12] “Buchanan introduced the concept of placements to describe the process of contextualization. Placements are ‘tools’ for intuitively or deliberately shaping a design situation, identifying the views of all participants, the issues of concern, and the intervention that becomes a working hypothesis for exploration and development, thereby letting the problem formulation and solution go hand in hand rather than as sequential steps.”

4. Design and designerly thinking as a way of reasoning/making sense of things (Lawson, 2006 [1980]; Cross, 2006, 2011)[13], [14]. [15] “Cross works from ethnographic research to reveal what designers do during the activity of designing, while Lawson draws on the psychology of creative design processes to turn his research knowledge into forms designers can use.”

5. Design and designerly thinking as creation of meaning (Krippendorff, 2006).[16] “Krippendorff's ‘science for design’, [is a] ‘a systematic collection of accounts of successful design practices, design methods, and their lessons, however abstract, codified or theorized, whose continuous rearticulation and evaluation within the design community amounts to a self‐reflective reproduction of the design profession’ (2006: 209).”

Design thinkers

Tim Brown (2008) [3], in this most cited management article, defines the following design thinker's personality profile:

  • Dmpathy: image the world from others' multiple perspectives
  • Integrative thinking: see all aspects, including contradictory ones
  • Optimisme: at least one potential solution is better than none
  • Experimentalism: pose new questions and proceed in different directions
  • Collaboration: the best thinkers have experience in more than one domain.

Razzouk & Shute (2012) [17], based on a literature review, defined design thinking (DT) competence map. At the top level, the map identifies demonstrate DT skills, use DT terminology and Employ DT behavior. DT skills are divided into locate and use resources, iterate diagrams and innovative design which are then further divided into sub and sub-sub dimensions, totalling 26 items.

Design thinking in education

Design thinking in education has three related aspects: Use design thinking for systemic innovations, use design thinking as an educational approach and teach design thinking.

Design thinking for innovation

Design thinking as pedagogic design model

von Thienen, Royalty and Meinel (2017) [18] introduce design thinking as an approach to enhance creative problem-solving and collaboration skills. “It is a problem-based learning paradigm that builds on three pillars: A creative problem solving process, creative work-spaces and collaboration in multi-perspective teams.”

Teaching design thinking

Bibliography

Cited with footnotes

  1. ↑ Buchanan, R. (2006). Wicked Problems in Design Thinking. Design Issues, 8(2), 5. https://doi.org/10.2307/1511637
  2. ↑ Callahan, K. C. (2019). Design Thinking in Curricula. In The International Encyclopedia of Art and Design Education (pp. 1–6). Hoboken, NJ, USA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118978061.ead069
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Brown, T. (2008) Design Thinking. Harvard Business Review, 86, 84–92.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Kolko, Jon (2015), Design thinking comes of Age, Harvard Business Review, September 2015. https://enterprisersproject.com/sites/default/files/design_thinking_comes_of_age.pdf, https://hbr.org/2015/09/design-thinking-comes-of-age
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Carlgren, L., Rauth, I., & Elmquist, M. (2016). Framing Design Thinking: The Concept in Idea and Enactment. Creativity and Innovation Management, 25(1), 38–57. https://doi.org/10.1111/caim.12153
  6. ↑ Dunne, D. and Martin, R. (2006) Design Thinking and How It Will Change Management Education: An Interview and Discussion. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 5, 512–23.
  7. ↑ Dunne, D. and Martin, R. (2006) Design Thinking and How It Will Change Management Education: An Interview and Discussion. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 5, 512–23.
  8. ↑ Johansson-Sköldberg, U., Woodilla, J., & Çetinkaya, M. (2013). Design Thinking: Past, Present and Possible Futures. Creativity and Innovation Management, 22(2), 121–146. https://doi.org/10.1111/caim.12023
  9. ↑ Simon, H. (1969) The Sciences of the Artificial, 1st edn. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
  10. ↑ Schön, D. A., & Wiggins, G. (1992). Kinds of Seeing in Designing. Creativity and Innovation Management, 1(2), 68–74. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8691.1992.tb00031.x
  11. ↑ Buchanan, R. (2006). Wicked Problems in Design Thinking. Design Issues, 8(2), 5. https://doi.org/10.2307/1511637
  12. ↑ Rittel, H. and Webber, M. (1973) Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning. Policy Sciences, 5, 155–169.
  13. ↑ Cross, N. (2006) Designerly Ways of Knowing. Springer Verlag, London.
  14. ↑ Cross, N. (2011) Design Thinking. Berg, Oxford.
  15. ↑ Lawson, B. (2006 [1980]) How Designers Think: The Design Process Demyistfied, 4th edn. Architectual Press, Oxford.
  16. ↑ Krippendorff, K. (2006) The Semantic Turn: A New Foundation for Design. Taylor and Francis, Boca Raton, FL.
  17. ↑ Razzouk, R., & Shute, V. (2012). What Is Design Thinking and Why Is It Important? Review of Educational Research, 82(3), 330–348. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654312457429
  18. ↑ von Thienen, J., Royalty, A., & Meinel, C. (2017). Design Thinking in Higher Education: How students become dedicated creative problem solvers. In C. Zhou (Ed.), Handbook of research on creative problem-solving skill development in higher education (pp. 306–328). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-0643-0.ch014

Other

Items retrieved from From Doing to Thinking: The Role of Reflection and Self-Regulated Learning in Developing the Design Thinking Mindset


  • Koh, J.H.L., C.S. Chai, B. Wong, and H.-Y. Hong, Design thinking and education, in Design Thinking for Education. 2015, Springer. p. 1-15.
  • Scheer, A., C. Noweski, and C. Meinel, Transforming constructivist learning into action: Design thinking in education. Design and Technology Education: An International Journal, 2012. 17(3).
  • Dunne, D. and R. Martin, Design thinking and how it will change management education: An interview and discussion. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 2006. 5(4): p. 512-523.
  • Dym, C.L., A.M. Agogino, O. Eris, D.D. Frey, and L.J. Leifer, Engineering design thinking, teaching, and learning. Journal of engineering education, 2005. 94(1): p. 103-120.
  • Brown, T. and J. Wyatt, Design thinking for social innovation. Development Outreach, 2010. 12(1): p. 29-43.
  • Owen, C., Design thinking: Notes on its nature and use. Design Research Quarterly, 2007. 2(1): p. 16-27.
  • Razzouk, R. and V. Shute, What is design thinking and why is it important? Review of Educational Research, 2012. 82(3): p. 330-348.
  • Beckman, S.L. and M. Barry, Innovation as a learning process: Embedding design thinking. California management review, 2007. 50(1): p. 25-56.
  • Seidel, V.P. and S.K. Fixson, Adopting design thinking in novice multidisciplinary teams: The application and limits of design methods and reflexive practices. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 2013. 30: p. 19-33.
  • Wiggins, G.P. and J. McTighe, Understanding by Design. 2005, Alexandria, VA: ASCD Publications.
  • Bailey, R. and Z. Szabo, Assessing engineering design process knowledge. International Journal of Engineering Education, 2007. 22(3): p. 508.
  • Kudrowitz, B.M. and D. Wallace, Assessing the quality of ideas from prolific, early-stage product ideation. Journal of Engineering Design, 20 13. 24(2): p. 120-139.
  • Hicks, B.J., S.J. Culley, R.D. Allen, and G. Mullineux, A framework for the requirements of capturing, storing and reusing information and knowledge in engineering design. International journal of information management, 2002. 22(4): p. 263-280.
  • Andersen, A., Implementation of engineering product design using international student teamwork—to comply with future needs. European Journal of Engineering Education, 2001. 26(2): p. 179-186.
  • Estell, J.K. and J. Hurtig. Using rubrics for the assessment of senior design projects. in Proceedings of the 2006 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition: Excellence in Education. 2006.
Retrieved from "https://edutechwiki.unige.ch/mediawiki/index.php?title=Design_thinking&oldid=71420"