Analytical Thinking

Analytical thinking Analytical thinking describes a thinking style that enables a person to break down complex information or a series of comprehensive data. It uses a step-by-step method to analyse a problem and then come to an answer or solution. In essence, analytical thinking represents a cause and effect style of looking at a problem, and is sometimes referred to as perceiving something through multiple lenses. An example of analytical thinking involves understanding the relationship between leaves and the colour green. One could ask "Why are leaves green?" and then use analytical thinking skills to tie the answer together. When it comes to analytical thinking, facts are used to build on information and support evidence that leads to a logical conclusion.

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Analytical thinking Involves: Being open minded: Be aware of personal bias/prejudice in yourself and others. Be open to new ideas. Be prepared to consider all possibilities/viewpoints. Be willing to reassess your own views. Aim for balance. Evaluating and identifying: Purpose/motivation Bias/vested interest Facts Opinions Assumptions Incorrect/irrelevant information Missing information Inconsistency Supporting statements Comparing/contrasting. Weighing up. Making judgements Reflecting Reasoning Thinking logically. Developing a reasoned line of argument. Using valid and reliable evidence. Avoiding appeals to the emotions. Being objective. Asking questions: Fundamentally, to demonstrate analytical thinking expected at a higher level, you need to ask lots of questions and be prepared to critique yourself and your designs honestly and without bias.

Analytical thinking analytical thinking is a part of design thinking. Design thinking is a whole process put in place for the purpose of coming up with a design solution, or to innovate. It requires both strong analytical skills and creativity. Analytical thinking is the ability to read/see collected data and make sense of it, identify the problem(s) or trend or insight, whatever the context. Although it is often referred to as design thinking, it is different than design thinking in that design thinking goes further into how you turn that information you learned into a solution with creativity ("thinking outside the box") and design skills (whether it's designing business models or physical products or websites). Design thinking also encompasses being creative about the whole working process itself - creative problem solving.

Differences between thinking Analytic thinking differs from reflective, critical and design thinking in that: Analytical Thinking is step-by-step approach to break down complex problems or processes into their constituents parts, identify causes and effects patterns and analyse problems to arrive to an appropriate solution, whereas: Critical Thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skilfully conceptualizing, applying, analysing, and evaluating information gathered from observation, experience, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. Reflective thinking is a thought process that occurs after a situation, or a learning process. This is the thinking that allows people to make decisions about how they would approach similar situations or create certain things in the future. Although reflective thought may occur in many places, reflection is written commentary where you must show your tutor how and what you have learned from your past learning experiences to inform and improve your (design)practice in the future. Design thinking balances analytical and intuitive thinking. It combines an openness to explorative thoughts with an exploitative mentality, striking the balance between innovation and a systematic scalable process. Analytical thinking is driven by a quantitative (measurable) process, standardising to eliminate judgment, bias, and variation. Intuitive thinking focuses more on an instinct to drive creativity and innovation.

Applying analytical thinking When you are visualising (both for yourself and others), analyse your drawings and outcomes carefully. What is the ‘design problem’ you’ve been trying to address? It is our job to make sure we’re solving the right problem – it may not be the one presented to us by the client on the initial design brief (typically, as you ‘dig deeper’, more issues reveal themselves). Do your drawings reflect this? Or could you have shown some iteration? What was your hypothesis? On reflection, was it correct? (you may have hypothesised that a family was mum and dad, and two kids – all perfectly abled, so your design reflected this). Were you wrong? Does your visualisation reflect some kind of bias based on your own world view?

Applying analytical thinking What facts did you collect? Is this evident in your visualisation? For example, can the person reading your drawings see meaningful information (has merit – not false) that is qualitative (expert opinions) or quantitative (measurable performance) to your decisions? (notes on and about your drawings – light, colour, cosy, homely, etc) When you are critiquing your drawings, the analysis is the deliberate process of breaking a problem down through the application of knowledge. You do this by applying what you know now (of digital tools through your CoC’s). Analysis provides an understanding of issues and drivers behind the problem Knowing what you know now, through careful exploration of all stages of analysis, you should be able to provide a solution, or a range of solutions to improve on your visualisation and communication.

Analysing your design Look over your assignment and ask yourself some questions: Does your visualisation communicate that you defined your problem well? For example, is there some aspects of iteration and/or reflection? Was your original hypothesis accurate, reflecting the needs of your clients? Do you think that your visualisation accurately reflected your clients? Think about how the needs of these people might change if social, economic, physical or other impact might suddenly change. Could you provide a more advanced solution to what you did originally in reflecting your facts? Could there be more texture, renderings, etc to reflect light, shadow, light, colour, etc? Does your analysis reflect your current updated knowledge? For example, are there aspects of your drawing that could be better represented through the use of certain software? What solutions can you offer now that you’ve undertaken your analytical thinking? These solutions might include a re-design, re-analysis, re-presentation, further examination.