Design Thinking

Design thinking Design thinking is essentially taking analytic, reflective and critical thinking and putting it together. For example:

Design thinking Design thinking is integrative: In opposition to analytical thinking, which is about breaking a problem down into constituent elements, design thinking is integrative. It is about taking into account as much at once as one can, as the “solutions” often reside at the intersection of these constituent elements. (This could very well be because any solutions that involved one constituent element have already been picked off by analytical thinking).

Design thinking is iterative: A hallmark of design thinking is refining through a cycles of creating and testing. This can be done with prototypes tested with users, or just ideas that you, yourself, evaluate. During the creating stage, judgments are deferred to prevent stifling the seed of a good idea. But when judging an idea, what criteria should be used? Design thinking is people focused (user/customer/stakeholder-centered): Design thinking is anchored by its commitment to satisfying (and preferably delighting) users, customers, and stakeholders. This commitment provides the basis for judging whether ideas are worthwhile. Let us take a few sentences to explain the user/customer/stakeholder construction. We included “user-centered” and “customer-centered” because it is a fairly common term, but design thinking goes beyond just the direct user to understand the web of people affected by that offering. In the design literature, the term “stakeholders” is more common. Purchases are often influenced by these webs of people, and understanding the needs of these influencers leads to more successful products and services. The stakeholder model is applicable beyond products. It is vital when implementing changes in an organization. Often a division implements an internal change without an eye to how that change may affect other divisions. When other parts of the company push back, change gets stymied. Design thinking

In design thinking: You are dealing with the future: This coming weekend hasn’t happened yet. Circumstances may change. The weather is unpredictable. Cars may breakdown. Friends may call offering unforeseen opportunities. Your thinking is integrative: You are balancing how much time you have; how much money you have; your friends’, spouse’s and kids’ schedules; the availability of tickets; the distance to events and so on. Your thinking is iterative: Think of the conversations that you have while planning. Design thinking

Differences between thinking Design thinking differs from analytic, reflective and critical: 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. 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. 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. 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

Applying design thinking When you are visualising (both for yourself and others), you need to show empathy. Empathy means that you are considering how someone feels, experiences, etc. Put simply, your drawings need to reflect that you understand the human experience of your proposed space Ask others how they interpret your drawings. Pay careful attention to what they say – often it is not what they say, but rather what they don’t say, that is important

Applying design thinking Put yourself in the space, and try and imagine how other people see themselves in the space – does your visualisation communicate the space that you had intended? When you have a design, you need to plan how you might represent your ideas – what is the best tool/medium to portray your design in the best light? Finally, test your drawings and presentation on someone who might be best like your intended client. It’s a great way to get good feedback on your design

Analysing design thinking Look over your assignment and ask yourself some questions: Does your visualisation communicate well (adequately show and reflect) some empathy and understanding of the users of the space, and what it may be like to like there? For example, is your space empty? Does it show light and dark areas? Is the space liveable and a place of comfort and refuge – as a home should be? Do your drawings reflect this? Is there some colour within the space? Or is it devoid of colour? If it is, what might it be like to live in a colourless world? Why did you originally include/exclude colour? Is there lighting in your space? If not, why might the inhabitants live in darkness? Why did you originally include/exclude light/lighting? If you could re-design the space and then use your drawings to reflect elements within the space, how do you think you would configure it, then appropriately convey that in your drawings? These questions should help you examine what you could change or improve your assignment.