Design thinking refers to the set of cognitive, strategic and practical procedures used by designers in the process of designing, and to the body of knowledge that has been developed about how people reason when engaging with design problems.Lawson, Bryan (2006). How Designers Think. Routledge.Cross, Nigel (2011). Design Thinking: Understanding how designers think and work. Bloomsbury/Berg. ISBN 9781847886361.Dorst, Kees (2011). "The core of 'design thinking'and its application". Design Studies. 32 (6).
Design thinking is also associated with prescriptions for the innovation of products and services within business and social contexts.Brown, Tim (2008). Design Thinking. Harvard Business Review, June 2008.
Background Design thinking has a history extending from the 1950s and '60s, with roots in the study of design cognition and design methods. It has also been referred to as "designerly ways of knowing, thinking and acting"Cross, Nigel (2001). "Designerly ways of knowing". Design Studies. 3(4): 221–27. and as "designerly thinking".Johansson‐Sköldberg, Ulla; Woodilla, Jill; Çetinkaya, Mehves (2013). "Design thinking: past, present and possible futures". Creativity and Innovation Management. 22 (2). Many of the key concepts and aspects of design thinking have been identified through studies, across different design domains, of design cognition and design activity in both laboratory and natural contexts.Visser, W. (2006). The Cognitive Artifacts of Designing, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Cross, Nigel.2001, Design Cognition: Results from Protocol and other Empirical Studies of Design Activity, in C. Eastman, M. McCracken and W. Newstatter (eds.) Design Knowing and Learning: Cognition in Design Education, Elsevier, Oxford, pp. 79–103.
The term design thinking has been used to refer to a specific cognitive style (thinking like a designer), a general theory of design (a way of understanding how designers work), and a set of pedagogical resources (through which organisations or inexperienced designers can learn to approach complex problems in a designerly way). See also: The different uses have given rise to some confusion in the use of the term.
As a process of designing An iterative, non-linear process, design thinking includes activities such as context analysis, user testing, problem finding and framing, ideation and solution generating, creative thinking, sketching and drawing, prototyping, and evaluating.
Core features of design thinking include the abilities to: deal with different types of design problems, especially ill-defined and 'wicked' problems adopt solution-focused strategies use abductive and productive reasoning employ non-verbal, graphic/spatial modelling media, for example, sketching and prototyping.Cross, N. (1990) "The Nature and Nurture of Design Ability", Design Studies, 11: 127–140.
Wicked problems
Designing deals with design problems that can be categorized on a spectrum of types of problems from well-defined problems to ill-defined ones to problems that are wickedly difficult. In the 2010s, the category of super wicked global problems emerged as well. Wicked problems have features such as no definitive formulation, no true/false solution, and a wide discrepancy between perspectives on the situation. Horst Rittel introduced the term in the context of design and planning, and with Melvin Webber contrasted this problem type with well-defined or "tame" cases where the problem is clear and the solution available through applying rules or technical knowledge. Rittel contrasted a formal rationalistic "first generation" of design methods in the 1950s and 1960s against the need for a participatory and informally argumentative "second generation" of design methods for the 1970s and beyond that would be more adequate for the complexity of wicked problems.
Problem framing Rather than accept the problem as given, designers explore the given problem and its context and may reinterpret or restructure the given problem in order to reach a particular framing of the problem that suggests a route to a solution.Schön, Donald A. The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. New York: Basic, 1983.Dorst, K. (2011) "The Core of Design Thinking and its Application", Design Studies, 32, 521–532.
Solution-focused thinking In empirical studies of three-dimensional problem solving, Bryan Lawson found architects employed solution-focused cognitive strategies, distinct from the problem-focused strategies of scientists.Lawson, Bryan. 1979. "Cognitive Strategies in Architectural Design". Ergonomics, 22, 59–68 Nigel Cross suggests that "Designers tend to use solution conjectures as the means of developing their understanding of the problem".
Abductive reasoning In the creation of new design proposals, designers have to infer possible solutions from the available problem information, their experience, and the use of non-deductive modes of thinking such as the use of analogies. This has been interpreted as a form of Peirce's abductive reasoning, called innovative abduction.March, L.J. (1984) "The Logic of Design" in The Architecture of Form, Cambridge University Press, UK.Roozenburg, N. (1993) "On the pattern of reasoning in innovative design", Design Studies, 14 (1): 4–18.Kolko, J. (2010) "Abductive Thinking and Sensemaking: Drivers of Design Synthesis", Design Issues, vol. 26, 15–28.
Co-evolution of problem and solution In the process of designing, the designer's attention typically oscillates between their understanding of the problematic context and their ideas for a solution in a process of co-evolution of problem and solution. New solution ideas can lead to a deeper or alternative understanding of the problematic context, which in turn triggers more solution ideas.
Representations and modelling Conventionally, designers communicate mostly in visual or object languages to translate abstract requirements into concrete objects.Cross, Nigel. "Designerly Ways of Knowing". Design Studies 3.4 (1982): 221–27. These 'languages' include traditional sketches and drawings but also extend to computer models and physical prototypes. The use of representations and models is closely associated with features of design thinking such as the generation and exploration of tentative solution concepts, the identification of what needs to be known about the developing concept, and the recognition of emergent features and properties within the representations.Cross, N. 1999. "Natural Intelligence in Design", Design Studies, 20, 25–39.Suwa, M., Gero, J. and Purcell, T. 2000. "Unexpected discoveries and S-invention of design requirements: Important vehicles for a design process". Design Studies, 21, 539–567.
As a process for innovation
A five-phase description of the design innovation process is offered by Plattner, Meinel, and Leifer as: (re)defining the problem, needfinding and benchmarking, ideating, building, and testing. Plattner, Meinel, and Leifer state: "While the stages are simple enough, the adaptive expertise required to choose the right inflection points and appropriate next stage is a high order intellectual activity that requires practice and is learnable."
The process may also be thought of as a system of overlapping spaces rather than a sequence of orderly steps: inspiration, ideation, and implementation.Brown, T. (2008). Design Thinking. Harvard Business Review, June 2008. Projects may loop back through inspiration, ideation, and implementation more than once as the team refines its ideas and explores new directions.Brown, T. Wyatt, J. (2010). Design thinking for social innovation. Stanford Social Innovation Review.
Inspiration Generally, the design innovation process starts with the inspiration phase: observing how things and people work in the real world and noticing problems or opportunities. These problem formulations can be documented in a brief that includes constraints that give the project team a framework from which to begin, benchmarks by which they can measure progress, and a set of objectives to be realized, such as price point, available technology, and market segment.
Empathy
In their book Creative Confidence, Tom and David Kelley note the importance of empathy with clients, users, and customers as a basis for innovative design.Kelley, D. and Kelley, T. (2015) Creative Confidence: Unleashing the creative potential within us all. HarperCollins, USA. Designers approach user research with the goal of understanding their wants and needs, what might make their life easier and more enjoyable and how technology can be useful for them. Empathic design transcends physical ergonomics to include understanding the psychological and emotional needs of people—the way they do things, why and how they think and feel about the world, and what is meaningful to them.
Ideation: divergent and convergent thinking Ideation is idea generation. The process is characterized by the alternation of divergent and convergent thinking, typical of design thinking process.
To achieve divergent thinking, it may be important to involve a diverse group of people in the process. Design teams typically begin with a structured brainstorming process of "thinking outside the box". Convergent thinking, on the other hand, aims to zoom in and focus on different proposals to select the best choice, allowing the design thinking process to continue towards achieving the final goals.
After collecting and sorting many ideas, a team goes through a process of pattern finding and synthesis in which it translates ideas into insights that can lead to solutions or opportunities for change. These might include visions of new product offerings or choices among various ways of creating new experiences.
Implementation and prototyping The third space of the design thinking innovation process is implementation, when the best ideas generated during ideation are turned into something concrete.
At the core of the implementation process is prototyping: turning ideas into actual products and services that are then tested, evaluated, iterated, and refined. A prototype, or even a rough mock-up helps to gather feedback and improve the idea. Prototypes can speed up the process of innovation because they allow quick identification of strengths and weaknesses of proposed solutions, and can prompt new ideas.
Applications In the 2000s and 2010s there was a significant growth of interest in applying design thinking across a range of diverse applications—for example as a catalyst for gaining competitive advantage within businessBrown, Tim. "Design Thinking". Harvard Business Review, June 2008, pp. 85–92. or for improving education,Razzouk, R. and Shute, V. (2012) "What Is Design Thinking and Why Is It Important?" Review of Educational Research, 82, 330–348 but doubts around design thinking as a panacea for innovation have been expressed by some critics (see ).Kolko, J. "The divisiveness of design thinking". ACM Interactions, May–June, 2018: https://interactions.acm.org/archive/view/may-june-2018/the-divisiveness-of-design-thinking
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