What is Design Thinking
Who writes about it and what do they say?
Application
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Summary đ§ (Including Audio)
1. What is Design Thinking
At its most basic form, Design Thinking is a scientifically rooted process that seeks to âCo-createâ solutions for people rather than solving problems.
2. Who writes about it and what do they say?
Unlike other philosophical concepts we have studied here, design thinking is less of a theory owned by a person, and more of a framework that has organically evolved over time.
To reach its current state, it has been tinkered with by scientists, authors, engineers, artists, architects, and business.
I think Steve Jobs captures the modern incarnation best best when he writes,
Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like. People think itâs this veneer â that the designers are handed this box and told, âMake it look good!â Thatâs not what we think the design is. Itâs not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.
To put it another way, design thinking begins with deep empathy for the end user or recipient. From there the experience, product, or process is reverse engineered around them.
If youâve ever had an intuitive experience at an airport, with technology, a water park, or website youâre most likely witnessing the result of design thinking.
3. Application
This image has become one of my favorite products in my professional life.
(In fact, it drives most of the experience readers have at TPP.)
The first 3 stages in specific are so deeply rooted in both the scientific method and philosophical concepts, that itâs hard NOT to see the immediate wisdom and value of this methodology.
To put it another way, Design Thinking to me is philosophy operationalized.
Itâs how we bake in all of the amazing principles we study here into the world around us.
And Iâm convinced that this makes the world a better place.
Design Thinking is philosophy operationalized
4. Click for more
and her Substack Design Thinking for All is a great resource for practical lessons and insights on how to apply the craft in your daily work and life.Here is an excellent TED Talk by legendary Designer David Carson on the value of design, even (or especially!) if people donât realize they are experiencing it.
Also, I highly recommend following Melanie Lewis, Expert in Residence at Macquarie University in Sydney Australia.
Iâve had the opportunity to partner with her on a past project, and her approach to wicked problems like climate change through design is beyond inspiring.
She embodies the full capacity of this methodology to positively effect change. Sheâs also written extensively about the intersection of climate emergencies and design, I highly recommend her work.
Finally, the Nielson Norman Group has been an invaluable resource for my design thinking learning and practice, I highly recommend!
5. Summary đ§ (Including Audio)
I am interested in Design Thinking because this methodology does not solve problems, rather it optimizes the world for people.
In certain respects, it makes the intuitive behavior the natural behavior. It works with humans and environment, not against.
Rather than solving for just solutions, it solves for human optimization.
And this human-centered design is at the heart of so much needed change in the world.
In fact, there is direct correlation between what are known as âWicked Problemsâ and the emergence of design thinking.
A Wicked Problems is a
problem that is difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize. It refers to an idea or problem that cannot be fixed, where there is no single solution to the problem; and "wicked" denotes resistance to resolution, rather than evil.[1] Another definition is "a problem whose social complexity means that it has no determinable stopping point".[2] Moreover, because of complex interdependencies, the effort to solve one aspect of a wicked problem may reveal or create other problems. Due to their complexity, wicked problems are often characterized by organized irresponsibility. 1
Or to put it more simply, Wicked Problems are comprised of the following characteristics:
The problem is not understood until after the formulation of a solution.
Wicked problems have no stopping rule.
Solutions to wicked problems are not right or wrong.
Every wicked problem is essentially novel and unique.
Every solution to a wicked problem is a "one shot operation".
Wicked problems have no given alternative solutions.2
This body of work is most often ascribed to designer Horst Rittel who saw issues of such complexity and scale inherently the work of design to solve.
These issue of unprecedented complexity are unique to the 20th and 21st centuries in which geopolitics, scale, technology, and weapons of mass destruction for example pose existential threats never before seen amongst our species.
He began a conversation between science, engineering, and design that has persisted to the modern age.
In more recent years, the more privileged recipients of these lessons have been those in the tech sector who inherently understood the value of design from empathy rather than profit.
I am most excited about the work that people like Melanie Lewis are championing today, seeking to return Design Thinking to its roots in tackling some of our biggest existential crisis.
Because what if we leveraged design to co-create, to ideate, to discover natural solutions to polarized problems, rather than continuing to entrench our minds in dualistic narratives?
To me, this is only the beginning of what design can do for the modern world.
Until next week friends as we continue to the conversation,
Matt
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_problem
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