Design Thinking Blog

listening in on the conversation

May-9-2010

Thinking through Design Thinking

Posted by @dTblog under Articles, Ideo
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design thinkingOriginal Post and Comments HERE at Archis.org

Overview: The author is taking on the idea that Design Thinking is actually part of  Design as the Design discipline actually is and historically has existed.  Several different areas of thought are introduced, and contrasted with each other.

Thoughts on this: I would have to agree that the general notion that Design Thinking is simply a by product of Design is an incomplete/incorrect one.  Design Thinking is more like a child that has been born to a parent.  It is a young discipline that has the DNA of several established disciplines (most notably Design, (specifically Industrial Design) and Psychology/Sociology.

Thinking through Design Thinking

IDEO /Tim Brown, Bruce Nussbaum and Stanford d.school call it Design Thinking.

Michael Speaks, Michael Shamiyeh, Bruce Mau talk about Design Intelligence,

Nigel Cross writes about Designerly ways of knowing (one of the best books i’ve read so far on design thinking).

All these ideas deal with design as process rather than object. They all articulate and confirm the idea that there is a ’specific way of thinking that is unique to design’ and ‘that this way of thinking is applicable on any problem’ It is a way of seeing, understanding and making the world, and the ‘design way’ is a universal way, there is no problem that can not be solved, … or so it seems (this is one of the claims of Bruce Mau’s Massive change exhibit and book anyway).

Although one has to acknowledge a certain naivety behind this idea, it is non the less very appealing, especially for a designer, or well … an architect like myself.


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Sep-25-2009

The Empathy Economy

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11.BruceNussbaum007Overview of Post: This one goes back a few years and reminds us of the early understanding of what Design Thinking was all about.

Thoughts on Post: Some great  references to the early foundational works and thoughts that got this field going.  It would be good to recapture some of this clarity.

Original Post Here at BusinessWeek

By Bruce Nussbaum

“Design thinking” can create rewarding experiences for consumers — the key to earnings growth and an edge that outsourcing can’t beat.

You can’t Six Sigma your way to high-impact innovation, but you can design your company to generate products and services that provide great consumer experiences, top-line revenue growth, and fat profit margins. That’s the sometimes-painful message CEOs in America are learning today. Read the rest of this entry »

Aug-7-2009

Design Thinking Battle

Posted by @dTblog under Articles, Process
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business weekOverview of this Atricle: There is an ongoing debate about exactly what “design thinking” is and specifically about the term “design thinking”.  This article brings up a few of the perspectives.

Thoughts on this Article: Bruce does a good job of getting to the point:  Stop focusing on what it is called and go do it!

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 10 on BusinessWeek

Fred Collopy has a great blog item up at Fast Company on why he dislikes the “Thinking” part of the term “Design Thinking.” In essence, Fred argues that the best part of design is the “doing,” not the thinking and the focus on Design Thinking short-changes what designers can really do in education, health and other spaces outside their traditional consumer-oriented activities.

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