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Concept
Design thinking
Summary
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.
Design thinking is also associated with prescriptions for the innovation of products and services within business and social contexts.
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" and as "designerly thinking". 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.
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). The different uses have given rise to some confusion in the use of the term.
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.
Participatory design and Problem structuring methods
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.
Official source
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