The design thinking process is an innovative problem solving strategy used in many different realms of principle including non-profit work, business enterprises, and architecture projects. Notably, the most popular model of design thinking in the United States is the Design School’s hexagon model that emphasizes the five important steps of empathy, defining the problem, ideating, prototyping, and testing. design thinking is used to tackle complex problems and use the tools to deeply connect with the population that is experiencing the problem to further achieve progressive development and a sustainable solution. Dr. Ruecker and Radzikowska describe the design thinking process as the internal process that the design team will follow through the steps of understanding, exploring, and materializing. Within these steps includes empathizing, defining, ideating, prototyping, testing, and implementing — all unique to the specific project. The goal of this process is to help structure the work of the design team, frame the communication with the client, and to create a plan for the team so that everyone knows the direction of the project. In the double diamond design method, you begin with a challenge from which you begin the process with a divergence of ideas in which you discover elements about the issue and the project you want to achieve. This is the early prototyping phase in which you are creating lots of ideas, going through many options, multiple sessions, avoiding critique and going for variety of outcomes. Next with the pool of ideas comes a convergence phase in which the team narrows down to a smaller collection of the ideas that have been developed in which the team considers the constraints, conducts intense reduced sessions and engages in critical thinking about the real situation and the people. The second stage of the diamond reiterates that same process to reach a prototype that can be put to test.
Over many years design thinking has been used in different situations of innovative problem-solving.The process of design thinking has had both positive and negative feedback. design thinking has received positive feedback in terms of being a multi-step process that provides an in-depth problem solving model for design teams to truly tap into the systemic problems that a population is experiencing and develop a prototype that is innovative. In addition it has also received some negative feedback and has been seen as a process that is more idealized than actually successful. Natasha Jen Is an award-winning designer and educator from Taiwan. She’s been recognized for her innovative use of graphic and digital designs as well as interventions that challenge conventional notions of cultural and media contexts. In her video “Design Thinking is Bull Sh*T”, she criticizes design thinking for lacking necessary criticism in the process to really achieve sustainable and systemic change. She describes her definition of design thinking: “It packages the designer’s way by working for a non-designer audience by codifying their processes into a prescriptive, step by step approach to creative problem solving, claiming that it can be applied by anyone to any problems.” She describes this process as problematic because in reality it is a complex process that needs critique and embedded in all steps. She described the problem of design thinking “as a diagram that you cannot really understand the outcome of it without an outcome you cannot critique how good it is.” To a certain extent I agree with Jen that there needs to be more criticism in the design thinking process but overall as a whole, I think the design thinking process is a good step by step model to follow. Of course every project is unique and will have a different procedure through which these processes need to be followed, but I think that the core steps are good guidelines to follow.
In one of our in class discussions we had to draw a picture of something that we saw as metaphoric to the design process. I decided to draw an onion. I saw the onion as a metaphor example of the multiple layers that go into the design thinking process. Onions have multiple layers that need to be peeled through to truly get to the core and I think that that resembles the same process of design in which you have to go through multiple layers in order to really achieve a solution for the core problem that you are trying to fix. If I were to make design thinking better I would include the core five steps that the d-school follows as well as add my own. In my model I would include methods such as research, discover, connect, empathize, question, create, criticize, prototype, discuss, describe the why’s and the how’s, criticize, adjust, test, and include a growth process in which feedback from the population that you’re working with will be processed and put back into the problem solving. I think adding more steps that include open dialogue about the prototypes that are being created and criticisms towards the steps along the way and making adjustments is very important because the design process is an ongoing one through which you’ll face challenges even when you believe that you’ve accomplished a sustainable solution. In addition I recognize that because different problems can be addressed in different ways, there is no specific order in which the steps need to be followed but rather that they are all accomplished in the process.
In all the interviews that we listened to throughout the semester something that really stood out to me was the designers emphasis on including diverse perspectives in the process to incorporate different viewpoints through lived experiences, cultures, and identities. In Maria Rogal’s interview, she described design thinking as a part of the design process that designers do all the time- that it is a way of bringing people into the design conversation and designing outwards through different processes. She describes the idea and the importance of horizontal designing which is when you take away hierarchies in the design process so that everyone can work together constructively and fluidly- that no one’s voice is more important than another’s. I think this concept is very important and provides a way for all perspectives to be heard and included. In Michael Lee Poy’s interview, he argues the importance of empathy. Empathy is critical in order to deconstruct and find out what the problem is. Asking the right questions and listening to the stories in order to know the environment you are working in is crucial. Without connecting on a deep level upon the issue that the population is working with a designer can never truly achieve meaningful impact. To achieve this Tania Anaissee describes the importance of a designer’s own individual identity. She notes how it is human nature for people to be objective. So instead of trying to silence your own experiences, understand how your own identities play into the design process and how it can be beneficial in different ways. She describes how lived experiences are important to accomplishing a solution and creating meaningful discourse to both engage in self-reflection through the process and contribute to progressive discourse with your design team.
Sources:
https://99u.adobe.com/videos/55967/natasha-jen-design-thinking-is-bullshit
https://tulane.instructure.com/courses/2223591/modules/items/30309105
