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Abstract
Despite the apparent ubiquity of ‘design thinking’ it continues to defy an adequate definition. This has led to a conceptual obfuscation, and in turn a reduction of design thinking and limitation of the potential of designing and the goal it seeks to achieve: creative outcomes. This article is a response to this conceptual muddiness. Outlining an abridged version of antecedent ‘design thinking’ models may assist design thinking’s role in broadening transdisciplinary practice. When embraced with greater critical scrutiny, design thinking offers a chance for designers to widen and articulate their capacities, aiding the definition of emergent design practices. However, design thinking continues to be used with scarce critical or historical appraisal. A conceptual elucidation of historical modes of ‘design practice’ and pedagogy, will contribute to our understanding of inchoate transdisciplinary design practice. How we situate and value design in education is a focus of this article, as developing this area of analysis could enrich our appraisal of design thinking and contribute to a clearer and more sustainable use of the term and what the term implies for designs future.
Notes
1. Cf. Kimbell, Beyond Design Thinking, 3; Nussbaum, Design Thinking, 2; Kolko, Unveiling the Magic, 53.
2. Addison and Burgess, Issues Art and Design, 10.
3. RCA, “Design in General Education.”
4. Cross and Edmonds, “Expertise in Design.”
5. Martin, The Design of Business, 7.
6. Brown, Design Thinking, 2.
7. Cross, Designerly Ways of Knowing, 17.
8. Ibid.
9. Addison and Burgess, Learning to Teach Art, 197.
10. Rittel and Webber, Dilemmas in a General Theory, 155.
11. Buchanan, Wicked Problems in Design, 16.
12. Cross, Designerly Ways of Knowing, 27.
13. Tekinbas The Ecology of Games, 15.
14. Wilson, The Gifts of Froebel, 238.
15. Ogata, Architecture in Play, 283.
16. Lupton and Miller, The ABCs of the Bauhaus, 10.
17. Ibid., 162.
18. Kaufmann Jr., The Arts and Crafts, 6.
19. Bayer and Gropius, Bauhaus: Weimar 1919–25, 21.
20. See note 18.
21. Findeli, “Rethinking Design Education,” 5.
22. Bayer and Gropius, Bauhaus: Weimar 1919–25, 23.
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid., 24.
25. Plattner, Meinel and Leifer, Design Thinking: Understand, xv.
26. See Kolko, “Sense-making and Framing,” 3.
27. Lindinger, Ulm Design, 11.
28. Ibid., 171.
29. Aicher, The World as Design, 86.
30. Lindinger, Ulm Design, 29.
31. Churchman, Protzen and Webber, “In Memoriam: Rittel,” 89.
32. Buchanan, “Wicked Problems in Design Thinking,” 5.
33. See note 31.
34. Cross, Design Thinking, 4.
35. Ibid., 10.
36. See note 11.
37. Findeli, “Rethinking Design Education,” 5.
38. Ibid.
39. Bjögvinsson, Ehn and Hillgren, “Design Things and Design Thinking,” 102.
40. Findeli, “Rethinking Design Education,” 17.
41. Ibid.
42. See note 5.
43. See note 40.
44. Rittel and Webber, “Dilemmas in Planning,” 155.
45. Gruson and Staal, Copy Proof, 4.
46. Ibid.
47. Kolko, “Unveiling the Magic,” 53.
48. Ibid.
49. Sanders and Stappers, Convivial Design Toolbox, 289.
50. Illich, Tools for Conviviality, 21.
51. Simon, The Sciences of the Artificial, 114.
52. See note 40.
53. Frayling, “Research in Art and Design,” 5.
54. Allen, Education, 158.
55. Nussbaum, “Design Thinking,” 2.
56. Ibid., 7.
57. Kimbell, “Beyond Design Thinking,” 2.
58. Ibid.
59. Ibid., 3.
60. See note 7.
61. Coyne, Park and Wiszniewski, “Design Devices,” 263.