Design thinking

"In an ambiguous situation, you don't know what you don't know."

– Udaya Patnaik, Co-Founder Jump Associates

Design Thinking is the most current incarnation of terminology meant to frame and ascribe value for the role of creative problem solving within a larger system. Generally speaking, design thinking refers the methods used to strategically guide a person or group to question underlying assumptions, generate a large array of ideas, better understand user needs, synthesize prototypes, propose or build viable solutions, and more. Its roots can be traced to Participatory Design, User-Centered Design, Service Design, and Human-Centered Design. Imagining a new idea, let alone 100 new ideas, is hard and often comes with overcoming learned blocks to creative thinking. To make this process easier, modern design thinking methods tend to incorporate synectics, or methods that facilitate the connection of ideas through unrelated phenomenon.

Design blocks

You can think of design blocks as a kind of enemy to good design. A design block is a mental, cultural, or social hinderance to finding solutions that stray from norms and assumed knowledge and ideas. Without a willingness to push beyond what is assumed, change will be a very slow process. As Victor Papanek writes in Design for the Real World, Human Ecology and Social Change, "We live in a society that penalizes highly creative individuals for their non-conformist autonomy. This makes the teaching of problem-solving discouraging and difficult. A 22-two-year-old student arrives at school with massive blocks against new ways of thinking, engendered by some 16 years of miseducation, a heritage of childhood and pubescence of being "molded," "adjusted," "shaped." Meanwhile our society continuously evolves new social patterns that promise a slight departure from the mainstream but without ever endangering the patchwork of marginal groups that make up society as a whole."

Whether they are a subject-matter expert or a layperson, everyone faces implicit (unconscious) and explicit (conscious) biases that can cause misinterpretations, false assumptions, and an over-reliance on common and familiar paths to a solution. "That is the way it has always been done" or "it's just common sense" are common expressions used by someone who is operating with a common bias called Confirmation Bias. A bias, like a design block, can undermine innovative problem solving and inhibit creative thinking. Modern design processes attempt to identify where bias may exist and prevent it from harming the outcome.

On page 158 in Victor Papanek's Design for the Real World, Human Ecology and Social Change, he lists seven types of blocks, some of which are based on bias, and some of which are internal or external pressures:

We can list the inhibitors that keep us from solving tasks in new and innovative ways. They are:

1. Perceptual
2. Emotional
3. Associational
4. Cultural
5. Professional
6. Intellectual
7. Environmental

Beginner's mindset

A designer's approach to questioning of assumptions, known as the beginners mindset, is helpful for bypassing stereotypes and misconceptions that often inhibit empathetic discoveries. How a person acquires the beginner's mindset can vary. Here is an example from the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford: [2]

1. Don’t judge. Just observe and engage users without the influence of value judgments upon their actions, circumstances, decisions, or “issues.”
2. Question everything. Question even (and especially) the things you think you already understand. Ask questions to learn about how the user perceives the world. Follow up an answer to one “why” with a second “why.”
3. Be truly curious. Strive to assume a posture of wonder and curiosity, especially in circumstances that seem either familiar or uncomfortable.
4. Find patterns. Look for interesting threads and themes that emerge across interactions with users.
5. Listen. Really.

On page 172 in Victor Papanek's Design for the Real World, Human Ecology and Social Change, he lists eight methods to eliminate blocks:

Our job then becomes one of establishing methods of doing away with these blocks. Although it is difficult to make a definitive list, since there is enormous overlap between different methods, I shall list eight:

1. Brainstorming
2. Synectics
3. Morphological analysis
4. Sliding Scales
5. Bisociation
6. Trisociation
7. Bionics and Biomechanics
8. Forcing New Thinking Patterns

We won't go into detail about what each of Papanek's methods are; however, we will practice a few of them when completing course projects. There are hundreds of quantitative and qualitative design and research methods to choose from. The book, Universal Methods of Design by Bella Martin and Bruce Hanington, is a good starting point.

Embracing V.U.C.A.

Now change seems to be much more unpredictable; it exceeds what we have known in the past. As we view the world, we realize organizations reflect society and political needs, which accommodate expanding democracy and periods of turmoil. Bureaucracies may remain the foundation for basic stability during these periods of rapid change, but they will have to be more open and adaptable to be effective – or even to survive. [2]

Critical design failures tend to occur when tried-and-true processes, procedures, and policies are applied to solve a problem in an environment that is undergoing change. In these environments, creative problem solving and innovation are needed to address this change. The value of design thinking comes from its ability to deal in uncertainty in a dynamic environment. The acronym, V.U.C.A., created by the U.S. Army War College, describes this phenomenon – volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.

Volatility refers to the anticipated type, speed, volume, and scale of change. Uncertainty refers to the idea that due to the volatile surroundings, future events can no longer be predicted. Complexity is described as widespread confusion and seemingly no clear connection between cause and effect. Ambiguity arises from the existence of multiple meanings and misinterpretations of reality.

Role of Heuristics

A heuristic is essentially a shortcut that helps you solve a problem quickly. You can see an example of a heuristic device, originally developed by renaissance master painters, implemented on modern digital cameras. Typically, there is a setting to overlay a Rule of Thirds grid on the camera screen, which displays two vertical and horizontal lines creating nine equal rectangles. As it turns out, if you line up your subject on one of the thirds lines, or place a high contrast object at one of the intersections, you are more likely to take a picture with good composition. Just like a visual design heuristic, there are also many cognitive heuristics to help you remember facts, do math, and particularly relevant to a designer, generate new ideas and interesting ideas. Many creative thinkers develop their own heuristic rules or devices to help them produce work.

Design thinking processes equip designers with heuristic devices that help us avoid implicit or explicit bias, form connections between new and existing ideas, understand underlying issues and themes, be more inclusive and wider in perspective, and get better outcomes and solutions. Without heuristic devices, the act of design would be a very long and inefficient process, and we might never be able to overcome the blocks to good design.

The Business Case for Design Thinking

Jess McMullin, founder of the Centre for Citizen Experience and Situ Strategy, describes a continuum of design maturity for organizations in his model, A Rough Design Maturity Continuum. There are five stages which range from having no strategic design to using design for identifying and framing central challenges and opportunities.

1. No conscious design: The organization has assigned no value or priority to design. The product that results is deemed good enough.
2. Style: Design is considered a secondary cosmetic process that makes a product more palatable for consumption. Aesthetic trends drive products.
3. Function and Form: Design is applied as part of an iterative improvement process for product development. Metrics and methods drive products.
4. Problem solving: Design is used in strategic processes for identifying opportunities, generating an array of ideas, and selecting solutions for existing problems. Problems drive products.
5. Framing: Design drives disruptive innovation. Design is used to frame the organization's agenda, and to scope interest. Ideas drive products.

The organizations that incorporate design into the framing and problem solving end of the design maturity continuum are highlighted in the Design Value Index (DVI). The superior performance of the index in relation to the S&P 500 is used to make the case not only for investing in design-driven companies, but as further evidence for why design should take a larger role within large organizations.

Citation

1. Design and Thinking. Dir. Mu-Ming Tsai. 2012. Film.
2. James A. Lawrence and Earl N. Steck, Overview of Management Theory (Carlisle Barracks, PA: U.S. Army War College, 1991), ii & 34. http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a235762.pdf
3. http://thinkingandmaking.com/files/design_maturity.pdf
4. http://www.dmi.org/?page=2015DVIandOTW