Design Thinking’s Convergence Diversion (Updated from 2010) We now tend to think of design thinking as embracing all that represents “new design.” Yet there remains more value in some of the original views of design thinking from decades ago than in most of what’s presented today. Design thinking is often treated as a process for moving an idea from ideation through prototyping to a concept test or an early alpha design. Let’s go back 30 years. Symbolic and visual communicationsMaterial objectsActivities and organized servicesComplex systems or environments for living, working, playing and learning Another 4-phase description of design thinking is GK van Patter’s Design 1.0 – 4.0 as described in numerous NextD articles and presentations. The NextD framework of D1, D2, D3 is in essence a complexity scale. The NextD view considers the four phases as processes in “designing for” which are generally: As the debates about design thinking continue, I am (still) struck by several developments:
How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci: 7 steps (with pictures) Edit Article Cultivating CuriosityThinking ScientificallyPracticing Creativity Edited by LifeOptimizer.org, Krystle, Teresa, Sondra C and 28 others Leonardo da Vinci was the ultimate Renaissance man: an accomplished scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician, and writer. Ad Steps Method 1 of 3: Cultivating Curiosity 1Question received wisdom and authority. 5Draw your own conclusions. Method 2 of 3: Thinking Scientifically 1Ask probing questions. Method 3 of 3: Practicing Creativity 1Keep a detailed and illustrated journal. Tips Some other characteristics of da Vinci that might be worth emulating are: charismagenerositylove of naturelove of animalsthe curiosity of a childRead books. Warnings Because of his wide variety of interests, on his death bed he apologized to "God and Man for leaving so much undone
The coming boom and bust of design thinking There is tremendous excitement right now about “design thinking” (see Helen Walters’ review of the best design thinking books of 2009, for example). Battered by economic failure, public uncertainty and the failure of traditional forms of leadership and management, many are gazing hopefully towards design thinking as a new management wonderdrug that will help them make sense of what is going on and secure their next big bonus, election or promotion. A Tweet I received a few days ago from @rosariocacao is typical of this excitement. See if you can count the number of buzzwords crammed into just 140 characters: “Design thinking – the premier organizational path to breakthrough innovation and collaboration While I too am excited that the general public is starting to better understand and appreciate the value design, it may be wise to inject a small note of caution gained from bitter experience before we get too carried away. Here is why.
thinking skills There is no logic in connecting an office copier with 'nose'. That is to say, there is no 'logic' in our normal undertanding of logic. This understanding is based on passive surface information systems. There is, however, the logic of active surface information systems, and that is the logic of a patterning system. In such a system, the putting together of 'copier' with the random input 'nose' is perfectly logical. At the same time, the juxtaposition is a logic of action. JUXTAPOSITIONAs many readers will know, the random juxtaposition is one of the many tools of lateral thinking. • What has smell to do with a copier? Smell is a sensation. • What could smell be used for? When copiers run out of paper or toner, there is usually a light signal - perhaps a red light. SMELL SIGNALWhat about a 'smell signal'? There could be different smells for different things. MOVEMENTThe above example illustrates the process of 'movement', which can be practised until a skill is built up in this operation.
Creative Thinking Articles and Techniques by Michael Michalko George de Mestral was inspired to improve the zipper. He thought about the essence of zippers which is to fasten two separate pieces of fabric together. His question became “How do things fasten?” He became committed to the idea of inventing a better fastener and spent considerable time pondering how things fasten in other domains including nature. One day when George was hunting birds with his Irish pointer, he traveled through some burdock thistles. When you are committed and start to actively work on a problem that you are passionate about, you will start to notice more and more things that relate to what you are working on. The burdock fascinated George and he imagined a fastener that mimicked a burdock. George envisioned two fabrics that could attach in this manner with one having a surface covered with minuscule hooks and another with hoops. Cognitive scientists understand the importance of perception and pattern recognition as a major component of creative thinking.
Design Thinking Is A Failed Experiment. So What's Next? The decade of Design Thinking is ending and I, for one, am moving on to another conceptual framework: Creative Intelligence, or CQ. I am writing a book about Creative Intelligence, due out from HarperCollins in fall 2012, and I hope to have a conversation with the Fast Company audience on this blog about how we should teach, measure, and use CQ. Why am I, who at Business Week was one of Design Thinking's major advocates, moving on to a new conceptual framework? Simple. Design Thinking has given the design profession and society at large all the benefits it has to offer and is beginning to ossify and actually do harm. Design consultancies hoped that a process trick would produce change. I would add that the construction and framing of Design Thinking itself has become a key issue. There were many successes, but far too many more failures in this endeavor. CEOs in particular, took to the process side of Design Thinking, implementing it like Six Sigma and other efficiency-based processes.
8 Secrets To Creative Thinking (Hint: Steal From Others) | Co. Design In the Fifties, I, together with just about every designer, was preoccupied with aesthetics and fashion. Design was the latest typeface in a modern layout looking like a Mondrian with lots of white space. That’s what I was taught in art school. I don’t remember when I changed. Whether it happened all at once, or gradually. Eventually, inspired by designers Paul Rand, Lou Dorfsman and Helmut Krone, an art director at Doyle Dane Bernbach, along with the surrealist painter, René Magritte, I became less interested in design for its own sake and more interested in design as it communicates an opinion. That was sixty years ago. And there’s another thing about the situation today that designers must recognize. But that’s not the way it is now. So, if anyone who can type can do much of the work previously done by well-paid specialists, what’s left for the designer? [One of Gill’s signature visual puns: "Smoking a pipe makes you…seem more elegant] Process [The AGM logo that Gill created]
How To Do Design Thinking — What I Learned Building… David Kelley: The first step in the Design Thinking process is what we call the Understand phase: if you’re going to work in a certain area you really need to talk to experts. We’re generalists, we’re expert at process but if you really want to do something, if you’re going to design a new medical device, you have to really immerse yourself in it. So in the first step you end up studying the state of the art, going and talking to experts, doing research to bring yourself up to speed. You’d be really surprised how quickly you can get up to speed, even in a highly technical area, just from doing a little research and talking to experts. Then there’s the Observation phase. If we’re going to design a new gas station we’ll go and see how they pump gas in Japan. If you see somebody having trouble using something, or that they grimace or they’re unhappy or they’re scared, that’s a place that we could really do innovation because we can fix that. The next phase we call Visualize.
How 'Sticky' is Design Thinking? On its way to meme-hood, even before it has had a chance to gain purchase in the minds of the people who need it most, the term ‘design thinking’ is showing signs of mutational stress that threaten a common understanding of its value and validity. The concept is being misappropriated, misrepresented and misunderstood to the point where it now runs the risk of being dismissed as yesterday’s donuts. In fact Bruce Nussbaum, who in his former role as assistant managing editor at Business Week was one of its earliest proselytizers and most vocal promoters (he is now Professor of Innovation and Design at Parsons), has grown tired of the term and has climbed onto a new soapbox called ‘creative intelligence’. While he may have traded his fedora for a mortarboard, Nussbaum still seems prone to the journalist’s hunger for novelty. On the face of it, ‘design thinking’ is shorthand for ‘thinking like a designer’. Join the conversation! inShare
Making Good Lessons Great: Incorporating Multiple Iintelligences and Creative Thinking into Everyday Lesson Plans « clearings by Betty K. Wood and Andrew L. Hunt, University of Arkansas at Little Rock Sarah C. Wood-Jenkins, Ball State University I didn’t find anything very revolutionary here except this quote which I shall bear in mind (lay-out is mine): ‘One model for teaching the skill of creative thinking involves: fluency flexibility originalityelaboration‘ “The following linear representation of a problem-solving thought process, developed by Puccio, Murdock, and Mance (2005), provides an excellent example of how characteristics and behaviors of Critical Thinking and Creative Thinking operate.” Source: Like this: Like Loading...
7 Skills To Become Super Smart People aren’t born smart. They become smart. And to become smart you need a well-defined set of skills. Memory If you can’t remember what you’re trying to learn, you’re not really learning. If you want to amaze your friends with remembering faces, names, and numbers, look to the grand-daddy of memory training, Harry Lorayne. Reading Good scholars need to be good readers. Evelyn Woodski Slow Reading Course Announcer … Dan Aykroyd Man … Garrett Morris Woman … Jane Curtin Surgeon … Bill Murray … Ray Charles Announcer V/O: [The following words rapidly appear on a blue screen as they are read by the fast-talking announcer:] This is the way you were taught to read, averaging hundreds or thousands of words per minute. Psychologists have found that many people who take speed reading courses increase their reading speed for a short time but then fall right back to the plodding pace where they started. But the bottom line in reading is always comprehension. Writing Speaking Numeracy Empathy
Convergent and divergent production Convergent and divergent production are the two types of human response to a set problem that were identified by J.P. Guilford (1967). Guilford observed that most individuals display a preference for either convergent or divergent thinking. Others observe that most people prefer a convergent closure. Divergent thinking[edit] According to J.P. There is a movement in education that maintains divergent thinking might create more resourceful students. Divergent production is the creative generation of multiple answers to a set problem. Critic of the analytic/dialectic approach[edit] While the observations made in psychology can be used to analyze the thinking of humans, such categories may also lead to oversimplifications and dialectic thinking. The systematic use of convergent thinking may well lead to what is known as Group think—thus one should probably combine systematic use with critical thinking. References[edit] Guilford, J. (1967). See also[edit]
Design Thinking » thoughts by Tim Brown The problem with "design thinking" By Saul Kaplan, contributor FORTUNE -- Believe in the power of design. Through it, we will chart the landscape of possibility – designing, testing and prototyping new terrain. Be a market maker rather than a share taker. Business model innovators are always seeking out places and events with a strong design vibe. They love to hang around really smart design thinkers and the places they hang out in hopes that some of it will rub off. No more books are needed to convince us that design thinking and process are a priority. We need more mad designers focused on customer experience and business model innovation. If we are waiting for lengthy business plans with detailed financial analysis and randomized double blind studies to tell us if a new business model is viable we will be waiting a very long time. I am reminded of a recent innovation talk I was asked to give at a conference on the business of aging. This piece is adapted from The Business Model Innovation Factory.