Design Thinking

Design Thinking is called a method that will lead to the solution of problems and the development of new ideas.

Theory

The method is based on the assumption that problems can be better solved if people from different disciplines to work together to jointly develop a question, take into account the needs and motivations of people, and then develop concepts that will be tested. The method is based on the work of designers, which is understood as a combination of understanding, observation, idea generation, refinement, execution and learning. According to another understanding of design thinking "any processthat Applies the methods of industrial designers to problems beyond how a product should be look" means.

Development and institutional background

Developers and representatives of the method are the computer scientist Terry Winograd, Larry Leifer and David Kelley, founder of IDEO design and innovation agency that also market the concept. Under the name of " Design Thinking Research Symposia " held on this subject since 1991 meetings.

Funding research and implementation of this concept by the billionaire Hasso Plattner. Principles of Design Thinking at the Hasso Plattner be since 2005 Institute of Design, the so-called " d.school ," taught. In October 2007, the School of Design Thinking at the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam took up the study operations. In one equipped with 16 million U.S. dollars HPI - Stanford Design Thinking Research Program under the direction of Larry Leifer (Stanford University), and Christoph Meinel ( Hasso Plattner Institute, Potsdam ) are performed to Design Thinking research projects. In Munich, the Master School of the Macromedia University for Media and Communication teaches under the direction of Jürgen Faust Design Thinking in a Master's program. In Austria Offered Design Thinking at the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, at the locations Steyr within the framework of the course of supply chain management ( Logistikum ) as well as in future in Hagenberg im program in Communication and Knowledge Media. At the British School of Design in Moscow design thinking is also taught.

Practice

The managing director of the Hanover Zoo, Klaus- Michael Machens, founded in 1995, an interdisciplinary working group that a " concept Zoo 2000 ' created by the methodology. According to a report in the Financial Times Germany in August 2010, there could be successfully implemented.

Criticism

The hypothesis that the creative process can be completely designed and that the presence of designers play a crucial role, is also criticized. Dev Patnaik is the Design Thinking against the Hybrid Thinking - it would rather important to put empathic people with different training, but the ability to hybrid thinking to the correct locations of the organization. As an example he cites the innovation successes Claudia Kotchkas at Procter & Gamble. Claudia Kotchkas success at P & G does not show on about the triumph of her increasingly recruited designers in the creative process, she was even in business administration. The challenge is not to form interdisciplinary teams, but to recruit individual members in a person are able to interdisciplinary thinking, and to position them at critical control points. There are increasing studies aimed at such interface competence, such as the programs " Cultural Engineering " at the Otto -von- Guericke- University Magdeburg or "Culture and Technology" at the Brandenburg Technical University of Cottbus. Wolfgang Jonas also criticized the fuzziness of Design Thinking and in contrast, emphasizes the role of Trans -disciplinary networking, and the evolutionary history of design processes, which always also to be self -reflective redesign processes at all target orientation.