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Design Thinking: An Approach with Various Perceptions

Part of: Design Methods and Tools

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2019

Sanne Bouwman ,
Jesper Voorendt ,
Boris Eisenbart  and
Seda McKilligan
Sanne Bouwman*
Affiliation:
Delft University of Technology;
Jesper Voorendt
Affiliation:
Delft University of Technology;
Boris Eisenbart
Affiliation:
Swinburne University of Technology;
Seda McKilligan
Affiliation:
Iowa State University
*
Contact: Bouwman, Sanne, Delft University of Technology, Industrial Design Engineering, The Netherlands, sanne.bouwman@hotmail.com

Abstract

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Design Thinking has become increasingly popular across different disciplines. However, what it exactly entails is becoming more and more vague, leading to the term being used for many different approaches and applications. This paper presents an interview study with experts on the application and training of Design Thinking in academia and industry. We find a divide with some seeing Design Thinking as a mere toolbox of methods, while others see it as an umbrella term for the mindset that determines how designers think and act. Subjects unanimously attest the approach large potential to support certain types of businesses, when applied under the leadership of trained designers, but see a lot of danger for the approach to become meaningless if it keeps being advertised as an all-purpose problem-solving tool. The interviewees further share extensive experiences on specific success factors and pitfalls in applying Design Thinking in practice.

Keywords

Design ThinkingDesign practiceDesign methodologyDesign methodsProblem-solving
Type
Article
Information
Proceedings of the Design Society: International Conference on Engineering Design , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , July 2019 , pp. 1443 - 1452
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2019

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