Is there such a thing as “Design Thinking?”: Design Mysteries Series

Peach basket + Soccerball = Basketball

Of course there is such a thing as Design Thinking, designers have been doing it for millennia. There’s design thinking in flint-napped stones, in ancient pottery and baskets in Norse Boats and dugout canoes, rockets and the Mars Rover it is every where. Maybe it’s about tome we started recognizing this and teaching “design” in grades K-Forever!

In 1891, James Naismith a Canadian Physical Education Teacher invented basketball in Springfield MA.

Designers like James Naismith sometimes take seemingly unrelated objects and put them together to create a third thing. In Naismith’s case a new sport, basketball. Naismith wasn’t trying to invent a new sport he was trying to create a substitute for football that wasn’t quite as dangerous.

“Design Thinking” has always been important to corporate America; Florence Knoll said “Good Design is Good Business,” a half a century ago. The largest most successful company in the world APPLE is design driven. Google has a designer on every team it forms. If corporations don’t value design thinking what do they value? Design drives innovation and capitalization. It is wonderful that Design Thinking is trickling down or up depending on your point of view.

As Designer in Residence at the Cooper Hewitt I was charged with coming up with design exercises for student tours at the museum. Designing a clock with a real working clock mechanism was one of the design experiences we developed. Each student made a clock that they took home and lived with, with all its mistakes, wonder and beauty. Most people don’t get to live with their creations, but designers do and they learn from their mistakes daily. They also learn from their success, as the students did. Learning is the important word here. Design thinking is a process of learning, and creating and testing and then doing it all over again, till you get it right. There is no magic method; there is just the simple truth of experiment and failure or success. One of the students, who took a tour at The Cooper Hewitt, over 20 years, said, when asked, “who did you make your clock for.” He replied, “I made it with all my heart and love for my brother.” Now if we can get everyone who is working for Corporate America to say that, Design Thinking wins!

So maybe the next question is what’s a definition of “design thinking?” I say was is a definition because I’m sure there will be a few tossed around before or if ever we all agree on just what “design thinking” is.

Design Thinking is………..

1 –  Maybe it’s just applied “common sense?’

2 – Or craft explained?

3 – Is it connecting disparate things to create something new?

4 – A set of rules to follow?

5 – creating an atmosphere in which people can create?

6 – serendipity?

7 _____________________________ (Fill in the blank)

This is an excerpt from an interview for Motiv Design’s Insights & innovations Newsletter
Bruce Hannah 1-2-2018.

#DesignMysteriesSeries [#10]

Design Mysteries Series
Bruce Hannah 2017©