A Framework for Design Thinking Outside the Design Profession: An Analysis of Design Thinking Implementations
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Over the past decade, the term “design thinking” has received increasing attention in a wide range of contexts and has become increasingly familiar beyond the professional design arena. Exploration of potential cross-boundary engagements and the role of design as an agent of change for both innovation and social transformation are two main mechanisms underlying the burgeoning discussion of design thinking in areas outside the design profession. This study provides an insight into the implementation of a design-thinking approach in non-designerly contexts. To investigate how design thinking is understood and applied in relation to non-designerly thinking, an analysis was undertaken of 345 articles from the Scopus database between 2002 and 2017 that included “design thinking” as a keyword. It was found that design thinking serves as a mechanism that enables and promotes innovation and social transformation. The results show that design thinking can foster new approaches to innovation as well as complex and persistent social problems through a framework of co-creation, systemic thinking, abductive reasoning, and iteration. The findings reveal that initiatives using design-thinking approaches can deliver positive outcomes in the fields of business management, social innovation, and education.
Downloads
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
All material is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0) License, unless otherwise stated. As such, authors are free to share, copy, and redistribute the material in any medium or format. The authors must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. The authors may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. The authors may not use the material for commercial purposes. If the authors remix, transform, or build upon the material, they may not distribute the modified material, unless permission is obtained from JARS. Final, accepted versions of the paper may be posted on third party repositories, provided appropriate acknowledgement to the original source is clearly noted.
References
Adams, R. S., Daly, S. R., Mann, L. M., & Dall’Alba, G. (2011). Being a professional: Three lenses into design thinking, acting, and being. Design Studies, 32, 588-607.
Adams, R. S., Radcliffe, D., & Fosmire, M. (2016). Designing for global data sharing, designing for educational transformation. Advance in Engineering Education, Spring 2016, 1-24.
Alhamdani, W. A. (2016). Teaching cryptography using design thinking approach. Journal of Applied Security Research, 11(1), 78-89.
Allio, L. (2014). Design thinking for public service excellence. UNDP Global Centre for Public Service Excellence Publishing. Singapore: UNDP.
Baaki, J., & Luo, T. (2017). Stimulating students’ use of external representations for a distance education time machine design. Tech Trends, 61(4), 355-365.
Banerjee, A., & Mukhopadhyay, S. K. (2016). A contemporary TOC innovative thinking process in the backdrop of leagile supply chain. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 29(3), 400-431.
Bantau, G., & Rayburn, S. W. (2016). Advanced information technology: Transforming service innovation and design. The Service Industries Journal, 36(13-14), 699-720.
Bas, E., & Guillo, M. (2015). Participatory foresight for social innovation. FLUX-3D Method (Forward Looking User Experience), A tool for evaluating innovations. Technology Forecasting & Social Change, 101, 275-290.
Bason, C. (2010). Leading public sector innovation: Co-creating for a better society. Bristal: Policy Press.
Bazzano, A. N., & Martin, J. (2017). Designing public health: Synergy and discord. The Design Journal, 20(6), 735-754.
Ben Mahmoud-Jouini, S., Midler, C., & Silberzahn, P. (2016). Contributions of design thinking to project management in an innovation context. Project Management Journal, 47(2), 144-156.
Benson, J., & Dresdow, S. (2015). Design for thinking: Engagement in an innovation project. Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education, 13(3), 377-410.
Beverland, M. B., Wilner, S.JS., & Micheli, P. (2015). Reconciling the tension between consistency and relevance: Design thinking as a mechanism for brand ambidexterity. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 43(5), 589-609.
Bhaskar, R. (1978). A realist theory of science. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Press.
Biffi, A., Bissola, R., & Imperatori, B. (2017). Chasing innovation: A pilot case study of a rhizomatic design thinking education program. Education + Training, 59(9), 957-977.
Bosch, J., & Bosch-Sijtsema, P. M. (2011). Introducing agile customer-centered development in a legacy software product line. Software Practice and Experience, 41, 871-882.
Bower, M., Highfield, K., Furney, P., & Mowbray, L. (2013). Supporting pre-service teachers’ technology enabled learning design thinking through whole of programme transformation. Educational Media International, 50(1), 39-50.
Brown, T. (2008). Design thinking. Harvard Business Review, 86, 84-92.
Brown, T. (2009). Change by design: How design thinking transforms organizations and inspires innovation. New York: Harper Collins.
Brown, T., & Wyatt, J. (2010). Design thinking for social innovation. Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter, 31-35.
Brown, T. (2015). Bridge-building for social transformation. Stanford Social Innovation Review, 13(1), 34-39.
Buchanan, R. (1992). Wicked problems in design thinking. Design issues, 8(2), 5-21.
Buchenau, M., & Suri, J. F. (2000). Experience prototyping. Proceedings of the 3rd Conference on Designing Interactive Systems: Processes, Practices, Methods, and Techniques, ACM, (pp. 424-433). New York, USA.
Burdick, A., & Willis, H. (2011). Digital learning, digital scholarship and design thinking. Design Studies, 32, 546-556.
Byrne, J. R., O’Sullivan, K., & Sullivan, K. (2017). An IoT and wearable technology hackathon for promoting careers in computer science. IEEE Transactions on Education, 60(1), 50-58.
Cahn, P. S., Bzowyckyj, A., Collins, L., Dow, A., Goodell, K., Jhonso, A. F., Klocko, D., Knab, M., Parker, K., Reeves, S., & Zierler, B. K. (2016). A design thinking approach to evaluating interprofessional education, Journal of Interprofessional Care, 30(3), 378-380.
Carlgren, L., Rauth, I., & Elmquist, M. (2016). Framing design thinking: The concept in idea and enactment. Creativity and Innovation Management, 25(1), 38-57.
Cassim, F. (2013). Hands on, hearts on, minds on: Design thinking within an education context. International Journal of Art & Design Education, 32(2), 190-202.
Chen, S., & Venkatesh, A. (2013). An investigation of how design-oriented organisations implement design thinking. Journal of Marketing Management, 29, 1680-1700.
Cheung, M. (2012). Design thinking in healthcare: Innovative product development through the iNPD process. The Design Journal, 15(3), 299-324.
Choi, H. H., & Kim, M. J. (2017). The effects of analogical and metaphorical reasoning on design thinking. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 23, 29-41.
Clune S. J., & Lovkrey, S. (2014). Developing environmental sustainability strategies, the double diamond method of LCA and design thinking: A case study from aged care. Journal of Cleaner Production, 85, 67-82.
Crichton, S. (2014). Leapfrogging pedagogy: A design approach to making change in challenging contexts. The Electronic Journal of e-Learning, 12(1), 3-13.
Cross, N. (2011). Design thinking: Understanding how designers think and work. Oxford: Berg.
Cunnington, K. (2018). Leading the digital transformation of UK government from open access government. Retrieved March 15, 2018, from https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/leading-the-digital-transformation-of-uk-government-public-services/41666/.
D’Ippolito, B. (2014). The importance of design for firms’ competitiveness: A review of the literature. Technovation, 34(11), 716-730.
Dabbagh, N., & Fake, H. (2017). Tech select decision aide: A mobile application to facilitate Just-In-Time decision support for instructional designers. Tech Trends, 61, 393-403.
Davis, J. M., Docherty, C. A., & Dowling, K. (2016). Design thinking and innovation: Synthesising concepts of knowledge co-creation in spaces of professional development. The Design Journal, 19(1), 117-139.
Denning, P. J. (2013). Design thinking. Communications of the ACM, 56(12), 29-31.
Di Russo, S. (2016). Understanding the behavior of design thinking in complex environments, Unpublished PhD. Melbourne: Swinburne University.
Dong, A. (2016). Generative sensing in design evaluation. Design Studies, 45, 68-91.
Dong, A., Garbuio, M., & Lovallo, D. (2016). Generative sensing: A design perspective on the microfoundations of sensing capabilities. California Management Review, 58(4), 97-117.
Dow, S. P., Heddleston, K., & Klemmer, S. R. (2009). The efficacy of prototyping under time constraints. Proceedings of the Seventh ACM Conference on Creativity and Cognition, (pp. 165-174). USA: Berkeley Art Museum & UC Berkeley.
Dowling, C. (2012). The hand: Kinesthetic creation and the contemporary classroom. The International Journal of Learning,18(8), 51-66.
Drake, M. M. A. (2017). Embedding innovation pedagogy in teaching journalism. On the Horizon, 25(4), 286-292.
Duarte, O., Lulham, R., & Kaldor, L. (2011). Co-designing out crime. CoDesign, 7(3-4), 155-168.
Dunne, D., & Martin, R. (2006). Design thinking and how it will change management education: An interview and discussion. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 5(4), 512-523.
Easton, G. (2010). Critical realism in case study research. Industrial Marketing Management, 39, 118-128.
Eckman, M., Gorski, I., & Mehta, K. (2016). Leveraging design thinking to build sustainable mobile health systems. Journal of Medical Engineering & Technology, 40(7-8), 422-430.
English, L. D., Hudson, P. B., & Dawes, L. (2012). Engineering design processes in seventh-grade classrooms: Bridging the engineering education gap. European Journal of Engineering Education, 37(5), 436-447.
Erzurumlu, S. S., & Erzurumlu, Y.O. (2015). Sustainable mining development with community using design thinking and multi-criteria decision analysis. Research Policy, 46, 6-14.
Fabri, M., Andrews, P. C., & Pukki, H. K. (2016). Using design thinking to engage autistic students in participatory design of an online toolkit to help with transition into higher education. Journal of Assistive Technologies, 10(2), 102e114.
Fairburn, S. M. (2011). Designing transformations: Schools of excellence. Acta Astronautica, 69, 1132-1142.
Fleischmann, K. (2013). From whiteboard to user testing: Educating problem finding. The International Journal of Design Education, 7, 45-56.
Fleischmann, K., Daniel, R., & Welters, R. (2017). Developing a regional economy through creative industries: Innovation capacity in a regional Australian city. Creative Industries Journal, 10(2), 119-138.
Frisk, J. E., Lindgren, R., & Mathiassen, L. (2014). Design matters for decision makers: Discovering IT investment alternatives. European Journal of Information Systems, 23, 442-461.
Gachago, D., Morkel, J., Hitge, L., Zyl, I., & Ivala, E. (2017). Developing eLearning champions: A design thinking approach. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education. DOI: 10.1186/s41239- 017-0068-8.
Gaim, M., & Wåhlin, N. (2016). In search of a creative space: A conceptual framework of synthesizing paradoxical tensions. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 32, 33-44.
Geissdorefer, M., Bocken, N. M. P., & Hultink, E. J. (2016). Design thinking to enhance the sustainable business modelling process – A workshop based on a value mapping process. Journal of Cleaner Production. DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.07.020.
Glen, R., Suciu, C., Baughn, C. C., & Anson, A. (2015). Teaching design thinking in business schools. The International Journal of Management Education, 13, 182-192.
Goodspeed, R., Riseng, C., Wehrly, K., Yin, W., Mason, L., & Schoenfeldt, B. (2016). Applying design thinking methods to ecosystem management tools: Creating the great lakes aquatic habitat explorer. Marine Policy, 69, 134-145.
Greenhalgh, T., Jackson, C., Shaw, S., & Janamian, T. (2016). Achieving research impact through co-creation in community-based health services: Literature review and case study. The Milbank Quarterly, 94(2), 392-429.
Grobler, M., & Villie, C. (2017). Designing a more effective way to surface the information needs of people in developing communities. The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries, 82(3), 1-25.
Haruyama, S., Kim, S. K., Beiter, K. A., Dijkema, G. P. J., & de Weck, O. L. (2013). A new project-based curriculum of design thinking with systems engineering techniques. International Journal of System of Systems Engineering, 4(2), 162-173.
Hassan, Z. (2014). The social labs revolution: A new approach to solving our most complex challenges. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Henriksen, D., Richardson, C., & Mehta, R. (2017). Design thinking: A creative approach to educational problems of practice. Thinking Skills and Creativity. 26, 140-153.
Hill, S. (2016). Constructive conservation – A model for developing heritage assets. Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development, 6(10), 34-46.
Hopkins, I. G., Dunn, K., Bourgeois, F., Rogers, J., & Chiang, V. W. (2016). From development to implementation—A smartphone and email-based discharge follow-up program for pediatric patients after hospital discharge. Healthcare. DOI: 10.1016/j.hjdsi.2015.11.003.
Huq, A., & Gilbert, D. (2017). All the world’s a stage: Transforming entrepreneurship education through design thinking. Education and Training, 59(2), 155-170.
Jeppsen, S. (2005). Critical realism as an approach to unfolding empirical findings: Thoughts on fieldwork in South Africa on SMEs and environment. The Journal of Transdisciplinary Environmental Studies, 4(1), 2-7.
Johansson-Sköldberg, U., Woodilla, J., & Çetinkaya, M. (2013). Design thinking: Past, present and possible futures. Creativity and Innovation Management, 22(2), 121-146.
Kelly, T., & Littman, J. (2001). The art of innovation: Lessons in creativity from IDEO, America’s leading design firm. New York: Doubleday.
Khalaf, K., Balawi, S., & Hitt, G. W. (2013). Engineering design eduation: When, What, and HOW. Advances in engineering education, Winter, 1-31.
Kimbell, L. (2011). Rethinking design thinking: Part I. Design and Culture, 3(3), 285-306.
Kolko, J. (2010). Abductive thinking and sensemaking: The drivers of design dynthesis. Design Issues, 26(1), 15-28.
Lam, Y. L., & Shulha, L. M. (2015). Insights on using developmental evaluation for innovating: A case study on the co-creation of an innovative program. American Journal of Evaluation, 36(3), 358-374.
Lancione, M., & Clegg, S. R. (2015). The lightness of management learning. Management Learning, 46(3), 280–298.
Lau, K. W. (2009). Creativity training in higher design education. The Design Journal, 12(2), 153-169.
Laurel, B. (2003). Design research: Methods and perspectives. Cambridge: MIT press.
Lawson, B., & Dorst, K. (2013). Design expertise. New York: Routledge.
Leavy, B. (2011). Martin explores three big ideas: Customer capitalism, integrative thinking and design thinking. Strategy & Leadership, 39, 19–26.
Lewis M. O., & Elaver, R. (2014). Managing and fostering creativity: An integrated approach. The International Journal of Management Education, 12, 235-247.
Lewis, M., Hayward, S., & Hornyak, R. (2017). Design thinking: Breaking fixation for new relationships between organizations. Journal of Business Strategy, 38(6), 20-30.
Li, M. (2002). Fostering Design Culture through Cultivating the User-designers’ Design Thinking and Systems Thinking. Systemic Practice and Action Research, 15(5), 385-410.
Liedtka, J., King, A., & Bennett, K. (2013). Solving problems with design thinking: Ten stories of what works. New York: Columbia University Press.
Liedtka, J. (2014). Linking design thinking to innovation outcomes: The role of cognitive bias reduction. Academy of Management Proceedings, 1, 10628.
Liedtka, J. (2015). Perspective: Linking design thinking with innovation outcomes through cognitive bias reduction. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 32(6), 925-938.
Lockwood, T. (2010). Design thinking: Integrating innovation, customer experience, and brand value. New York: Allworth Press.
Lumsdaine, E., & Lumsdaine, M. (1994). Creative problem solving. IEEE Potentials, 13(5), 4-9.
Luotola, H., Hellström, M., Gustafsson, M., & Peminova-Harikoski, O. (2017). Embracing uncertainty in value-based selling by means of design thinking. Industrial Marketing Management, 65, 59-75.
Martin, G., Paulo, S., & Steve, E. (2017). The cambridge business model innovation process. Procedia Manufacturing, 8, 262-269.
Martin, R. L. (2009). The design of business: Why design thinking is the next competitive advantage. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Messuti, A., Wambeke, T., Kalz, M., & Bruschi, B. (2014). M-Workplace learning@ITC-ILO Design thinking for mobile learning interventions at work. In M. Kalz et al. (Eds.), mLearn 2014, CCIS 479 (pp. 272–286). Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.
Mubin, O., Novoa, M., & Mahmud, A. A. (2017). Infusing technology driven design thinking in industrial design education: A case study. Iteractive Technology and Smart Education, 14(3), 216-229.
Mulgan, G. (2012). The theoretical foundations of social innovation. In Nicholls, A. & Murdock, A. (Eds.), Social Innovation: Blurring Boundaries to Reconfigure Markets (pp. 33-65). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Mummah, S., Robinson, T. N., Mathur, M., Farzinkhou, S., Sutton, S., & Gardner, C. D. (2017). Effect of a mobile app intervention on vegetable consumption in overweight adults: A randomized controlled trial. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 14, 125. DOI: 10.1186/s12966-017-0563-2.
Myers, K. (2014). Managerial impediments to US microgrid development. Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management, 15(2),161–168.
Nielsen, S. L., & Stovang, P. (2015). DesUni: University entrepreneurship education through design thinking. Education + Training, 57(8/9), 977-991.
O’Driscoll, K. (2016). The agile data modelling & design thinking approach to information system requirements analysis. Journal of Decision Systems, 25(S1), 632–638.
Ortega, S., Furr, N., Liman, E., & Flint, C. (2014). The science of social impact innovation: How to deliver more impact through innovative business models. International Journal of Innovation Science, 6(2), 73-82.
Owen, C. L. (2005). Design thinking. What it is. Why it is different. Where it has New Value. Gwangju: Illinois Institute of Technology.
Owen, C. L. (2007). Design thinking: Notes on its nature and use. Design Research Quarterly, 2(1), 16-27.
Paris, D. L., & McInnis-Bowers, C. (2017). Business not as usual: Developing socially conscious entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs. Journal of Management Education, 41(5), 687-726.
Partridge, R. (2017). Understanding the roles of the designer in health care: A practice-based study into supporting adolescents with long-term conditions. The Design Journal, 20(4), 523-532.
Patel, S., & Mehta, K. (2017). Systems, design, and entrepreneurial thinking: Comparative frameworks. Systemic Practice and Action Research, 30, 515-533.
Paton, B., & Dorst, K. (2011). Briefing and reframing: A situated practice. Design Studies, 32, 573-587.
Peirce, C. S. (1931-1958). Collected papers of charles sanders peirce. In Hartshorne, C., & Weiss, P. (Eds.). (volumes 1-6) and Arthur W. Burks (volumes 7 and 8). Cambridge MA: Belknap Press.
Petersen, M., & Hempler, N. F. (2017). Development and testing of a mobile application to support diabetes self-management for people with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes: A design thinking case study. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, 17, 91. DOI: 10.1186/s12911-017-0493-6.
Pittarello, F., & Pellergrini, T. (2017). HCI and education: A blended design experience. Multimedia tools and applications, 76, 4895–4923.
Price, R., & Wrigley, C. (2016). Design and a deep customer insight approach to innovation. Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 28(2), 92-105.
Psillos, S. (2009). An explorer upon untrodden ground: Peirce on abduction. In Gabbay, D. M., Hartmann, S. & Woods, J. (Eds.), Handbook of the history of logic, Volume 10: Inductive Logic (pp. 117–51). Amsterdam: Elsevier BV.
Ramos, A. K., Trinidad, N., Correa, A., & Rivera, R. (2016). Partnering for health with nebraska’s latina immigrant community using design thinking process. Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education, and Action, 10(2), 311-318.
Reos Partners. (2017). Systems thinking with the iceberg module. Retrieved April 4, 2017, from http://reospartners.com/publications/systems-thinking-with-the-iceberg-module/.
Retna, K. S. (2016). Thinking about “Design Thinking”: A study of teacher experiences. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 36(1), 5-19.
Sanders, E. B.-N., & Stappers, P. J. (2008). Co-creation and the new landscapes of design. Co-design, 4(1), 5-18.
Sayer, A. (1992). Method in social science: A realist approach, (2nd ed.) London: Routledge.
Sayer, A. (2000). Realism and social science. London: Sage.
Schön D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. New York: Basic Book.
Selloni, D., & Corubolo, M. (2017). Design for social enterprises: How design thinking can support social innovation within social enterprises. The Design Journal, 20(6), 775-794.
Senge, P. M. (1992). Mental models. Planning Review, 20(2), 4-44.
Senge, P. M. (1998). The leader’s New Work: Building learning organization. In Hickman, G. R. (Ed.), Leading Organizations: Perspectives for a New Era (pp. 439-456). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Senge, P. M., Lichtenstein, B. B., Kaeufer, K., Bradbury, H., & Carroll, J. S. (2007). Collaborating for systemic change. MIT Sloan Management Review, 48(2), 44-53.
Shapira, H., Ketchie, A., & Nehe, M. (2017). The integration of design thinking and strategic sustainable development. Journal of Cleaner Production, 140, 277-287.
Stanford d.school. (2010). Bootcamp bootleg. Standford: Standford University.
Steen, M., Buijs, J., & Williams, D. (2014). The role of scenarios and demonstrators in promoting sharedunderstanding in innovation projects. International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management, 11(1), 1-21.
Steinbeck, R. (2011). Building creative competence in globally distributed courses through design thinking. Scientific Journal of Media Literacy, 19(37), 27-34.
Steinmetz, G. (1998). Critical realism and historical sociology: A review article. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 40(1), 170-186.
Stewart, S. (2011). Interpreting design thinking. Design Studies, 32(6), 515–520.
Szebeko, D., & Tan, L. (2010). Co-design for society. Australasian Medical Journal, 3(9), 580-590.
Tan, C., & Wong, Y.L. (2012). Promoting spiritual ideals through design thinking in public schools. International Journal of Children’s Spirituality, 17(1), 25-37.
Thies, A. (2015). On the value of design thinking for innovation in complex contexts: A case from healthcare. Interaction Design and Architecture’s Journal, 159-171.
Tkaczyk, B. (2014). Crafting continuing learning and development: A positive design tool for leadership development. An International Journal of Development and Learning in Organizations, 28(4), 5-8.
Tschimmel, K. (2012). Design thinking as an effective toolkit for innovation. ISPIM Conference Proceedings, (pp. 1-20), Barcelona, Spain.
Valentine, L., Kroll, T., Bruce, F., Lim, C., & Mountain, R. (2017). Design thinking for social innovation in health care. The Design Journal. DOI: 10.1080/14606925.2017.1372926.
Verganti, R. (2009). Design-driven innovation: Changing the rules of competition by radically innovating what things mean. Boston: Harvard Business Press.
Vetterli, C., Brenner, W., Uebernickel, F., & Petrie, C. (2013). From palaces to yurts why requirements engineering needs design thinking. IEEE Internet Computing, 17(2), 91-94.
Warnecke, T. (2016). Capabilities, human development, and design thinking: A framework for gender-sensitive entrepreneurship programs. Review of Social Economy, 74(4), 420-430.
Welsh, M. A., & Dehler, G. E. (2013). Combining critical reflection and design thinking to develop integrative learners. Journal of Management Education, 37(6), 771-802.
Williams, T. (2014). Developing a transdisciplinary approach to improve urban traffic congestion based on product ecosystem theory. In N. Marchettini, C. A. Brebbia, R. Pulselli & S. Bastianoni (Eds.), The sustainable city IX: Proceedings of 9th international conference on urban regeneration and sustainability (pp. 723-733). Siena, Italy: WITpress.
Wuisman, J. (2005). The logic of scientific discovery in critical realist social scientific research. Journal of Critical Realism, 4(2), 366-394.
Zupan, B., & Nabergoj, A. S. (2012). Developing design thinking skills in entrepreneurship education. Leading Through Design, 525-535.