i+D - January/February 2019 - 33

Of Thought & Process - By Brian J. Barth

Unexpected Inspiration
Nobel Prize laureate Herbert A. Simon is widely credited with
first introducing the principles of design thinking in his 1969 book,
The Sciences of the Artificial. In it, he identified a seven-stage
cycle for arriving at design solutions: define, research, ideate,
prototype, choose, implement, learn. This concept has been
endlessly reformulated over the years. There's a five-stage
version currently en vogue that emphasizes putting yourself in a
user's shoes: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test. Some
prefer to distill design thinking to three core concepts: empathy,
intervention, and iteration. In fact, Interior Designers of Canada
(IDC) built the programming for its recent Value of Design Thinking
Symposium around these very principles. (IDC's 2019 Design
Symposium will take place in September, in Vancouver.)
When it comes to this thought process, being prescriptive is not
the point, says Sarah Stein Greenberg, executive director of the
Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University, popularly
known as the d.school, the spiritual home of the design thinking
movement in North America. "Design thinking encompasses
a wide range of tools and methods, and there's no one formulaic
way to apply it; it is essentially a way of moving back and forth
between action and reflection in a highly iterative way. At the
d.school, we help people learn that design thinking isn't just about
problem solving, it's also about identifying and framing the most
compelling or useful problem to work on. You have to go into
it with an attitude of humility, knowing that your initial ideas for
solutions-or even the problem itself-is going to be challenged
and refined, based on developing a real understanding of what
the humans you are designing for actually need and value."
To that end, the d.school is not focused on any one branch of
design- it doesn't bestow degrees in architecture or interior design,
for example-so much as teaching design in a way that can apply to
any field. Current offerings include programs geared for educators,
business executives, and social advocates.

"One aspect of our approach that
has developed over time is the shift
that design has made from being
squarely about artifacts, products,
or services into more systems-level
work that is aimed at having positive
social impact."
-SARAH STEIN GREENBERG, d.school

David Kelley, founder of the legendary firm IDEO, which developed the
designs for such iconic tech products as the Apple mouse and Palm digital
assistant, graduated from Stanford with a master's degree in engineering
and product design in 1978, and returned in 2004 to help establish the
d.school. Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, the school quickly became
influential in the tech world: "Innovation," it could be said, is the product of
design thinking. At its heart, design thinking is about reconfiguring reality
to elicit positive behavioral change in society and unlocking or creating
value that did not previously exist, the essence of what tech visionaries
call "disruption." For this reason, Kelley has long argued for the integration
of design thinking as an epistemological pillar across both liberal arts- and
science-based education.
Stein Greenberg says the school attracts students from across the Stanford
campus with classes on designing a better criminal justice system,
reimagining pediatric care, and developing new strategies for ocean
conservation, alongside other topics you wouldn't expect to find at a design
school. "One aspect of our approach that has developed over time is the
shift that design has made from being squarely about artifacts, products, or
services into more systems-level work that is aimed at having positive social
impact," she explains. "We've seen the need to equip students with a new
frame around design work that places less emphasis on a process-based
approach, and more on the core abilities that they need to develop to tackle
these kinds of challenges effectively."

Handpainted and individually
numbered, the limited edition
Hedy Bench by Dan Brunn
Architecture was conceived
to provide contrast to a blank
architectural canvas.
(Image: Dan Brunn Architecture)

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