Design Thinking

How It’s Developing

The development of design thinking is most closely associated with the design and innovation company IDEO and the d.school at Stanford University.

Formed in 1991 through the merger of David Kelley Design, ID Two, and two other design firms, IDEO initially engaged in traditional design work for businesses, but found its work increasingly engaging in projects that were distinct from traditional concepts of design, addressing social issues and shifting from products to experiences. [2] IDEO distinguished itself by engaging with users early in the design process – recognizing that users’ reactions to a final product could not be predicted no matter how deep their upfront understanding was – and developing very low-resolution prototypes that they could use to gain early feedback, repeating the process in short cycles to improve the product until it met the user’s needs. [3] In 2004, David Kelley led the creation of Stanford University’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, referred to as the d.school, which helped to popularize some of IDEO’s approaches as a way of thinking to explain what designers do. [4]

Design thinking seeks to make anyone a creative problem-solver. [5] To help people become creative problem-solvers, the process encourages users to build empathy, ideate and prototype solutions, and refine those solutions by seeking additional feedback. To build empathy, individuals engage with and observe the behaviors of the end user that will receive the product or service. [6] The ideation process begins to bring those observations together to lead to solutions or opportunities for change; the process creates a multitude of choices and possible solutions, increasing the likelihood of bolder and more compelling ideas through combination. [7] The implementation of those ideas begins with the development of concrete prototypes or models of the service or product that can be tested with users, providing a cycle of feedback that allows for iteration and refinement with the end user. Therefore, unforeseen implementation challenges and unintended consequences can be uncovered and corrected. [8] A more detailed exploration of the process, specifically for libraries, can be found in Design Thinking for Libraries.

As technology changes consumers’ expectations, design thinking has become more important for businesses, where products, hardware, software, packaging, and service must all be well-designed to be simple, intuitive, and pleasurable. [9] This has led to an increased focus on design across businesses as a way to differentiate products, increase brand loyalty, and bring their products and services to market faster. [10]  

Design thinking has influenced education in both content and delivery. In K-12 education, design thinking’s popularity can be attributed to its alignment with many popular concepts in education, including self-directed inquiry, collaborative problem-solving, social-emotional learning, and production-oriented learning. These concepts align with design thinking’s emphasis on learning that can happen not just in the final stages of developing the end product, but throughout the design process. [11] In schools where design thinking helps shape instruction, careful attention must be paid to the full complexity of the process, lest rushed implementation result in wasted effort, overburdened teachers, and ineffective class time. [12] Design thinking is also finding its way into the curriculum, as part of the set of skill students will need to succeed in the workplace. Working with the New School in New York, IDEO helped to develop Journalism + Design, a series of classes, workshops, events, and convenings designed to infuse a design mentality into the work of journalist who will increasingly be challenged to produce well-designed stories and content that enhance their readers’ experiences and integrate multiple diverse media formats. [13]

Design thinking has also gained appeal among nonprofits, education institutions, community-based organizations, and cultural institutions. These organizations have used the process to develop better solutions to social problems – and to develop those solutions with and through the people who would benefit from the solution, rather than imposing a solution from the top, down. [14] Design thinking’s focus on problem framing, before any solutions or products are explored, could support the goals of organizations that serve the public good and seek to better understand the needs of the general public or a specific part of the community. [15] In California, the leaders of the Alpha Public Schools charter network used a design thinking process to engage students, parents, and community members to help plan the network’s first high school; the community of users helped administrators define the problems with current high school offerings, brainstorm long lists of possible solutions, and develop a comprehensive plan for the new higher school. [16]

Why It Matters

Especially in education, design thinking’s popularity could have serious implications for people’s perception of research. By prioritizing research as observing and questioning and establishing the user as the expert, design thinking could position itself at odds with traditional notions of research that find answers in an established body of knowledge and place expertise in historical awareness to influence innovations. In a related way, it could prioritize the value of applied research over basic research. [17] If a design thinking curriculum reframes research as going out into the world and observing the actual experiences of users, libraries and library professionals may need to consider how they adapt to serve this new form of research, supporting or enhancing this practice by making sense of collected information and bringing it together with information from published sources. [18]

As more users, especially in the education setting, adopt design thinking, there may be need to rethink library space in order to accommodate the physicality of design thinking through group work, active and engaged discussions, use of whiteboards and Post-it notes, production of prototypes, and experimentation with users. [19]     

Design thinking could align with libraries’ broad missions to help individuals be curious, intuitive, recognize patterns, construct ideas, and express themselves (though more often in a medium other than words or symbols). [20] As institutions that serve the needs of learners, library professionals may want to observe design thinking’s appeal among a new generation of users and consider how that appeal might be built into library instruction, marketing, programs, or services. [21]

As a tool for improving library services, design thinking could have many implications. Elements of design thinking may already be used by libraries, though under different names or processes, especially for libraries that actively engage with users and strive to reflect the interests and aspirations of their communities. [22] By placing the needs and interest of users at the center of the development of products or services, design thinking could help libraries discover authentic and positive ways to address issues of equity and diversity. [23] Similarly, by encouraging inclusive ideation and providing space for divergent thinking, design thinking could help library professionals become more respectful of diverse perspectives and ways of thinking. [24]

The apparent simplicity of design thinking could lead organizations to adopt the process in name only, without respecting the careful complexity of its implementation or recognizing the limits of its applicability. Design thinking could be used to remedy individual problems or circumstances without considering the larger systemic complexities in society. [25] While design thinking can spur rapid innovation and improvement, it cannot remedy problems in organizational culture nor substitute for basic organizational support or structures that provide a positive work environment. [26]

Where it is used within an organization, design thinking could have implications for staff and organizational culture. By placing expertise in the end user, design thinking could de-emphasize expertise and defy traditional hierarchical thinking that places expertise in the most learned, tenured, or ranked. [27] Design thinking could change the role of managers and leaders, placing a greater emphasis on their ability to facilitate cultures in which innovation and creation are the primary goals. A 2015 Wolff Olins Leadership Report identified the growing need for designers-in-chief of corporate culture, instilling coworkers with designers’ skills, like the ability to recognize problems or opportunities, propose fixes, iterate those fixes until they've found the one right solution, and work in small teams to develop new products and experiences. [28]

For those institutions that adopt design thinking, there could also be challenges with their sense of how public institutions are responsible to their communities. As institutions that take their responsibility with public funding seriously, libraries may need to carefully manage design thinking’s embrace of failure in the process of innovating, failing, and innovating again. [29] The embrace of failure could be made easier by remembering the process’s emphasis on early failure as a means of early learning that could save organizations valuable time and resources in the long run. [30] 

With an emphasis on innovation and entrepreneurship, some professionals could see design thinking as a move toward commercialization and corporate thinking and away from our traditional “public good” role. [31]