Design thinking

Podcasts: what is design?

When someone asks you a question how do you respond?  Do you respond where the first thing that pops into your or are you more decisive in your response? Everyone’s answer to this will differ and there are many factors that may need to be considered, such as emotions and the setting of where the question is being asked. I am fairly confident that our ability to respond to questions and to answer what is actually being asked, improves with experience and time.

The way our brain works is fascinating – mental models, contextualisation, language, emotion, biases and many other things have an influence on our thoughts.

You may be familiar with the concept of design thinking, if you aren’t here is a quick definition.

This model of thinking is described by the Interaction Design Foundation as “a design methodology that provides a solution-based approach to solving problems. It’s extremely useful in tackling complex problems that are ill-defined or unknown, by understanding the human needs involved, by re-framing the problem in human-centric ways, by creating many ideas in brainstorming sessions, and by adopting a hands-on approach in prototyping and testing.”

Over the last few weeks I have been unpacking this model further and been asking the questions of what is design and who is a designer? Far too often we become constrained in our thinking or fall into existing definitions of categories. Through empathy, problem solving, and opening our minds we can address questions from different angles… ultimately designing a response to the question we have been posed or the answer we are trying to find.

So, that’s my rant and a few thoughts for the week. I strongly believe that we are all designers and have the ability to better understand this model to help us solve problems.

Podcast from the week:

Reads worth your time:

A quote to ponder:

“Most geniuses—especially those who lead others—prosper not by deconstructing intricate complexities but by exploiting unrecognized simplicities.” — Andy Benoit