Tim Brown originally wrote Change by Design in 2009 and revised it in 2019. According to him, design thinking is a methodology that imbues the full spectrum of innovation activities with a human-centred design ethos. Put simply, design thinking is a problem-solving process through the users’ needs beyond the canvas of design that is applicable to a range of industries, situations, and even our daily lives. The design thinking cycle is iterative, not linear, and can be modified flexibly depending on the context. 

I decided to read this book to get insights for my research last year, but due to a busy schedule, this book had been placed on the bookshelf for a while. I love the concept of design itself because design adds invaluable value to what I create. At this moment, the Apple logo comes into my mind because Steve Jobs highlighted both functionality and aesthetics, leading to understanding the importance of design aspects.

Since last year, I have been incorporating design theory into my research. However, I could not find practical guidelines to help me develop a concrete concept. I realized I needed to spend some time organizing vague and scattered concepts across design theories before writing up a preliminary proposal.

There is no best single way to go through the design process, but the simple three phases (inspiration, ideation, implementation) from Brown (2019, p. 22) helped me figure out my design project. Inspiration as a first step enables us to motivate the search for solutions to the problem or opportunities. Ideation as a second step allows us to generate, develop, and test ideas through the process. Finally, implementation makes the project a reality.

The design thinking is to articulate a goal at the beginning of the project (p. 27). This imposes discipline and enables us to review progress, make course corrections, and redirect future work. Design thinking is inherently tentative and experimental, with flexibility as a key element. Design thinking takes risks and explores rather than keeping a culture of hierarchy and efficiency. Humans should be put at the centre of the story (p. 47). Design is basically a creative endeavour, generating new ideas and concepts. Design thinking has a human-centredness as a foundation. Design thinking is a perfect tool for co-designing devices with real users agreeing with personalized and customized learning.

However, there are three constraints: feasibility (functionality), viability (economic sustainability), and desirability (the sense of the users’ needs), as shown in Figure 3. Since innovation takes place in the common area among three constraints, I think three constraints make the design thinking cycle efficient and effective.

References

Brown, T. (2018). Change by design. Happer Business.

Brown, T. (2008). Design Thinking. Harvard Business Review, 86(6), 84-92. https://hbr.org/2008/06/design-thinking

Bakker, A. (2018). Design research in education: A practical guide for early career researchers. Routledge. http://doi.org/10.4324/9780203701010

Buckingham Shum, S., Ferguson, R., & Martinez-Maldonado, R. (2019). Human-Centred Learning Analytics. Journal of Learning Analytics, 6(2), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.18608/jla.2019.62.1

McKenney, S., & Reeves, T. C. (2012). Conducting Educational Design Research. Routledge.