Embedded Files
https://sts-news.medium.com/the-design-thinking-movement-is-absurd-83df815b92ea
"...As others put it to me, Design Thinking gives students an unrealistic idea of design and the work that goes into creating positive change. Upending that old dictum “knowledge is power,” Design Thinkers giver their students power without knowledge, “creative confidence” without actual capabilities...."
"....It is, at its core, a strategy to preserve and defend the status-quo — and an old strategy at that. Design thinking privileges the designer above the people she serves, and in doing so limits participation in the design process. In doing so, it limits the scope for truly innovative ideas, and makes it hard to solve challenges that are characterized by a high degree of uncertainty — like climate change — where doing things the way we always have done them is a sure recipe for disaster...."
Design is human intuition. Does it really take an expensive and exhaustive design thinking process to understand that a medical treatment room for kids should have whimsical colors and a more delightful environment? She argues that spending money to arrive at this conclusion is nonsense.
Lack of crit. Design thinking has become a bunch of buzzwords lacking criticism. “Crits,” or criticizing others’ work, is a messy process where designers surround themselves with evidence. This process helps designers evaluate whether something is good or not and it isn’t linear or reduced to a bunch of Post-It notes. She argues that without crit, design thinking is actually anti-intellectual.
Design Thinking Retrospective- What Went Wrong?
Design Thinking Retrospective- What Went Wrong?
The article from MIT Technology Review titled "Design Thinking Was Supposed to Fix the World. Where Did It Go Wrong?" explores the shortcomings of design thinking, a problem-solving methodology that gained popularity for its user-centric approach and creative problem-solving techniques. The method, initially celebrated for fostering innovation and improving products and services by focusing on the end-user's needs, has faced significant criticism over time.
Key criticisms include:
Superficial Application: Many organizations adopted design thinking as a superficial trend rather than a deep, meaningful process. They often failed to integrate its principles into their core operations, leading to a lack of substantial impact.
Misunderstanding and Misuse: Design thinking was often misunderstood and misapplied. Companies focused more on the process's visual and collaborative aspects, like brainstorming sessions and sticky notes, without addressing deeper systemic issues.
Overemphasis on Ideation: The methodology tends to emphasize idea generation and prototyping but falls short in execution and implementation. This gap means that while many ideas are generated, few are effectively executed and scaled.
Lack of Diversity and Inclusivity: Critics argue that design thinking often lacks true diversity and inclusivity, which are crucial for genuinely user-centric solutions. Without diverse perspectives, the solutions risk being narrow and not representative of broader user needs.
The article concludes that for design thinking to fulfill its potential, it must be applied more thoughtfully and integrated with other strategic and operational processes within organizations (MIT Technology Review) (MIT Technology Review).
Page updated
Report abuse