Another perspective that I believe is missing from Bruce Nussbaum’s critique of the design thinking movement is a deeper analysis of why design thinking was believed to be a compelling process in the first place. If we think about its popularity as a design solution to a societal problem, we can critique it as we would a prototype. I believe design thinking attempts to respond to a series of current societal aspirations. This week’s blog will look at aspirations on a collective basis and part two will look at those on an individual basis.

Societal Aspirations for the Collective

A Demand for Optimism and Change

Designers are radical optimists. Rather than focusing on negatives and fixating on what’s wrong, designers find solutions to the challenges of our time.

A Demand for Economic Competitiveness

As the US feels the end of hegemony approaching, our leaders grapple to establish our competitive advantage in the global arena. Design’s integrative thinking offers an alternative to Asia’s emphasis on left-brain thinking that allows them to excel at math and science. Responses to the PISA test results , tend to be calls for creativity and valuing play when raising our children. Such a response seems to suggest that if we cannot compete with logical thinking, we can excel in creativity and innovation to offer different skills to the global community.

A Demand for Valuing Creativity

As our country strives to compete in the global arena using math and science and measuring success with simple, quantifiable data, we feel the loss of expression and emotion. Designers explore alternative paths with integrated thinking. An attention to beauty and desirability connects designers to abstract concepts, human tendencies emotions. (This is what Nussbaum is zeroing in on with his creativity quotient.)

A Demand for Speed

Technological advancements exponentially increase the speed of life in transit and information retrieval and delivery. We need to keep up and we need information resources to be quick to digest and obviously relevant to what we are looking for. This demand contributes to the popularity of infographics and data visualizations, which present complex data sets in easily digestible and visually-based forms.

A Demand for Rich Sensory Experiences

With the American/European culture based on literary traditions and as technology converts more and more of our lives into a digital form, we use our senses of sight and sound often, but what about our senses of smell, touch and taste? Design creates physically-engaging representations of ideas and concepts that span media and dimensions. The result is a more dynamic sensory experience.

-Sarah Malin