Thinking through Design Thinking
Original Post and Comments HERE at Archis.org
Overview: The author is taking on the idea that Design Thinking is actually part of Design as the Design discipline actually is and historically has existed. Several different areas of thought are introduced, and contrasted with each other.– Thoughts on this: I would have to agree that the general notion that Design Thinking is simply a by product of Design is an incomplete/incorrect one. Design Thinking is more like a child that has been born to a parent. It is a young discipline that has the DNA of several established disciplines (most notably Design, (specifically Industrial Design) and Psychology/Sociology. 
Thinking through Design Thinking
IDEO /Tim Brown, Bruce Nussbaum and Stanford d.school call it Design Thinking.
Michael Speaks, Michael Shamiyeh, Bruce Mau talk about Design Intelligence,
Nigel Cross writes about Designerly ways of knowing (one of the best books i’ve read so far on design thinking).
All these ideas deal with design as process rather than object. They all articulate and confirm the idea that there is a ’specific way of thinking that is unique to design’ and ‘that this way of thinking is applicable on any problem’ It is a way of seeing, understanding and making the world, and the ‘design way’ is a universal way, there is no problem that can not be solved, … or so it seems (this is one of the claims of Bruce Mau’s Massive change exhibit and book anyway).
Although one has to acknowledge a certain naivety behind this idea, it is non the less very appealing, especially for a designer, or well … an architect like myself.
Thinking about design as a universal problem solving method radically enlarges the arena for design and provides the design discipline with a sense of authority. It provides a credibility to the discipline that is instrumental in getting designer involved in projects at a point where the fundamental decisions are made, instead of calling designers in to only deal with the cosmetics of a project. One has to read the efforts of IDEO and Bruce Nussbaum in this light, as advocating for a design discipline that is more involved at the moments and places where it matters and where it can make a significant impact.
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