The Toolbox

Design Thinking

In Chinese landscape painting, the proportions fit people. The image invites the viewer to rescale themselves and take a stroll through the pathways of the scene. How might we design situations, solutions, and processes that are fit to human scale? “Landscape of the Four Seasons in the Styles of Old Masters,” Wei Zhike, 1625

Thou shalt not design for thyself

Vision is one of the prerequisites for social change. It is the mechanism by which we imagine a better future. But vision can be its own kind of ignorance; it can prevent us from acknowledging what is right before us. Accordingly, we need ways to protect against the arrogance of our own perspectives and to reveal the insights that might be hidden in the people and the world around us. That takes intention, and that intention is captured in the spirit of design thinking.

“Design” first referred to creating an object or work of art. But the process of design has been expanded, generalized, and refined into a discipline often called “design thinking” or “human‐centered design.” This discipline—at once ancient and modern—provides a way of thinking about solving problems in a complex world.

In this chapter we will explore seven design thinking techniques—from prototyping to ethnography to visualization. ...