Going Deeper Than Design Thinking
Research, Writing, Visual Design, Production
As part of a Design Thinking Studio at CMU, I wrote, illustrated, and produced a ‘manual’ for non-designers to navigate design (thinking).
Contribution | Solo project, including concept development, interviewing, writing, illustration & book production
Tools + Methods | Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Surveying
Time frame | 3 weeks research/development, 2 weeks production
Excerpt from the concluding chapter:
“These ethnographic samples offer a glimpse of a deeper story about what might make good design, and demonstrate that the most impactful design work is often unglamorous, unassuming, and labour intensive. Of course, intellectually understanding design, even in contextual detail, is still not enough, and reading this book won’t provide everything you need to do excellent design. For that, you need to have done design. To spent time and effort cultivating methods specific to context, learning to spot moments that call for reframing problems, becoming sensitive and intentional about making cognitive shifts, understanding what it takes to really listen, and practicing, over and over again, the specific skills (and thrill) of making real stuff (happen).”
My approach to making a 'design thinking manual’ was to dodge the more conceptual and generalized lessons of traditional design thinking education, and lead the reader directly to the action by providing an ethnographic peep into human-centered designers in their habitats – their habits, methods, beliefs and visions for design.
Process Highlights
My approach was motivated by my own impatience, having been interested in design myself for some years I felt limited by abstracted ‘process’ theory, and curious about what modern ‘human-centered’ design work actually looks like outside of wireframes and whiteboards. The process started with exploring themes that were personally interesting, identifying theorists and practitioners who’s work resonated with me, and brainstorming possible formats or stories that could tie each piece together in response to the brief.
The majority of my time was spent planning and preparing question & activity sheets for designers I planned to interview. I did this by testing possible interview questions by answering them myself, and then assessing the output based on whether it conveyed the kind of ethnographic insight that brought meaning to the reader. I decided to replace questions about process diagramming and “tips for budding designers” with a speculative futures artifact, in order to draw juicier insights from interviewees using a more concise (yet creative!) ask.
I produced cover art in Illustrator, wrote mini-essays that outlined western post-industrial design ‘waves’ including design thinking and it’s criticisms, and formatted/typeset the book using InDesign. The first copy of the book was entirely cut and bound by hand. The final copy was machine bound, with the cover attached by hand.
