design thinking

the first project of this semester is for the graduate class to work together and collectively "unpack" design thinking. as we know, this term as become a buzzword, very much like sustainability or innovation. through this process, the word has lost meaning. what does design thinking mean? what differentiates the process from other modes of thinking?

to begin, design thinking has been broken down into:
• hand/mind connections
• metaphorical thinking
• situated plans and actions or "situatedness"
• pattern finding
• visual thinking
• concept mapping and diagramming
• innovation process
• rules and constraints
• brainstorming
• modeling and sketching
• lateral thinking
• scenarios
• schemas
• framing context
• prototyping
• morphological thinking

for the next week, we will each be intensively researching one of these concepts. the research really began wed, but we are just now getting to the meat of things. following the research, we will work together to design a system to display the information in an exhibition — both physical and digital. the digital version will be displayed in two online spaces. (more to come on that later)

i am researching situated plans and actions or "situatedness" which actually connects back to a project about motivation that i was involved with in my first semester.

as always, more to come…