Design Thinking Research: Making Design Thinking Foundational (Understanding Innovation)

This book summarizes the results of Design Thinking Research carried out at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, USA and Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Germany. The authors offer readers a closer look at Design Thinking with its processes of innovations and methods. The contents of the articles range from how to design ideas, methods and technologies via creativity experiments and wicked problem solutions, to creative collaboration in the real world and the connectivity of designers and engineers. But the topics go beyond this in their detailed exploration of design thinking and its use in IT systems engineering fields and even from a management perspective. The authors show how these methods and strategies work in companies, introduce new technologies and their functions and demonstrate how Design Thinking can influence as diverse a topic area as marriage. Furthermore, we see how special design thinking use functions in solving wicked problems in complex fields. Thinking and creating innovations are basically and inherently human – so is Design Thinking. Due to this, Design Thinking is not only a factual matter or a result of special courses nor of being gifted or trained: it’s a way of dealing with our environment and improving techniques, technologies and life.

What is the actual impact of design thinking? Which tools and techniques could conceivably improve team interaction in design processes? What influences creativity? And how can information be secured? These are just a few of the questions that were addressed by research teams from Stanford University, USA, and the Hasso Plattner Institute for Software Systems Engineering, Potsdam, Germany, within their joint Design Thinking Research Program.

Scientists from both institutions have been studying the user-centric innovation method of design thinking for many years now to gain a deep, evidence-based understanding of its underlying principles and functioning. The outcome of their studies, experiments and investigations in the sixth program year are summarized in this volume. Again research covers a diverse range of design thinking domains. The aim, however, is not only to advance design thinking theory and knowledge within the research community. Rather the program strives to ultimately improve design practice and education by gathering scientific evidence that supports design activities.

The first part of this book presents tools and techniques for improved team interaction that have been investigated and developed by the research teams. Creativity and creative confidence as central factors in design thinking are the focus of the second part. The book continues with investigations on the actual impact of design thinking and conceivable metrics. The fourth and final part of the book addresses issues of documentation and information transfer in innovation processes.

By taking the understanding of innovation to a new level that is relevant to all disciplines, our research provides a significant contribution toward making design thinking a foundational science.