ABSTRACT
This book is both a celebration of design and a challenge to think about it differently. We are in an moment where design is center stage. Magazines are challenging us to “think like a designer” and championing design and innovation as the savior of our troubles. From a technological perspective, this is an exciting time to be a designer because we have the ability to speculate, knowing that our speculations will be a reality–not in 100 years, but in ten. Our wildest, craziest inventions are possible–it’s just a matter of time. But there is also immense pressure on design to solve many of the problems that have been created in the last 100 years–everything from better infrastructural strategies to handle our ever-increasing city populations to how to better manage the personal debt that affects individuals and economies. Design is championed for being able to get us out of the mess that we are in environmentally, technically, and economically by developing products and environments that are cleaner, easier to manufacture, and affordable for a wider range of users. This is a lot for the field to support, especially if we want to do it conscientiously. It is especially difficult considering design as a field is relatively young. Our history of self-reflection is short and we are still in the midst of defining a comprehensive and succinct set of theories and methods that drive it. The strength of design thinking is that it forces designers to think expansively and narrowly; broadly and deeply; generatively and selectively; and to operate as both insiders and outsiders. One of the main attributes of any good designer is the ability to understand first-hand what potential users might need, and identify problems within a current situation. Gandhi was quoted as saying, “Your beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your values, your values become your destiny.” This book focuses on how our beliefs about design affect not only our (as designers) thoughts, words, etc. but also how they affect the thoughts, beliefs, actions, habits, and values of the people who use them.
