Design thinking as a formula destroys Design as a creative process…
After all, it is only the latest — and a more fashionable version of the ever reducing, ever fragmenting, and ever controlling modern mindset
One of the hottest selling commodities in the marketplace of ideas is ‘Design Thinking,’ which stands for a set of conceptual and practical processes which its proponents claim can lead to more innovative solutions, but also have further application in every field on earth.
Fulfilling all the requirements of any consumer good, it is a well-designed, sleek, developed-in-the-west, no confusion product. True to its nature modernity has turned a non-rational, spontaneous process into a product and turned that beautiful, live, process into just another formula.
Design thinking is yet another (oxy)moronic buzzword, like ‘systems thinking’ or ‘experiential learning.’ All these concepts are best understood as textbook illustrations of the nature of the mindset of modern expertise. First and foremost, they will fragment something that is seamlessly integrated, turn all multi-directional phenomena into linear ones, and then — as if they discovered a solution — put them together in the most absurd way.
Thinking is a linear process whether you do divergent thinking or convergent thinking. The very core of design is to move out of this linearity, familiarity, and predictability and, of course, offer the most appropriate solutions. And the ‘systems’ referred to in systems thinking is a multi-dimensional phenomenon; again a totally non-linear one.
This in turn reveals a total lack of ‘critical thinking,’ which is, incidentally, another conceptual delusion. When the whole cognitive foundation of the modern mind, starting from home, and continuing through schooling, university, and the workplace, is built with second-hand information, how can one ever be truly critical?
Let’s keep in mind that the ability to design is not exclusive to any one kind of people, least of all professional designers because humans are born designers; every child has the natural ability to find the most appropriate design solutions. In childhood, they exist in the realm of ‘process;’ that is, until they are handed ‘products,’ be it readymade toys, knowledge, solutions, and so on.
The later school years reinforce this, ensuring that the child’s natural ability for design is systematically eliminated. The difference cannot be overstated; every child belongs to the paradigm of the process, whereas the modern mind, especially the professional mind, inhabits the paradigm of the product.
Design is an attitude, a way of being. Designing is a multi-dimensional ability, which used to be outside the realm of reason. Now it has been turned into just another formula that can be taught to unsuspecting and fragile victims. Design has been turned into a play of abstractions, a verbal game. All logical and verbose people take advantage of this and now routinely add design thinking in their curriculum vitae.
When I was a design student in Ahmedabad, I came across a book on creativity by Dr. Pradip Khandwalla, who was the Director of IIM Ahmedabad. That’s when I first realized that creativity was a big buzzword in management circles. Those days I would jokingly tell visiting friends that if they wanted to see creativity happening, they should come to NID, but if they wanted to hear about it, they had to go to IIM!
This is not to say that only professionally qualified designers can do design, but to point out that design is essentially rooted in experience and not a mere linguistic/thought process. The most unfortunate part of this is that even design schools have started teaching design thinking as a subject. This is like proverbial dullard asking who Rama was, after listening to a narration of the whole Ramayana.
The very essence of design education is to help you develop your innate ability to design. Design is an adventure into the unknown, where excessive reasoning and readymade knowledge have little role to play. It is a tragedy that even designers themselves rarely delve into design’s possibility for self-transformation. Such close-mindedness is in accordance with the very nature of the modern mind, which seeks to turn everything into the realm of the known, to force-fit creativity, spontaneity, and intuition within the frame of reason.
In fact, design education is a good starting point for exploring what really is wrong with the modern educational paradigm. There’s an urgent need to examine design education ‘critically’ and re-evaluate the very fundamentals of the discipline.
Please take a look at these videos by Natasha Jen on design thinking
Natasha Jen: Design Thinking is Bullsh*t
