Framing Design Problems

"If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it,” Albert Einstein said.

Companies spend a lot of time and resources on solving the wrong problems. The question is - are you solving the right ones? And how do you frame it in a way that inspires actions and solutions?

In general, the promise of 'design thinking' sounds great - applying art and science in an integrated, systematic way to solve even the most complex problems in new ways. And there’s no shortage of models, approaches, toolkits, and handy formulas. But the effectiveness of these ‘designerly’ approaches depends in great measure on the ability to frame problems, i.e. to determine early on exactly what kind of problem is there to solve, in a way clients understand and can narrate to their own stakeholders. And at present, we’re starting to hear serious critical opposition to design thinking in its present form, as failures accumulate.

In this session, we’ll be presenting concrete ways of understanding design problems in context, and you will be engaged in a series of breakout discussions and mini-exercises. Our aim is to get you started developing the ability to productively frame and describe problems, as a first step towards truly effective thinking in practice. We’ll also return briefly to the theme of the last meetup (The business value of design).

Aspects of a problem space:
• How do you know what kind of thinking a specific design problem requires?
• How do you make sure that the models and techniques fit the problem?
• What is the specific combination of artistic, design or scientific ability that is needed?
• What can’t design do? In other words, when is specific domain knowledge and expertise needed?
• And if it is, how as a designer do you approach collaboration with a vast variety of non-designers that can virtually be anyone?
• We hear a lot about ‘innovation’ and ‘disruption’ - but are these desirable? If so, why?

Some studies and sources to prepare:

Wicked Problems in Design Thinking by Richard Buchanan
http://web.mit.edu/jrankin/www/engin_as_lib_art/Design_thinking.pdf

Let’s Start Designing for Care by Peter H. Jones
http://rosenfeldmedia.com/design-for-care/lets-start-designing-for-care/

Interpreting Design Thinking by Kees Dorst
https://vimeo.com/12256739

We are excited to have Jim Boekbinder as our special guest to run the workshop. Jim is an interaction designer and researcher who believes that the right shape of an product-service system is hiding inside human behaviour. His path into UX design and research included translation, copywriting, information architecture, usability testing and interaction design. For more than twenty years, he has been involved in pioneering work in content creation and management, information architecture, and user testing for international companies, not-for-profits and state clients. Along the way he has made several award-winning animated films and taught interaction design at Rotterdam University of Applied Science, where he also authored the foundation course in interaction design.

Time:
Open doors 18.30
Start of program 18.45
Expected finish 21.00

Hosted at:
Remember to Play
Strategic design consultants
http://remembertoplay.co