Design Thinking is Fundamentally Conservative and Preserves the Status Quo

Design Thinking Is Fundamentally Conservative and Preserves the Status Quo Written by Natasha Iskander | Presented by Erika Johnson

Erika Johnson

UX Designer at Microsoft BS in Computer Science → MS in HCDE Excited to learn how to better advocate for research, as a designer Into photography, nature, travel, and my famous cat, Magic ✨

Natasha Iskander

Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Public Service at NYU BA in Cultural Studies → Masters in City Planning → PhD in Management Does research on the relationship between migration and economic development

TL;DR “Design thinking privileges the designer above the people she serves, and limits participation in the design process.”

Puts the designer on a pedestal

Designer’s biases narrow the potential for innovation

Formulaic, rigid endpoints don’t work well in uncertainty

Case Study: Rebuild by Design

After Hurricane Sandy, the Rebuild by Design competition called for solutions to rehabilitate infrastructure and protect the New York region from future storms.

Case Study: Rebuild by Design

Case Study: Rebuild by Design

“By keeping the design process open, the Living Breakwaters project deliberately resists the closure that is so characteristic of completed design thinking solutions.�

My take

" Emphasis on including users’ ideas; good cautionary tale " Designer should not be given supreme power " Cyclical (not linear) process accommodates for change

đ&#x;¤” Design thinking can/should be inclusive too đ&#x;¤” Giving users control of the design isn’t always the best way to solve the problem

Related ideas in our readings Designerly Ways of Knowing Unlike science and literature, design is constrained to producing a practicable result within a specific time limit, which implies a point of being “done” with a solution (or piece of a solution).

How to Survive Critique Critique could be a way to include more perspectives and review a designer’s decisions during the design thinking process.

Related ideas in the wild

Circular Design

Anarchy?

Open Source Software

Related ideas in the wild

“Everyone is a designer.”

“Design happens.”

Related ideas in the wild

“As designers, we need to see ourselves as gatekeepers of what we are bringing into the world, and what we choose not to bring into the world. Design is a craft with responsibility.

The responsibility to help create a better world for all.�

Related ideas in the wild

DoNotTouch.org is an interactive crowd-sourced music video All the cursors are recordings of previous users’ cursors!

Your turn

Imagine you’re designing a plan to roll out interpretive engagement on Instagram and it’s technically feasible for any user to make any change to the design of the app at any time. Would you put any constraints on what changes users can make? Why or why not?

Appendix

Related ideas in the wild

Twitch Plays Pokemon — a social experiment where game play commands were crowdsourced live from 1.2 million users Media outlets described it as being "mesmerizing," "miraculous," and "beautiful chaos," with one viewer comparing it to "watching a car crash in slow motion."

Related ideas in the wild

Design by users might fall into the scarcity trap.

In a study looking at poor farmers in India, farmers tended to be better planners when they were flush with cash. But right before harvest, when they were strapped for cash, their brains focused only on short-term goals.