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Design thinking as a creative framework Design thinking provides a framework for the creative process. Dr. Charles Brunette is a design educator and creator of the iDESIGN method of design thinking. He served as chair of the Industrial Design department of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA, USA. During this time he started the Design Based Education K–12 Program with then chair of the Art Education Program, Janis Norman. The program was initiated in 1989 by Dr. Brunette and began as a university course called Design With Kids. According to Dr. Brunette’s website, this course “placed design students in classrooms to help teachers conduct design projects related to their teaching goals” [iDesignthinking. com]. Dr. Brunette also published a Teacher’s Resource Guide on technology teaching tools in collaboration with other university faculty and local schools. Now, this resource guide seems outdated and irrelevant, however at the time it was written it was ahead of its time. It aided teachers in using the new technology of the time into their curriculum. He has since published the iDESIGN model for design thinking. While this material is 34
originally based on a the Design Based K–12 Education Program, it has since been modified and reworked to present one of most clear explanations on design thinking available. Design thinking as explained through iDESIGN is “…a process of creative and critical thinking that allows information and ideas to be organized, decisions to be made, situations to be improved, and knowledge to be gained.” In other words, its a framework to help guide an effective and purposeful creative process. The iDESIGN website provides a wealth of information including rationale for teaching design thinking, methods for teaching, content for curriculums, tools and techniques, assessment, and insight into the educational theories that form the basis of iDESIGN. Dr. Brunette makes a compelling case for design thinking’s potential to be applied to any domain. He states, “design thinking is not restricted to any particular domain like language is to words, math to numbers or music to sounds.” Instead, “It is a generic process that may be applied to anything to produce or do something that is not already determined.”