Natasha Jen: Design Thinking is Bullsh*t.
Summary
TLDRThe speaker, a graphic designer and educator, critically examines design thinking, a popular approach to problem-solving. They express concerns about its oversimplification, lack of depth, and the potential for ignoring the broader consequences of design. The speaker challenges the design thinking community to consider the importance of language, aesthetics, and the true impact of design on society. They conclude with a creative project that humorously applies design thinking to itself, aiming to provoke thought and add a touch of delight to the often dry discourse around this methodology.
Takeaways
- 🎨 The speaker identifies as a graphic designer, emphasizing the role of playing with words, symbols, and images to make information tangible and delightful.
- 🏫 As a design educator, the speaker is intrigued by different design approaches and learns from other disciplines like architecture, but questions the oversimplification of design thinking.
- 🤔 The speaker expresses difficulty in understanding design thinking and its methodologies, leading to a self-reflective exploration and reframing of their perspective.
- 📈 The popularity of design thinking, as shown by internet search trends, spiked around 2015 with the launch of an online course by IDEO, suggesting a correlation between marketing and trend.
- 🔍 The speaker criticizes the uniformity of design thinking results, noting that searches for design thinking yield similar diagrams and methodologies rather than diverse outcomes.
- 🏗 The speaker argues that design thinking's focus on a single medium (posters) is limiting and that design should involve a broader range of research and resources.
- 🌐 The speaker is concerned about design thinking's ignorance of the potential negative consequences of design, such as waste or climate change.
- 💬 The language of design thinking is criticized for being filled with jargon and promoting an instant satisfaction mindset, rather than a deep, developmental approach.
- 📚 The speaker is troubled by design thinking's infiltration into education, particularly with the rise of quick boot camps and courses that undermine the value of thorough education.
- 🎨 The speaker, as a graphic designer, finds the visual representation of design thinking to be lacking in aesthetic quality and clarity, advocating for a more thoughtful approach to visual communication.
- 😄 In conclusion, the speaker suggests that design thinking could benefit from a more nuanced, less dry, and more visually appealing approach, and presents a project that humorously critiques and analyzes design thinking through a designer's lens.
Q & A
What is the speaker's profession and how do they describe their work?
-The speaker is a graphic designer who explains their work as playing with words, symbols, and images to make information tangible and understandable, with an aim to also make things delightful.
Why does the speaker find it hard to explain what a graphic designer does?
-The speaker finds it hard to explain because people often assume graphic designers are only involved in branding, UX/UI, or advertising, whereas the speaker believes they deal with these areas in a much broader way.
What is the speaker's view on design thinking?
-The speaker expresses skepticism towards design thinking, finding it too simplistic and formulaic, and criticizes its approach as being too focused on process rather than the broader implications of design.
How does the speaker feel about the use of posters as the primary medium in design thinking?
-The speaker is critical of the reliance on posters as the main medium for design thinking, arguing that design should involve a variety of research materials and not be confined to a single method of expression.
What does the speaker think about the language used in design thinking?
-The speaker finds the language of design thinking to be problematic, filled with jargon and buzzwords that lack depth and can be misleading, suggesting a need for a more nuanced vocabulary.
What is the speaker's opinion on the impact of design thinking on the world?
-The speaker questions the impact of design thinking, noting that it often settles for superficial solutions and fails to address deeper issues like waste or climate change.
How does the speaker view the role of beauty in design thinking?
-The speaker believes that beauty is integral to design and is critical of the design thinking approach that separates form from function, arguing that beauty is not just decoration but a reflection of intelligence and quality.
What is the speaker's concern about design thinking's influence on education?
-The speaker is worried that design thinking promotes a fast-food approach to education, suggesting quick fixes and instant results rather than deep, thoughtful learning.
What did the speaker and their team create to critique design thinking?
-The speaker and their team created a poster that applies design thinking's own methodology to analyze and critique itself, aiming to provide a different perspective on design thinking in a visually engaging way.
What is the speaker's final message regarding design thinking?
-The speaker's final message is a call for design thinking to be more nuanced, considerate of broader implications, and to value the importance of beauty, artistry, and culture in design.
Outlines
🎨 Introduction to Design Thinking and Personal Background
The speaker begins by expressing gratitude and honor for being present, hinting at a discussion on design thinking. They provide a brief overview of their work as a graphic designer, emphasizing the broad nature of the field which includes branding, UX/UI, and advertising. The speaker clarifies their role as playing with words, symbols, and images to make information tangible and delightful. They also mention their teaching role at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, reflecting on the diversity of their students and addressing a question about the ethnic composition of their class. The speaker expresses curiosity and a struggle with understanding design thinking, leading to a self-reflective journey and a desire to reframe their perspective on the topic.
🔍 Critique of Design Thinking's Universality and Methodology
The speaker poses a critical question about the nuances of design thinking, challenging its universal application. They present data on the rise in popularity of design thinking since 2011, particularly after IDEO's online course launch. The speaker expresses skepticism about the simplistic, step-by-step approach often associated with design thinking, suggesting it's not a universal solution for design problems. They also critique the repetitive nature of design thinking projects and case studies, which often result in similar diagrams, and question the reliance on a single medium, such as posters, for design expression. The speaker argues for a more holistic and research-driven approach to design, beyond the confines of a single methodology.
📚 The Evolution and Misinterpretation of Design Thinking
The speaker delves into the origins of design thinking, tracing its evolution from academic roots to business applications, particularly with the influence of IDEO and Stanford. They express concern over the reduction of design thinking to a simplistic equation with creativity and innovation, arguing that innovation is an attribute, not a thing. The speaker also points out the historical irony that innovation has occurred for centuries without design thinking. They critique the positive spin on design thinking, suggesting it忽视s the potential negative consequences of design, such as waste or climate change, and call for more responsible design thinking practices.
🗣️ The Problematic Language of Design Thinking
The speaker addresses the jargon and vocabulary associated with design thinking, suggesting it is filled with buzzwords and lacks the depth and specificity found in other design disciplines. They critique terms like 'body storming' and 'extreme user' as unnecessary neologisms and argue that design thinking's language promotes an attitude of instant gratification rather than deep, thoughtful development. The speaker contrasts this with the more grounded and practical language used by designers when discussing budget, audience, context, and other critical aspects of design.
🏫 Design Thinking in Education: A Critical Perspective
The speaker discusses design thinking's impact on education, noting its push into various levels of schooling with the promise of equipping students to solve complex problems. However, they express concern over the fast-paced, boot-camp style courses that suggest design thinking can be quickly learned, likening it to fast-food thinking. They argue this approach is dangerous and undermines the value of deep, rigorous education and training in design. The speaker also critiques the visual representation of design thinking, calling it 'horribly ugly' and suggests that a focus on basic design principles, such as typography, could greatly improve its presentation.
🎭 A Graphic Designer's Creative Critique of Design Thinking
The speaker, identifying as a graphic designer, argues against the notion that design thinking is only about function and not form, quoting Steve Jobs to emphasize the importance of beauty and artistry in design. They critique the dry and unengaging nature of design thinking literature and propose a more delightful approach. As a project, they created a poster that both critiques and applies design thinking to itself, using dense content and a playful visual language to offer a different perspective on the subject. The speaker concludes by distributing this poster, hoping to provoke thought and smiles among the audience.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Design Thinking
💡Graphic Design
💡Innovation
💡Visual Thinking
💡IDEO
💡Jargon
💡Beauty
💡Methodology
💡Simplicity
💡Consequences
💡Education
Highlights
Introduction to the speaker's background as a graphic designer and educator.
The speaker's role in playing with words, symbols, and images to make information tangible and delightful.
The diversity of students in the speaker's design class, challenging stereotypes.
The speaker's curiosity and self-reflection on design thinking, despite initial resistance.
Critique of design thinking's simplicity and its promise to solve complex problems.
Analysis of the rise in popularity of design thinking and its correlation with IDEO's online course.
The speaker's concern over the homogeneity of design thinking visual outputs.
The limitations of using a single medium (posters) as the primary tool in design thinking.
The speaker's argument against design thinking's ignorance of consequences like waste and climate change.
The evolution of design thinking from academia to business and its impact on the field.
The problematic equation of design thinking with creativity and innovation.
Critique of design thinking's vocabulary and its impact on the perception of design.
The speaker's concern over the fast-food approach to design education promoted by design thinking.
The importance of beauty in design and its role in elevating the quality of life and culture.
Steve Jobs' perspective on beauty and its influence on product design.
The speaker's project applying design thinking to itself, aiming to make it more nuanced and delightful.
Conclusion and call to action for a more thoughtful and beautiful approach to design thinking.
Transcripts
I'm so humbled and honored to be here
I'm going to talk a little bit about
design thinking the topic that we all
really love but before I do that I want
to just kind of show you a little bit
about about what I do because I'm not
going to talk about my work but it's -
this is to give you a sense about the
work that we do
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okay that was a very quick overview so I
you know I'm a graphic designer and it's
very hard to explain to people what a
graphic designer
does because people now assume that we
are you know either branding people or
we do UX UI or we we deal with
advertising and I would say that you
know we deal with all of these in a kind
of really really broad way but I always
try to think about you know my role as a
graphic designer
through the lens of playing with words
symbols and images and it's really about
making information on tangible and
understandable and if we can make things
delightful that's really the goal so um
I I teach as well I teach at school of
visual arts in New York City I've been
teaching there for four years now so
this is my senior class I took this
Instagram story last week when I got
back to my class from a trip and people
asked me immediately on Instagram do
people have to be Asian in order to be
in your class you know No okay is this
this year we have a lot of Asian
students in Korea and you might notice
that there's only one guy in my class
which was really weird but anyhow as a
designer myself and also as a design
educator I'm always very interested
about different ways to to do design
different ways to think about design so
I get really excited when I'm working
with people from other disciplines for
example we learn tremendously from
architects and I think a lot of the ways
that architects used to think through
their projects are really really useful
in graphic design as well but there's
one one thing that I just can't really
write my head around
and that is design thinking and I asked
myself why you know why can't I really
understand this I'm not stupid
I'm very curious I'm I'm a hard learner
so I started to UM dig into it and the
more I got into it that the more
outrageous is it appears to me so
earlier last year I gave a talk titled
design thinking's [ __ ] so this this
talk got a lot of [ __ ] attention you
know on the internet and also got a lot
of feedback from people both good and
those who really questioned my you know
my intent behind this and whether I
really understood design thinking and
some of those critics call me that you
know I'm a graphic designer I only do
logos I don't know how to solve more
complex and bigger problems so you know
in the last couple of months we did I
did a little soul-searching and right I
kind of today I want to reframe you know
my my point of view on design thinking
and I try to kind of use the mythology
that design thinking tends who uses to
ask the right questions right so design
thinking always starts out with how my
sweet as the kind of starting point for
design so so I kind of refrained my my
talk um around the around these six
questions so question number one and
this is a question not only to design
thinkers were you know design thinking
of enthusiasts is for everybody and for
myself for designers as well so that is
how my we make design thinking a little
bit more nuanced so this is a chart that
shows the internet search trend you know
on Google as you can see that design
thinking like the search on design
thinking started to rise around 2011 and
around the Year 2015
it really started to um spike up and
that was a time when the renowned design
firm IDEO pull out this online
course that's called I do you I think
there's a correlation between that and
that is sort of the time when you think
that the marketing around Design
Thinking really started to you know to
to to bubble up and then but as you um
you know search just just type in a term
design thinking this is the kind of
image that you will get so it's
basically just a series of same diagrams
following these five steps and they're
there I agree with some of the UM steps
here I'm not sure about the simplicity
of this and I'm not sure about that such
a simple step-by-step solution can be a
kind of universalized methodology to
solve all the design problems I think
that is a very very simplistic view and
then I try to you know understand that
okay are there any projects out there
that that you know we can look at and we
can try to you know analyze and
understand you know what design thinking
really has produced in the world so you
know when you type in design thinking
projects where we're even design
thinking case studies what you will see
again is the series of the same diagrams
then that is very very strange to me
because we are typing things like
architecture you actually see buildings
and when you do the same search over a
different time you get very different
image results and for me as a graphic
designer
an image is worth a lot more than words
you know so images actually show
evidence and what's really weird about
design thinking is that it isn't matter
how you I mean what search words are you
you type it you always get more or less
the same result and then of course we're
all very familiar with this image of
people standing around a board using
posters as the medium you know as the
the only medium for design and again
more of this kind of form view and there
is even more so why did you kind of see
a lot of these you're kind of I get very
worried about about this particular
methodology not that I not I hate post
as well
use it quite a lot but when you only use
one single medium and it's at this
little little square paper based square
it's the only kind of outlet for your
research for your thinking for how you
actually deal with design I think that's
a really big problem because design
needs to actually really go out of these
little squares design needs to actually
use a lot of research looking at photos
images precedents looking at histories
other case studies in order to kind of
build a more holistic understanding
about any problem so I have a big
problem with with with this methodology
and then more so when you actually look
into where it's actually written on the
posters you realized that these are just
these like people's thoughts they're
just thoughts in their head so in a way
this is a kind of self-fulfilling loop
right that is not open up to any other
kind of thinking other than your own I
think that is a highly highly
problematic way to think about design
it's just way too simplistic and then
let's look at that the origin of Design
Thinking I'm not going to go through all
the details of each but Design Thinking
really started out with a kind of
academic you know environment Robert
McKee who is the second one in a diagram
he did this book that's called
experience in visual thinking that is a
really really fantastic book and I
recommend you to get it he talked about
how visual were the ability to visualize
things were having the skill in visual
thinking is really important to all
design but then you know over the years
the conscious evolved into very
different things and in 90s
David Kelly who's also a co-founder of I
ideal he kind of really brought it into
the business that setting as well as
into Stanford so that's when things
begin to actually I think go wrong so if
you get a research design thinking and
this is the kind of you know lying
which that you will get a lot you know
you see that there's this kind of very
simplistic equation between design
thinking and creativity and innovation
as if design thinking is this thing that
can promise innovation and I find that a
very problematic point of view because
first of all innovation is not a thing
it's an attribute it's a quality that
you can hope that whatever you do can
actually achieve the quality of
innovation innovation but that's not a
thing in itself and there's this whole
history on innovation as well as the
talk of innovation that's a very
interesting topic but that's a totally
different talk and there better you know
scholars on that topic so um let's
continuing with this so you know
innovation one question that I would
like to ask is that people have been
innovating for centuries so what do
people actually do before Design
Thinking came about right think about
that right so okay anyhow so you know if
you if you look at you know what design
thinking advocates is that you know it's
a kind of is this a solution based
design methodology that helps people to
think like designers to create better
things to work better to to help you
with an organizational problem to make
more profit so on and so forth it's all
kind of very you know positive attitude
on design thinking itself and I think
what it fails to do is to actually look
at the opposite side of things which is
what a designer does on a day-to-day
basis is that whatever we do it doesn't
matter today it's the product that we
design where it's a packaging where it's
something that we put out into the world
there's always some consequence to it I
find Design Thinking is kind of very
ignorant to the consequences that it may
produce into the world such as waste or
climate change so on and so forth and I
would love to see more design thinkers
produce work in that area okay question
number two how am i we give you a more
meaning
for vocabulary so this is about the
language around design-thinking so as
you know each discipline has his own
very particular set of vocabulary and
you really need to have a very deep set
of vocabulary in order to actually have
a deep dialogue about things for example
in graphic design there's a whole set of
vocabulary about abstraction about
meaning about typography so on so forth
but then if you um get into design
thinking you will get this kind of thing
unleash unlock you know it's it's kind
of terrifying to actually see that
design is being presented as this kind
of beast that you can just let go and
attack the world and then win everything
I think there's the kind of attitudinal
problem here it's it doesn't kind of
think about design as a thing that you
develop right development takes time or
you build building building things also
takes time but rather is this instant
satisfaction that you can unleash or
unlock something instantaneously and
then once you dive deeper into it my god
is packed with jargons which again I
think illustrates a problem you know
about the the Design Thinking discipline
itself these are some of the words that
I was very intrigued by you know for
example body storming I literally had to
google it it's basically brain storming
through role-playing right so why can't
we just call it like that why do we have
to call it body storming extreme user my
god that really sounds like a drug
addict to me ideation is basically
concepting and think probably right
radical innovation the feedback loops so
on and so forth it's really crazy but
then if you talk to a designer you know
doesn't matter which discipline the
designer is from the architects fashion
designers we actually use very boring
words and we we are concerned about very
very boring things such as budget
audience the context the site if you're
an architect the semantics of things if
you're a graphic designer
so you know so now it kind of begins to
get get a sense why design thinking's
language is really problematic next
question how might we elevate is
standard well honestly I haven't found
too many case studies on design thinking
to actually convince me that you know it
has really made a great impact on the
world itself but rather I find the case
studies out there tend to just settle
for the bottom line so for example this
is a MRI machine I don't know how many
of you have gone through this but this
is a very terrifying environment for
children I think for adults too you know
you have to go through this scanner so
GE allegedly you know try to solve this
problem through Design Thinking so when
it came up with was to put you know
cartoons and Tony the Tiger on the wall
and then they made a very big case study
out of it
I'm okay with the idea of you know
making the environments more childlike
with the visual language that they're
familiar with but I think that the bar
here is just basically too low if you
look at the environment it is terrible
if you look at the ceiling is too low
the lighting is terrible we need an
architect here right but I think that
design thinking were designed thinking
case studies tend to just settle for the
bottom line next question how my way
changes at attitude on education alright
so I think you know for for those of you
who are familiar with design thinking or
who follow Design Thinking you know that
it has been trying to
get into education system different
levels of the education systems in
different way you know from high school
down to on now kindergarten with the
with a notion that kids really needs to
learn the method of design thinking in
order to solve the world's you know very
big problems but then if you look at
design thinking's attitude on the design
thinking education itself this is why
you will get nowadays you will get boot
camps you know very fast courses that
you pay $2.99 5 9999 I don't know why
they all end up with 99 that you can
actually learn how to design I find that
an extremely dangerous idea not only to
the the world of design but only to I
mean but to the idea of Education on
itself it really kind of promotes this
fast-food thinking that you can just pay
something and then get it really fast
through pumping into your stomach and
you're gonna get good at it I find it
really really troublesome it's sort of
like wanting to become an Olympic
athlete without wanting to be trained
you know so that's sort of my problem
with it and this is a a course that
Stanford d.school now offers I mean look
at this this is insane
this picture is insane to me right just
the combination of the words and the and
the image you know behind it and what's
actually in the image would you really
trust this course I would not
thank you how might we make it more
beautiful oh so okay so okay I'm a
graphic designer
I'm very critical of anything that has a
look to it right you know specifically
when it comes to information design when
when when you know just a bundle of
things need to have hierarchy clarity
needs to have you know style needs to be
pleasant needs to be legible and all
that when you kind of just survey the
graphic visual world of design thinking
you get this kind of stuff to me this is
really really horribly ugly um and that
is bad and how come nobody's actually
you know doing anything about it I would
love to teach graphic design where basic
typography to anyone who's doing design
thinking right now we're trying to
generate something about design thinking
but then you would get a certain kind of
oppositional view about that well just
don't worry about the look of things
because Design Thinking is really not
about design so this is a statement by
mr. Brett waters I don't know him but he
teaches a Design Thinking class at
Stanford so um um he's our website you
know he made us the statement that goes
Design Thinking is an engineering
methodology for developing successful
products design thinking has nothing to
do with making something pretty and
everything to do with making something
useful for example an engineer would use
it to develop an ugly machine that this
is job beautifully I find this a really
simplistic dichotomy between form and
function and I think frankly it is quite
irresponsible to think that design
thinking or any
thing that you design has nothing to do
with how it may manifest itself in the
real world everything has its form look
at this these are the gadgets that
permeates our lives on a day to day
basis how can one say that these
machines or you know whatever thing that
engineers make don't have real impact in
the world and don't have to actually be
beautiful to me I think beauty is
actually intelligence beauty is
precision beauty is not decoration so I
find the idea like you know I'm beauty
through the lens of design thinking
really really problematic and then
furthermore I think what it profoundly
ignores the importance of artistry of
craftsmanship of beauty of art of
culture and all these things that
actually elevate the quality of our life
and the quality of our culture that kind
of statement completely removed the
importance of these things I actually
really really matter and I'm gonna play
via short video about Steve Jobs that
there was this you know interview
conducted with him in 1995 and I'm I'm
not a Steve Jobs you know fan I'm very
intrigued by by his work I'm very
intrigued by what he has built and you
know the things that we're using right
now but there's this little snippet in
his interview in which he critiqued
Microsoft but he talked about other
things that I think resonated with me
really well specifically on the issue of
beauty the only problem with Microsoft
is they just have no taste they have
absolutely no taste and and and what
that means is I don't mean that in a
small way I mean in a big way in the
sense that
they they don't think of original ideas
and they don't bring much culture into
their product and and you say well why
is that important well you know
proportionally spaced fonts come from
typesetting and beautiful books that's
where one gets the idea if it weren't
for the Mac they would never have that
in their products and so I guess I am
saddened not by Microsoft success I have
no problem with their success they've
earned their success for the most part I
have a problem with the fact that they
just make really third-rate products
their products have no spirit to them
their products have no in this sort of
spirit of enlightenment about them they
are very pedestrian and the sad part is
is that most customers don't don't have
a lot of that spirit either but but the
way that we're gonna ratchet up our
species is to take the best and to
spread it around to everybody so that
everybody grows up with better things
and starts to understand the subtlety of
these better things okay so that
interview pretty much summed up
everything that I was talking about and
you can you feel free to take out
Microsoft and replace it with design
thinking and that kind of summarizes
everything okay last thing it's a very
important question I think how can we
actually make it just a little more
delightful it is terribly dry I have to
say we read a lot of things from design
thinking about design thinking you know
besides all the jargons it's incredibly
boring and dry so we made a project you
know Ravi asked us to do something and I
think this is a great great subject
matter to do something with so what we
did was that we created this piece
through the
lenz of a graph designer you know that
we play with words and images and
symbols and diagrams so the thing is
called can Design Thinking help us
understand Design Thinking so what we do
is that we we basically two things tire
design thinking five-step methodology
and try to analyze it and try to apply
it on to design thinking itself so we
made a poster out of it we generated all
the content is really really dense you
know so you can you can see much of the
writing from here but if this doesn't
kind of give you a different idea about
design thinking it will definitely make
you smile so we're going to distribute
this poster afterwards and this is my
talk thank you
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you
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