Course syllabus for Design Thinking

Design Thinking

Specific entry requirements

A minimum of 120 credits. And proficiency in English equivalent to English B/English 6.

Outcomes

The purpose of this course is to teach the students the advanced methods for design thinking. The learning outcomes for the course are for the participants to be able to independently:

• Acquire and execute design thinking methods
• Evaluate and organize the concepts such a methodology generates
• Discuss and critically assess the strengths, weaknesses and innovative potential of proposals from course colleagues
• Develop, document and articulate a coherent design proposal based on results generated
• Demonstrate how design thinking can change and enlarge the student’s own disciplinary ‘world view’
• Develop and argue for an interdisciplinary entrepreneurial initiative inspired by the design thinking process

Content

Design thinking is a powerful tool for devising strategic interdisciplinary or entrepreneurial initiatives, permitting connections between concepts, methods and shifts of perspective that would otherwise be overlooked in a mono-disciplinary ‘problem-solving’ approach. Originating in design, but capable of being applied across a broad range of disciplines, design thinking brings a disruptive, game-changing potential to ways of working that have become routine. People naturally have the ability for design thinking – it deploys the associative, improvisatory logic of play – but are typically encouraged to suppress it in favour of more dependable yet limited problem-solving methodologies.

For entrepreneurs who value the pursuit of validity and innovation over tradition and repetition, this course will equip you with the core skills for furthering such aims. It takes a practice-led approach, teaching design thinking skills through a mix of lectures, workshops and assignments. Having acquired the fundamentals of design thinking, students are then encouraged to explore ways of extending the established techniques – incorporating elements from, for example, other creative and design disciplines such as plotting, characterization, visualisation, role-playing, story-boarding and experience prototyping.

As the course focuses on themes and speculative, post-critical prototyping of actual “wicked” problems, teaching is conducted in an interactive manner with participants expected to take an active role throughout the course.

Teaching methods

The course combines lectures with seminar discussions, workshops, group and individual presentations by the students as well as leaders in the field.

Examination

The course is examined through:

• the student’s interdisciplinary entrepreneurial proposal, its final presentation and documentation of how design thinking has led to this result
• the grading you receive from your team members, and an evaluation of the way in which you give and motivate the grades you give yourself and your team members
• individual assignments

Transitional provisions

The examination will be provided during a period of two years after a close-down of the course. Examination may take place under a previous reading list, up to the next course occasion.

Other directives

The course language is English.
The course is offered within the framework of the Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship (SSES). Responsible institution: University College of Arts, Crafts and Design (Konstfack)

Literature and other teaching aids

Required reading

• Brown, Tim; Katz, Barry, Change by design: how design thinking transforms organizations and inspires innovation, 1. ed. : [New York] : Harper Business, cop. 2009 - viii, 264 p. ISBN: 9780061766084 (hc.), LIBRIS-ID: 11687397, *
• Klein, Julie Thompson, Interdisciplinarity: history, theory, and practice, Detroit : Wayne State Univ. Press, 1990 - 331 s. ISBN: 0-8143-2087-2, LIBRIS-ID: 8311656, *
• Burnham, J, Systems Esthetics, Artforum, 1968 Reprinted from Artforum, *
• Hayek, F, The Use of Knowledge in Society, 1945 Ingår i: The American economic review, Nashville, Tenn. : 1911- ISSN: 0002-8282, LIBRIS-ID: 8257228, Tidskriftens hemsida, XXXV (1945) : 4, p. 519-30, *
• Jones, R, Are You Experienced?, 2009 http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/are_you_experienced/, Ingår i: Frieze: contemporary art and culture, London : Frieze, 1991- ISSN: 0962-0672, LIBRIS-ID: 3993625, (2009) : 120, *

Michalko, M. (2006): Thinkpak: A Brainstorming Card Deck (Ten Speed Press)

IDEO (2003) Method Cards: 51 Ways to Inspire Design (IDEO)

Taylor, M. (2009): End the University as We Know It (New York Times, April 26 2009).