Designing Design Thinking Curriculum: A framework for shaping a participatory, human-­centered design course

Abstract

Within design education and practice today, new ways are continuously being developed to utilize Design Thinking in response to social, environmental, economic, and cultural factors. In the Visual Communication Design program at Indiana University, Herron School of Art and Design, Design Thinking is an integral component to both curriculum development and course content. In considering the inherent complexity of human-centered design—which focuses on diverse stakeholder collaboration and participation within the design process—simply understanding a design process and methods for collecting data is not enough. Students must go through a process of building a value system for conducting participatory design research. They must also understand the nature of the changing role of designers, from more traditional "making" roles, to design facilitators who must possess a particular mindset, model certain characteristics, employ distinct skill sets and use a specific approach. This presentation and paper will focus on an in-depth case study that describes the authors' methodology for integrating Design Thinking into the course curriculum of an undergraduate senior-level studio course, titled "Design for Innovation: Introduction to Design Methods," where students work in a variety of real contexts with diverse stakeholders throughout the design process.