Concretising Design Thinking: A Content Analysis of Systematic and Extended Literature Reviews on Design Thinking and Human‐Centred Design

Abstract

The purposes of this study are 1) to explore the concept of design thinking/human-centred design as expressed across the literature, using a systematic content analysis methodology, and 2) to arrive at empirically-based implications and recommendations for the instructional design field drawn from this search and analysis. Since 2000, design thinking has been highly sought after and is increasingly applied to novel challenges. Since then, it has become a force of innovation in business, and a point of contention in design-having created a reductionist perspective of design which has simultaneously become a buzzword for innovation. In the instructional design field, practitioners incorporate the methods used into new design models, and scholars frame new theories within its bounds. Through this process, the meaning and nature of the concept have become complex and clouded. This paper reports results of a systematic content analysis involving examination of 12 databases, analysing 1075 abstracts for fit and identifying 11 core articles. An extended literature review, including more than 70 non-core articles selected from the study data pool, provides a foundation for analysis of the 11 core articles. Results include analysis of the core articles for themes, industry and common citations; recommendations and implications for the instructional design field are drawn from the literature, as well as recommendations for future research. Structured Practitioner NotesWhat is already known about this topic:• Design thinking, also known as human-centred design, has seen a steady increase in use in the last twenty years.• Design thinking is a method that has become popular in business for seeking innovation, in education for teaching creative problem-solving, and in design as a valuable tool for analysing how designers think while designing.• The meaning of design thinking has become somewhat clouded, and it is often misconstrued and misapplied.

Design Thinking to Reinvent Values in a Business Model: a 4-Step Approach Using Ideation Virtual Tools

“…Since 2000, design thinking has become academically topical and has been increasingly applied to novel challenges practically (Baker & Moukhliss, 2020), in this case this approach will be applied to de ne value propositions for a company. In this paper the authors apply the de nition that design thinking is a human centred approach, that includes the generation of many ideas, and the adoption of a fast prototyping approach (Foster, 2021).…”

Potenciales implicaciones en la aplicación metodológica del Design Thinking en procesos de diseño urbano. Análisis desde la experiencia del diseñador

“…Lo anterior podría ser una forma operativa para transitar desde prácticas tradicionales de diseño urbano, vectoriales y unidireccionales, cuyo objetivo final es un resultado determinado y cerrado, para pasar a un proceso de Design Thinking en proyectos urbanos, que permite pensar en forma cíclica e iterativa los problemas/soluciones con el fin de mantener un aprendizaje continuo desde el conocimiento situado de los agentes del territorio en un contexto de dinámicas urbanas complejas, abriéndose a proyectos innovadores y en constante perfeccionamiento. Esto se daría principalmente en los tres aspectos que se destacan del proceso de Design Thinking -empatización, iteración y transferencia-, los cuales pueden ser inferidos de los diversos modelos de Design Thinking existentes, que han sido estudiados en detalle por (Baker III, & Moukhliss, 2020).…”

“…La investigación establece como hipótesis que la aplicación de metodologías de Desing Thinking es una oportunidad para desplegar nuevos resultados en proyectos de diseño urbano. Este tiene diversas aproximaciones (Baker III, & Moukhliss, 2020;Fischer, 2015;Gobble, 2014;Kimbell, 2012), siendo la estructura más conocida y aplicada en los casos de estudio, la establecida por Standford que reconoce cinco pasos de diseño: empatizar, definir, idear, prototipar, testear (Wolniak, 2017). De ello, se identifican tres aspectos generales que, a nuestro parecer, resultan relevantes dada su transversalidad implícita en cada etapa: la empatización, como la capacidad de vinculación del diseñador con el conocimiento de agentes y actores del territorio; la iteración, como la ventaja que permite la constante experimentación de ideas y el aprendizaje continuo; y la transferencia, como la oportunidad que estos procesos brindan para definir el traspaso y apropiación del proyecto por parte de agentes locales, lo que le daría sostenibilidad y proyección.…”

Electronic data collection for multi-country, hospital-based, clinical observation of maternal and newborn care: EN-BIRTH study experiences

“…-Researcher, Nepal These challenges may have been mitigated with more time allocation dedicated to this type of E-data programming. One of the strengths of using a custom-built app was the flexibility to adapt and improve on the system within countries, and for users in line with design-thinking theory [51]. However, it was difficult to finalise the E-data app within this context.…”