Revisiting Design Thinking: Embracing a Critical Design Stance

Abstract: As we are faced with increasingly complex social challenges, a growing number of non-for-profit organizations, governments, and international agencies are turning to design thinking. The notion of “designing for good” has become a trend over the past decade, leveraging the tools of the creative problem-solving approach known as design thinking. Design thinking– also labelled human-centered design, a variant particularly appealing in the social sector–purported to be particularly well suited to addressing complex social and environmental issues, attracting many in social innovation and international development organizations in search of disruptive innovation to “wicked problems” (Buchanan, 1992).  At the same time, a wealth of critiques has emerged about design. In this talk, building upon a paper co-authored with Sarah Fathallah and recently published in Stanford Social Innovation Review, I will discuss some current shortcomings of design thinking as well as proposed potential alternatives. At a time when critical thinking is under attack, it’s crucial that design disavows the promise of the silver bullet. Design thinking has shown that it isn’t one, but no single other alternative can be either. Hence, rather than an attachment to a set of methods, we invite designers to be committed to a critical stance, which is relational, reflective and politically committed.