Week 2 - Design Thinking
My first impression of this Design Survey class and what I was to expect was crushed after our reading of Thinking by Tim Brown (2008) this week. I was fixated on art and home decorating. I now realized the vast influence that design has on everything that I use in day to day tasks. I can now appreciate the creativity involved in all things around me from the design of my ergonomic keyboard to the hairbrush that reduces tangles. According to Tom Brown (2008) in the Harvard Business Review, Design thinking “is a discipline that uses the designer’s sensibility and methods to match people’s needs with what is technologically feasible and what a viable business strategy can convert into customer value and market opportunity.” This has expanded my view of design past the cool sneaks I am wearing or my comfortable couch. The example in this reading about the nurses and their schedule would have never occurred to me to be an example of design. Looking back, I can now see that the solution to shift changes was solution designed software and including the patients. Never had my previous views on design thinking included terms like business strategy and customer value.
When I recently went looking to buy a car, there was one specific option that I wanted in my vehicle, the automatic lift gate. I am a single mother who always has my hands full with backpacks, purses, water bottles, sports equipment, target bags and groceries. I can’t tell you how many times I have dropped my eggs or a gallon of milk trying to open and close my lift gate on my mom-mobile. I researched and found that the Chevy Equinox and Ford Escape both had this innovative design. Unfortunately, all of the vehicles in my price range that had this design available were unavailable, and I was not able to utilize and enjoy this wonderful design feature, but I can still admire it from afar.
