A New look at Design Thinking: Research in Progress

Substantial funding over several years has been attracted from multiple sources for both basic and applied elements of this programme of research into design thinking, as a result of recognition that design is an essential ingredient of civilisation, providing orderly satisfaction of human needs, at all levels from the individual to societal, and in the senses of utility (utensils, artefacts), comfort and security (built environment, infrastructure), and the abstract sense of worthiness (aesthetics, achievement, fashion). “Design”, here, refers to the creative unification of multiple functional and aesthetic solutions into a single comprehensive satisfaction of a need (Ostwald, 1994). Design, in the context of this research, encompasses much more than the mathematical or algorithmic solution to engineering problems. It is intricately connected to social, cultural and political factors (De Jong, 1992; Michialino, 2005). Design in a progressive culture must contribute to the advancement of society not only at a utilitarian level satisfying new needs as they arise (reactively), but also at the higher level of anticipating new needs and satisfying them before they arise (proactively, pre-emptively) (Cowdroy and DeGraaff, 2005). At the highest level, “inspired design ” not only anticipates and satisfies new needs, but also achieves a break-through to a new way of thinking about design in that field. That is, “inspired design ” refers to pre-emptive design at the highest level of creative “finesse ” that anticipates needs and transcends multiple conflicting parameters t