The Role of Design Thinking in Scientific Research & Communication

Design thnking: Research: • Interviews with designers • Observations and case studies • Experimental studies • Simulation • Reflection and theorizing Designing is not a search for the optimum solution to the given problem, but that it is an exploratory process. The creative designer interprets the design brief not as a specification for a solution, but as a starting point for a journey of exploration,… “Deduction proves that something must be; Induction shows that something actually is operative; Abduction suggests that something may be.” Charles Pierce The main point of difference is that of timing. Both artists and scientists operate on the physical world as it exists in the present (whether it is real or symbolic), while mathematicians operate on abstract relationships that are independent of historical time. Designers… are forever bound to treat as real that which exists only in an imagined future and have to specify ways in which the foreseen thing can be made to exist. John Chris Jones, Design Method John Chris Jones on the objectives of a designer In Design Methods (1970) “The designer must be able to predict the ultimate effects of their proposed design as well as specifying the actions that are needed to bring these effects about.