MS4663: Engineering Solutions by Design Thinking

Academic Units3
Semester1
Pre-requisite(s)Nil
Co-requisite(s)Nil

Course Instructors

Associate Professor Tan Lay Poh

Course AIMS

In this course you will engage with the versatile investigation and problem-solving process known as design thinking. You will experience new ways of gaining insights when designing for a situation, where the emphasis is on human considerations, as you develop a process, and respond with solutions that are appropriate to the intended audience. This course will compliment any discipline of design, technology, development, or production were the final result will involve human participation.

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, you (as a student) would be able to:

  1. Describe the ideology and processes of design thinking and how it differs from other design and development methods.
  2. Develop a unique design process that is in response to a specific human-centred situation.
  3. Apply creative and inventive techniques to develop a responsive design concept through to prototype stage.
  4. Demonstrate a prototype solution supported with rationale that responds to human-centred situation.
  5. Constructively discuss and critique design thinking approaches, processes and solutions employed by peers.

Course Content

In this course, you will bring your own discipline’s experience to the creative process of design thinking. You will join up in teams with students from different backgrounds, and together you will employ an innovative investigation processes to understand a topic and respond with creative solutions.

Reading and References

  1. Borgmann, A. (1995). *The depth of design*. In R. Buchanan & V. Margolin (Eds.), *Discovering design: Explorations in design studies* (pp. 13-22). Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
  2. Brown, T., & Wyatt, J. (2010). Design thinking for social innovation. *Stanford Social Innovation Review, 8*(1), 30-35.
  3. Brown, T., & Katz, B. (2009). *Change by design: How design thinking transforms organizations and inspires innovation*. Harper Business.
  4. Buchanan, R. (1992). Wicked problems in design thinking. *Design Issues, 8*(2), 5-21.
  5. Dorst, K. (2011). The core of ‘design thinking’ and its application. *Design Studies, 32*(6), 521-532.
  6. Gray, C., & Malins, J. (2004). *Visualizing research*. Ashgate.
  7. IDEO. (n.d.). *The Field Guide to Human-Centred Design*. Retrieved from http://www.designkit.org/resources/1.html
  8. IDEO. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.ideo.com
  9. Kelly, T., & Littman, J. (2001). *The art of innovation: Lessons in creativity from IDEO, America’s leading design firm*. Harper Collins Business.
  10. Kolko, J. (2010). Abductive thinking and sensemaking: The drivers of design synthesis. *Design Issues, 26*(1), 15-28.
  11. Myerson, J. (2004). *IDEO: Masters of innovation*. Laurence King.
  12. Noble, I., & Bestley, R. (2004). *Visual research: An introduction to research methodologies in graphic design*. Ava Publishing.
  13. Patnaik, D., & Mortensen, P. (2009). *Wired to care: How companies prosper when they create widespread empathy*. FT Press.
  14. Pilloton, E., & Chochinov, A. (2009). *Design revolution: 100 products that are changing people’s lives*. Thames & Hudson.
  15. Schön, D. (1983). *The Reflective Practitioner*. London: Temple-Smith.
  16. Schön, D. (1992). Designing as reflective conversation with the materials of a design situation. *Knowledge-Based Systems, 5*(1), 3-14.
  17. Stanford d.school. (n.d.). *Bootcamp Bootleg*. Retrieved from https://dschool.stanford.edu/resources/design-thinking-bootleg
  18. Winner, L. (1980). Do artifacts have politics? *Daedalus, 109*(1), 121-136.

* This list will be continually updated as new research and resources become available.