SECTION III

WELCOME TO SECTION THREE

What is Design?

3.2

Twenty Years in Design, Pt. 1
How has the practice of design adapted over the last twenty years?

This post takes a trip in time, beginning In 1999, when a number of forces were questioning the future of design. Researchers were asking more of design thinking and designers themselves were feeling stuck in work related to consumerism. Over the last twenty years, significant changes have been made and new models of design have been applied.

3.2

Twenty Years in Design, Pt. 1

How has the practice of design adapted over the last twenty years?

Part 2 of 2 finishes the story of design over the last twenty years.

3.3

Tools of the Trade

What tools and methods are designers using to turn the tacit into the explicit?

This post explores the ways designers flow back and forth between deductive and conductive activities that broaden and discover, then reduce and synthesize. Special focus on a select few tools and methods designers have harnessed to turn abstract ideas and experiences into actionable data.

3.4

Wicked Problems

What are wicked problems – and how have designers’ work become linked with them?

This post explores the relationship between interdisciplinary teams and wicked problems and advocates for design as an essential ingredient in groups attempting to understand, frame, align and strategize around today’s most difficult challenges.