Cross-Cultural and User-Centered Design Thinking in a Global Organization: A Collaborative Case Analysis

Abstract

The case presented here was the center of the 11th Design Thinking Research Symposium (DTRS11) and concerns extensive in situ collected video-based data of everyday design team activity traced longitudinally in a professional team of designers working with user involvement. The DTRS11 dataset was shared and analyzed by 28 international design research teams, who approached the data with each their preferred methodology and theoretical interests. In addition to the case description, the current paper also identified themes for distinct analyses conducted by individual design research teams: co-creation, cross-cultural design, design thinking within organizations, and design tools and materials, each of which stem from particulars in the present case, but at the same time serve as hints to developments that are taking place in design practice more broadly.