Wicked Problems in Design Thinking

Abstract

Introduction Despite efforts to discover the foundations of design thinking in the fine arts, the natural sciences, or most recently, the social sciences, design eludes reduction and remains a surprisingly flexible activity. No single definition of design, or branches of professionalized practice such as industrial or graphic design, adequately covers the diversity of ideas and methods gathered together under the label. Indeed, the variety of research reported in conference papers, journal articles, and books suggests that design continues to expand in its meanings and connections, revealing unexpected dimensions in practice as well as understanding. This follows the trend of design thinking in the twentieth century, for we have seen design grow from a trade activity to a segmentedprofession to afield for technical research and to what now should be recognized as a new liberal art of technological culture. It may seem unusual to talk about design as a liberal art, particularly when many people are accustomed to identifying the liberal with the traditional arts and that are institutionalized in colleges and universities. But the liberal are undergoing a revolutionary transformation in twentieth-century culture, and design is one of the areas in which this transformation is strikingly evident. To understand the change that is now underway, it is important to recognize that what are commonly regarded as the liberal today are not outside of history. They originated in the Renaissance and underwent prolonged development that culminated in the nineteenth century as a vision of an encyclopedic education of beaux arts, belles lettres, history, various natural sciences and mathematics, philosophy, and the fledgling social sciences. This circle of learning was divided into particular subject matters, each with a proper method or set of methods suitable to its exploration. At their peak as liberal arts, these subject matters provided an integrated understanding of human experience and the array of available knowledge. By the end of the nineteenth century, however, existing subjects were explored with progressively more refined methods, and new subjects were added to accord with advances in knowledge. As a This essay is based on a paper presented at 'Colloque Recherches sur le Design: Incitations, Implications, Interactions, the first French university symposium on design research held October 1990 at l'Universit6 de Technologie de Compiegne, Compiegne, France.