Thinking about "Design Thinking"

Fred Collopy — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:23:47 -0400

Design Thinking sits squarely in a Cartesian world of divided minds and bodies in spite of the fact that recent advances in evolutionary theory and cognitive science point to the inseparability of what is called the "hand-brain complex."

Anne Burdick, Design Without Designers

Twitter per the McLuhans' Laws of Media

Fred Collopy — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 18:35:52 -0400

Marshall and Eric McLuhan argued that an emerging medium is best understood by considering four questions or probes. They called these four questions the Laws of Media. Every new medium extends some capability, turns into its opposite if it grows too much, pushes aside other media, and retrieves some long lost activity from humanity's past.

Lessons Learned -- Why the Failure of Systems Thinking Should Inform the Future of Design Thinking

Fred Collopy — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 03:16:21 -0400

"You never learn by doing something right ‘cause you already know how to do it. You only learn from making mistakes and correcting them."
Russell Ackoff
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So You Say You Want a Definition — What is Designing?

Fred Collopy — Sun, 03 May 2009 10:12:39 -0400

I have found it is useful to think of definitions of design, designing, design thinking as "stepping stones" that help us move the conversation along, rather than straight jackets defining what is in and what is out. In that sense, they are perhaps not really definitions at all. But then language is like that, always begging to be more than it is at the moment.

As Designers and Managers Think About Each Other — A Provocation

Fred Collopy — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 22:27:43 -0400

I wrote this as a provocation for a workshop that will take place this week-end at the Weatherhead School.

To what extent do fourth order design, design thinking, integrative thinking, and similar extensions of the notion of designing represent conceptual mechanisms for managers, management educators, and business consultants to co-opt the design community’s unique position as an innovative force, perhaps the innovative force in businesses?

Just What is Design Thinking?—The View from the Blogosphere

Fred Collopy — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:35:53 -0400

Supporting Design and Innovation in a Down Economy

Fred Collopy — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 08:54:25 -0500

In 2002 Michael Lewis wrote a New York Times Magazine article In Defense of the Boom. In it he observed that a rational stock market “channels less than the socially optimal amounts of capital into innovation.” I came across the article (it’s republished in his new book Panic) while flying back from the 6th European Conference on Design Innovation in Paris yesterday.

Where is the Managing in Risk Management?

Fred Collopy — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:06:06 -0500

Recycled holiday greeting

Fred Collopy — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 12:17:23 -0500

I just received a holiday greeting from Bruce Mau Design. It is sufficiently stimulating and inspiring that I'd like to share it with all of you. Please consider this the e-quivalent of recycling a nicely done greeting card and accept Mau's wishes as my own for you this holiday season.

Find the greeting here.

Where is the Auto Industry’s Moore’s Law?

Fred Collopy — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 14:28:53 -0500

In the April 19, 1965 issue of Electronics Magazine, Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel made an observation about the development of integrated circuits, which are at the heart of the modern computer's ever improving price-performance.