Reading Deep: On Design Thinking

Reading Deep: On Design Thinking

Coby English

Source: Mockplus

Chapter Overview

In Chapter 6 of The Design of Everyday Things, “Design Thinking,” Don Norman centers this section on thinking like a designer, applying design thinking to various problem-solution situations, and understanding the user in the context of design thinking. He starts this chapter by stating that the first and often forgotten step to solving a problem is making sure the problem is valid and well-defined. He then introduces the idea of human-centered design or HCD, “the process of ensuring that people’s needs are met, that the resulting product is understandable and usable, that is accomplishes the desired tasks, and that the experience of use if positive and enjoyable” (Norman 219). The rest of the chapter worked in using this definition in application to a variety of problems in design thinking.

Analyzing the Resource

I chose to write my midterm blog on this chapter, because I found it the most useful out of our readings so far. This chapter serves as a guide for design thinking application in problem solving. Based on the reading, I feel as though I could start with any project in mind, work through this chapter, and come out the other side having taken significant steps towards the solution. By specifically outlining the The Iterative Cycle of Human-Centered Design, then expanding on it the rest of the chapter, Norman does everything short of giving you the answer. In his sardonic, yet honest tone, he makes this information understandable and accessible.

Contextualizing the Resource

This chapter perfectly encapsulates what I intend to do with my professional writing degree. It centers not on what human-centered design is, in theory or otherwise, but instead its application in everyday life. I believe this chapter can be used as a resource in application for user architecture. It cannot and should not be used in the creation of user architecture but instead in the analysis of both the architecture, and the creation of said architecture. Norman is clear throughout this chapter that in order to solve a problem, you have to truly understand the needs, or you may be solving a problem that doesn’t exist or exists in a different way.

At Purdue University, the academic program in Human Centered Design and Development, now known as the UX Design program, is housed in the Purdue Polytechnic Institute. After a quick review of their plan of study, I see that a course in design thinking is required and recommended to be taken in the first semester of study. There are few courses of this kind, only offered in the Polytechnic Institute. In the eyes of Don Norman, this is doing a great disservice to every other Purdue University student. His argument is that design thinking is not only applicable but necessary for all fields of study, whether it be technology, marketing, management, engineering, science, or education. I would venture to say that this is the purpose of writing his entire book. In conjunction with the other chapters, Chapter 6: Design Thinking works as an application for his argument in other chapters: how we design things, all things, is important, and knowing them makes us better makers of things. Don Norman would argue (and now so would I) that design courses should be in all plans of study. Specifically, in our Professional Writing program, I could see a course on this topic fitting well alongside our coursework in computer-aided publishing and multimedia writing and design. I think this skillset belongs to be incorporated into existing fields, and I believe that is the entire focus of Don Norman’s book.

The RXA Reading Deep Series is the course's "deep dives" into literature on professional writing, user experience & architecture, and design, written by the individual scholars of RXA.