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Thinking About Design Thinking: A Comparative Study of Design and Business Texts

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ICoRD'13

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering ((LNME))

Abstract

In the past 10 years design thinking has become a popular buzzword in the design and business communities alike. While much has been written on the subject in both academic and popular literature no consensus has been reached as to its actual definition and nature. The following study employs a semiotic analysis in order to identify lexical patterns that can provide us with insight into many underlying principles of design thinking.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Texts include but are not limited to: Leavy, “Design Thinking—a new mental model of value innovation”, Strategy and Leadership, 2010. Wylant, “Design Thinking and the Experience of Innovation”, Design Issues, 2008. Teal, “Developing a (Non-linear) Practice of Design Thinking”, The International Journal of Art and Design Education, 2010. Ward, Runcie and Morris, “Embedding innovation: design thinking for small enterprises”, Journal of Business Strategy, 2009. Brown, “Change by Design”, Harper Business, 2009. Martin, “The Design of Business”, Harvard Business School Press, 2009.

  2. 2.

    Based on an interview with Nir in Moshav Bnei Ataroton July 18, 2011.

  3. 3.

    Based on an interview with Hambly on April 28, 2011 at Hambly and Wooly.

  4. 4.

    Based on an interview with Sade on June 15, 2011 at the Technion.

  5. 5.

    Based on an interview with Leung conducted on April 27, 2011 at Design Works.

References

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Acknowledgments

Thank you to Professor Ayala Cohen for her assistance with the factorial analysis and to all the individuals who took the time to be interviewed over the course of this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, 32000, Israel

    Marnina Herrmann & Gabriela Goldschmidt

Authors
  1. Marnina Herrmann
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  2. Gabriela Goldschmidt
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marnina Herrmann .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Centre for Product Design and Manufactur, Indian Institute of Science, Gulmohar Marg, Bangalore, 560012, Karnataka, India

    Amaresh Chakrabarti

  2. , Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Sardar Patel Road, Chennai, 600036, Tamil Nadu, India

    Raghu V. Prakash

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© 2013 Springer India

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Herrmann, M., Goldschmidt, G. (2013). Thinking About Design Thinking: A Comparative Study of Design and Business Texts. In: Chakrabarti, A., Prakash, R. (eds) ICoRD'13. Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, India. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-1050-4_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-1050-4_3

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, India

  • Print ISBN: 978-81-322-1049-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-81-322-1050-4

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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