Design thinking sure sounds like a nice concept, and it sure looks nice too. And I’m sure, when used and applied correctly, it can be an effective way to organize thinking and motivate projects. However, the craze surrounding the concept of “design thinking” often seems to prioritize the aesthetic (at times over functionality and quality), often at the expense of affordability and accessibility. Consider Apple’s products: they are beautiful, functional, high-quality, wonderfully integrated beacons of design thinking at work. However, they are also prohibitively expensive to most people in the world. But at least Apple products are functional and high quality… As discussed in Maggie Gram’s article “On Design Thinking,” some design thinking projects, like IDEO’s plans for Gainesville, FL, are beautiful, expensive and functionally useless.
When considering other design failures, I think back to my boyfriend’s old apartment in Mountain View, CA. My boyfriend used to live in one of those brand new luxury apartment buildings that are being put up all over the country, trying to create the perfect living experience for young, trendy, educated professionals making their way in the world. The apartment complex featured kitchens with new appliances, a swanky swimming pool and gym, outdoor BBQ spots, and even a rooftop dog park. While everything looked beautiful, it became clear that many of the aesthetically pleasing aspects of the apartment were designed without quality in mind. For instance, the brand new dishwasher in my boyfriend’s brand new apartment looked fancy and technologically advanced, with lots of buttons showcasing all kinds of different dishwashing modes. However, it failed to actually clean dishes. The rooftop dog park also seemed to be designed without a whole lot of common sense. While the dog parked looked nice (there was a nice lawn with fairy lights to light it, places for people to sit, toys for dogs), the lawn was made out of plastic astroturf, and there were no sprinklers to clean it. So, if you were to go up to the dog park in the middle of the day when the sun was out, you would be accosted by the horrendous smell of dog pee and plastic baking in the sun. Not exactly a hip, swanky experience for the young professional. I’m sure lots of thought was put into the aesthetic design of the dog park, but nobody seemed to consider the reality of what a dog park is used for (that is, a place for dogs to expel excrement). And so, any time my boyfriend’s dog needed to go to the bathroom, he had to brave the overwhelming stench of poor design.
Well-designed Powerpoints and roadmaps can be used as smoke and mirrors to cover up the fact that something is devoid of useful content or functionality. Additionally, those obsessed with the term “design thinking” are often totally distinct from the people whose problems design thinkers are trying to solve. Problem solvers need to work with the people they want to help in order to successfully solve problems; they can’t merely rely on frameworks like “design thinking” to fix problems without getting to the root of the problems themselves. That being said, I’m sure frameworks like design thinking, when used properly, can be useful to organize one’s thinking when used in conjunction with working with those whose problems need to be solved. Maybe a more successful design thinker would have figured out a way to add a sprinkler system to a rooftop dog park.
