Reverting back to an earlier discussion on the PHD-Design List about who, and how the exact term "design thinking" was defined by those who first used it in the form of a compound gerund noun -- not in modified versions, such as "thinking" modified by the word "design". There are far more examples of this in literature.

It appears that Peter Rowe was the first one to use the exact term "design thinking" in his book 1987 book called Design Thinking. In his 1987 book called "Design Thinking", Rowe studied the process of design as well as the activities of architects designing.  As many have argued on or off list, before Rowe's 1987 book, several design researchers studied the different ways designers work as well which type of problems are solved in their respective professional activities.  It should be pointed out that Rowe is by profession an architect and urban planner. Peter Rowe best sums up his book as: "an attempt to fashion a generalised portrait of design thinking. A principal aim will be to account for the underlying structure and focus of inquiry directly associated with those of 'seeking out' on the part of designers, for the purpose of inventing or creating buildings and urban artifacts." (Rowe, 1987, p.1)

This leads me to think that Rowe's use of the word "design thinking" is in large part aligned with the contemporary understanding and usage of the word.

It is quite possible that Rowe has been influenced by others or other disciplines. The most likely person would be Donald Schön, who described how designers when designing have a "conversation" with the moment. 

Schön summarised his philosophy in this quote:

”When ends are fixed and clear, then the decision to act can present itself as an instrumental problem. But when ends are confused and conflicting, there is yet no ‘problem’ to solve." (Schön, 1983, p.41)

Others that can be included here are Herbert Simon and Buckminster Fuller. The academic work by Simon and Fuller has largely centered on the creative process by designers and their professional work. In fact, they never used the exact term "design thinking".  The discussion around "design thinking" over the past 15 years has largely focused on the methods by which designers design and also on how "design thinking" can be applied to areas outside the domain of design. The explosion in the world "design thinking" has only produced few thought leaders. 

The second widely use of the word "design thinking" is by Richard Buchanan -- a philosopher.  He wrote on the issue of wicked problems in design thinking. Buchanan's use of the term "design thinking" is even more aligned with contemporary usage than was the case in Rowe's book. 

Yours,

Heico 

Heico Wesselius, BBA, MA, PhD Candidate (Economics, The New School for Social Research)| CSIRO Research Fellow | Design Integration Mapping Project | Strategic Design | School of Design, Swinburne University of Technology, PO Box 218, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, Australia | Office: +61 3 9214 6025 | Mobile: + 61 432 628 784 | email [log in to unmask] | Private email [log in to unmask] |
Web:  www.swinburne.edu.au/design


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