Hi Stephane,
One not widely known part of the design thinking history is the role played by John Woollatt in Manchester and Newcastle. The design thinking path to IDEO and Tim Brown (and the paths of many other designers, design researchers and design organisations including Apple) were dependent on the ideas and teachings of this seminal yet not widely-known designer, design theorist and design educator.
John Woollatt was an experienced and successful designer when in his 40s he attended the first postgraduate design research course in the UK, which was delivered at UMIST by John Chris Jones assisted by Nigel Cross.
Following on from that that John developed ideas of 'design thinking' along with a large amount of design theory across many areas of design. It was part of what he referred to as the design theories of 'domain-free design'. In parallel, he developed modes of design education aimed at designers being able to bring a particular 'design thinking' and learning approach to design activity whatever the subject matter and regardless of the field. John Woollatt's design theory development and design teaching occurred inside and outside design institutions from the mid-1960s to his death in the mid-1990s.
Most of his later design theory development, especially that about design thinking, was at the time he was teaching and researching at the institution that became the Design Department of Northumbria University in Newcastle UK. This is the design school where Tim Brown, Jony Ives and many prominent designers studied. John spread his ideas through personal connection and was an active early member of the Design Research Society and attended their meetings to spread and test his design theory ideas and find out what others were doing.
One unusual aspect of John's approach was that, alongside his formal teaching, John had long-term protégés, and mentored many young upcoming designers outside the formal education system. Much of this occurred in walking ,camping and sailing trips to the Lake district and visits to design exhibitions. I was his second and perhaps longest term protégé (I remember John sharing and discussing John Chris Jones and Nigel's lecture notes during his studies with them around 1968). My guess is there are several others of his protégé's on this list. A big hi to all of you! Please get in touch.
From the 1960s, John developed and disseminated large amounts of design theory to his students, colleagues and protégés. During the 70s and 80s, he was a regular visitor to my house in Lancaster bringing new design theories to discuss and information about what he had found worked and what didn't (I was developing design theory on what became known as wicked problems along with computerised design optimisation and automation). None of John Woollatt's material as far as I know ever was ever published formally. John didn't write for publication and that wasn't the way in design research in those times. Others may know better, but as far as I know John's only publication was a description in the 1172 Motor Association handbook of his design and testing of an aluminium monocoque racing car, Magaloysius.
The role and history of John Woollatt at Northumbria University in many ways provides a missing link in understanding the origins of design thinking and its propagation to American design institutions and, from there, back into academia.
Best wishes,
Terry
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Dr Terence Love
PhD(UWA), BA(Hons) Engin. PGCEd, FDRS, AMIMechE, MISI
Director,
Love Services Pty Ltd
PO Box 226, Quinns Rocks
Western Australia 6030
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-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Stéphane Vial
Sent: Tuesday, 19 August 2014 1:02 AM
To: PHD-Design (mailing list)
Subject: How 'Design Thinking Research' and 'Design Thinking' are related (or not)?
Dear All,
Since I am currently writing a short introduction book to design for the French audience, my main concern is about the origin of the so-called "Design Thinking", as popularized in design profession by IDEO. Does Tim Brown and IDEO's Design Thinking approach come from "design thinking research" in the sense of Nigel Cross (designerly ways of
knowking/thinking) OR does this have not the same origin at all ? How Design Thinking Research in the academic world is related (or not) to Design Thinking practioners's approach?
I am sorry if this has already been said or published, I still have a lot of to read but this point is not clear to me and help on that would be much appreciated.
Best,
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*Stéphane Vial*
Maître de conférences en sciences du design à l'Université de Nîmes Responsable de la licence Arts Appliqués Membre permanent de l’équipe « Sémiotique des Arts et du Design » à l'Institut ACTE (UMR 8218, CNRS/Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) Co-responsable du groupe de recherches PROJEKT uni.stephane-vial.net
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PhD Philosophy (Paris Descartes University) Associate Professor of Design Studies at the University of Nîmes (France) Head of the Bachelor of Applied Arts Program Researcher at the ACTE Institute, Sorbonne Paris 1 University Co-head of the research group PROJEKT <http://projekt.unimes.fr/>.
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