6 EC
Semester 2, period 4
5294INDT6Y
| Owner | Master Information Studies |
| Coordinator | dr. A.C. Nusselder |
| Part of | Master Information Studies, track Information Systems, year 1 |
Creativity and critical thinking is what a highly qualified person needs in an information society of lifelong learning and complex problems. This course will develop both of these qualities. Its first thread is to critically reflect upon design processes and your own role in them. The goal of this reflection is also to gain a depth where new approaches to issues can be found. Therefore the second thread is to creatively reframe an earlier solution you designed. Besides this, you will learn the concepts to adequately think and speak about complexity.
Design thinking is a strategy for general innovations and not just for high-tech innovations, and the human aspect is pivotal in it. Understanding the deeper human values and needs gives you a much broader repertoire of solution directions. The goal of the course is to develop such a design (thinking) mindset which goes beyond more conventional problem solving strategies. Thus it will deepen your understanding of design, innovation, and yourself.
You will be challenged to think differently than you are used to, and develop yourself as a 'reflective practioner'. In specific, this means that you will reflect upon a previous design project (the Data systems project). You learn from the success or failure of previous solution attempts. You will not develop and test another prototype, but develop the question rather than the solution. Trying to find out what actually is the problem, and defining a point of view on this, is actually the core of the design process. The course develops design thinking as such a frame creation method. So a sufficient amount of curiosity and a willingness to reflect and challenge conventional methods is required.
Kees Dorst, Frame Innovation. Create new thinking by design. MIT Press 2015 (should be purchased before begin of the course)
Material announced/presented via Canvas
|
Activity |
Number of hours |
|
Presentatie |
4 |
|
Werkcollege |
60 |
|
Zelfstudie |
104 |
In TER part B of this programme no requirements regarding attendance are mentioned.
Additional requirements for this course:
No more than 2 out of 16 seminars may be missed
Absence must be notified to coordinator
Be on time (Students who are late can find a closed door. Being late twice will be noted as missing one seminar)
Use of electronic devices (laptop, mobile phone) is not permitted: never during lectures, and only when needed during teamwork
| Item and weight | Details |
|
Final grade | |
|
30% A short essay on problem solving strategies in an era of complexity (30% - Insight and analysis) | |
|
40% A summary/overview of the weekly assignments/reflections (40% - Critical thinking and self-reflection) | |
|
30% A poster presentation of the new frame that was developed (30% - Creativity and synthesis) |
Contact the course coordinator to make an appointment for inspection.
The 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' applies to this course. This will be monitored carefully. Upon suspicion of fraud or plagiarism the Examinations Board of the programme will be informed. For the 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' see: www.student.uva.nl
| Notes |
This course structure is preliminary and may be subject to change
From week 5 on there will also be student presentations (in pairs) on a specific topic of the course
|
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| Date | Subject | Goals |
(Guest)lecturers | Literature |
| Mo. 3 Feb. |
Overview of the course and intro to design thinking |
-understanding setup of the course -articulating how students now think about design -having basic understanding of what is specific of DT -understanding differences between agile and design thinking |
A. Nusselder |
-Kees Dorst (2015). Frame Innovation: Creating new thinking by design. Cambridge, Ma.: MIT Press. Series foreword [book should be purchased]
-Lindberg, C. Meinel, and R.Wagner (2011). Design Thinking: A Fruitful Concept for IT Development? In H. Plattner et al. (eds.), Design Thinking: Understand – Improve – Apply, Understanding Innovation (pp. 3-18). Berlin: Springer
Mueller, Roland & Thoring, Katja (2012). Design Thinking vs. Lean Startup: A comparison of two user-driven innovation strategies.
Melanie Mitchell (2009). Ch. 1 'What is complexity?' In Complexity, a guided tour. Oxford: Oxford University Press. |
| Fri. 7 Feb. |
Complexity and wicked problems |
-understanding what complexity is
-thinking / reflecting on what makes a problem wicked
-reflecting on how we - and you personally - have a tendency to tame a problem and reduce complexity
-revealing the assumptions behind conventional problem solving strategies
-having insight in the connection between complex problems and a specific way of working that is required to deal with them |
A. Nusselder |
Melanie Mitchell (2009). Ch. 1 'What is complexity?' In Complexity, a guided tour. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kees Dorst (2015). Frame Innovation: Creating new thinking by design. Cambridge, Ma.: MIT Press. chapter 1 (Challenges)
Jeff Conklin (2008). Wicked Problems & Social Complexity. In J. Conklin, Dialogue Mapping: Building Shared Understanding of Wicked Problems (pp. 1-20). Chichester: Wiley
Snowden: A leaders framework for decision making |
| Mo. 10 Feb. | Introduction to critical thinking |
Overall goals this week: -starting the critical analysis of the case -starting to think creatively (again) on that previous case (introduction, hands on, to the frame creation method) This class: -understanding the core issues and importance of critical thinking
-giving and explaining examples of where and why critical thinking is most needed
-understanding what reflective thinking writing is and how to do that
-articulating the assumptions behind both the presentation (brief) of the case/problem you worked on, and your understanding/interpretation of this
-articulating new, more thoughtful and meaningful perspectives based on this critical (self) evalution |
A. Nusselder |
Linda & Paul Elder. A Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking
E. Villalba (2011). Critical Thinking
|
| Fri. 14 Feb. | A frame creation session in a sprint |
This innovation workshop as competition for the International workshop in Lublin >doing all the stages of a frame creation process in one session >winners can go to international bootcamp in Poland |
A. Nusselder |
Van der Bijl-Brouwer & Dorst (2014). How deep is deep. A four-layer model of insights into human needs for design innovation
Dorst (2006). The core of ‘design thinking’ and its application. In Design Studies Vol 32 No. 6, pp. 522-532 |
| Mo. 17 Feb. |
Lessons from design |
-understanding crucial role of the formulating activity in design
-understanding and being able to articulate the nature of the previous solution you made
-opening up the usual understanding of the problem
-understanding abductive reasoning and basics of system approach
-understanding the importance of the brief of the problem
|
A. Nusselder |
Kees Dorst (2015). Frame Innovation: Creating new thinking by design. Cambridge, Ma.: MIT Press. Chapter 2 (Pioneers) and 3 (Lessons from Design) |
| Fri. 21 Feb. | Frames |
-understanding what frames are, and what their role is in design
-deeper understanding of frame of previous design
-start creating another meaningful framing of the problem |
A. Nusselder |
Kees Dorst (2015). Frame Innovation: Creating new thinking by design. Cambridge, Ma.: MIT Press. Chapter 4 (The Frame Creation Model) and 5 (The Principles and practices of Frame Creation) |
| Mo. 24 Feb | Meaning and themes |
-understanding topic of meaning in design
-understanding how to find the themes or deeper layer of meaning
- analyse and describe this deeper layer of meaning underlying the observations you made in the previous design (how did you find the themes?)
-elaborating and finding cues and observaions that can enrich this understanding of meaning (how can you enhance the themes?)
|
Mark Wiebes (Innovation- Nationale Politie)
A. Nusselder |
Stienstra, Embodying Phenomenology in Interaction Design Research
Poulsen and Thogerson, Embodied design thinking: a phenomenological perspective. CoDesign Vol. 7, No. 1, March 2011, 29–44 |
| Fri. 28 Feb | Placemaking and sensemaking |
-understanding how people attribute meaning to things and that understanding this is pivotal for creating valuable designs (as in the design of urban spaces)
-developing (further) the solution direction in previous design
|
Katusha Sol (Placemaking)
A. Nusselder |
Kolko-Abductive thinking and sensemaking. Design Issues: Volume 26, Number 1 Winter 2010
+ |
| Mo. 2 Ma. |
Critical Thinking II: critical design and the issue of control |
-critically examine the cultural and technological contexts of a design process
-working on critical and creative aspects of the design (frame creation method)
|
Rob van Kranenburg (Council – Internet of Things) A. Nusselder |
Liene Jakobsone. Critical design as approach to next thinking
Nold & van Kranenburg. The internet of people for a post-oil world |
| Fri. 6 Ma. | Creativity |
-deeper understanding of cerativity (in innovation)
|
entries on Creativity; Aesthetics; Imagination (in Innovation) | |
| Mo. 9 Ma. | Innovation |
-understanding the differences between radical and incremental innovation
-using the notion of meaning in innovation
-connecting frame innovation method to other approaches in innovation |
A. Nusselder |
Norman, D. A., & Verganti, R. (2014). Incremental and radical innovation: Design research vs. technology and meaning change. Design Issues, 30(1), 78-96.
Oberg and Verganti (2014). Meaning- An unexplored path of innovation. International Journal of Innovation in Management, Vol. 2 ()2), 77-93
Kees Dorst (2015). Frame Innovation: Creating new thinking by design. Cambridge, Ma.: MIT Press. Chapter 6 (The Open, Complex, Dynamic and Networked Organization)
|
| Fri. 13 Ma. |
The reflective practitioner |
-being able to improve performances by reflecting on, and learning from, your (professional) practice
-exercises on being a reflective practioner
-developing its implications for innovation/organizational learning |
A. Nusselder |
Oeij et al. Leadership in innovation projects: an illustration of the reflective practitioner and the relation to organizational learning. Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (2017) 6:2 |
| Mo. 16 Ma. | Organizational learning |
-knowing how design thinking can contribute to organizational change
-knowing how design thinking can contribute to organizational change
-exercises on qualities needed to do this
-how to implement dt (mindset) in organizations
-what is learning (in organizations)
-analyzing how your design work impacted the organization |
A. Nusselder |
Kees Dorst (2015). Frame Innovation: Creating new thinking by design. Cambridge, Ma.: MIT Press. Chapter 6 (The Three Challenges of Frame Innovation)
Dunne, Implementing design thinking in organizations . Journal of Organization Design (2018) 7:16
additional: Johansson-Sköldberg, Jill Woodilla and Mehves Çetinkaya. Design Thinking: Past, Present and Possible Futures. Creativity Management Volume 22 Number 2 2013 |
| Fri. 20 Ma. |
Entrepeneuring
|
-the frame creation method as the core of 'entrepeneuring'
-seeing and developing the further possibilities of a design product
|
Erik Boer (director A’dam Startup Village / A’dam Centre for Entrepeneurship)
A. Nusselder |
Kees Dorst (2015). Frame Innovation: Creating new thinking by design. Cambridge, Ma.: MIT Press. Chapter 8 (The Art of Frame Innovation)
Grzegorz Baran. "Design-Led Approach to Entrepreneurship" |
| Mo. 23 Ma. | (poster) presentations |
The schedule for this course is published on DataNose.
Maximum number of students: 40
Required:
(as the course examines an earlier design solution):
-having designed a solution to a previous challenge
(more than a specific kind of knowledge a certain mindset is required):
-a willingness to go beyond usual ways of thinking and problem solving
-a willingness to reflect upon yourself and your work