Design Thinking and Maker Culture
Full course description
This course will introduce students to design thinking, critical making, and the ethos of Maker Culture. This course links design thinking, an approach aimed at human-centred problem solving, to the notions of critical making and maker culture. Researchers in the field of critical design studies and civic making have criticized design thinking for inter alia its solutionist and commercial outlook. To counter such pitfalls, while still mobilising the strengths of design thinking, Matt Ratto suggested the notion of critical making as an ‘antidote to design thinking’ (2019). Critical making refers to design practices bringing together conceptual thinking and digital technology development. Both concepts, design thinking and critical making, will be explored in this course, notably in relation to (digital) innovation.
Since various design practices, including design thinking and critical making, have been insightfully studied with the help of ethnography, students will be introduced to ethnographic methods too. They will notably learn more about design ethnography and digital ethnography. To experience designing and to engage in ethnographic research, they will participate in a design sprint, hosted at FASoS for students in this course (exclusively). This event will allow students to practically experience what it is like to develop and design a project, while also serving as a field site for their ethnographic research. In two final course assessments, they will present and reflect on their insights from this design sprint: they will write an individual paper, and they will create a video.
Course objectives
By the end of this course students will understand theories of design thinking, critical making, and the ethos of maker culture. They will be trained in ethnographic methods, notably design ethnography and digital ethnography. As a media skills component, students will participate in video editing/recording skills trainings, and produce a video on their experience with design thinking or critical making during the design sprint.
Recommended reading
- Costanza-Chock, S. (2020). Design justice: Community-led practices to build the worlds we need. The MIT Press.
- Kimbell, L. (2011). Rethinking design thinking: Part I. Design and culture, 3(3), 285-306.
- Pink, S., Horst, H., Postill, J., Hjorth, L., Lewis, T., & Tacchi, J. (2015). Digital ethnography: Principles and practice. New York: Sage.
- Ratto, M. (2011). Critical making: Conceptual and material studies in technology and social life. The information society, 27(4), 252-260.
- Razzouk, R., & Shute, V. (2012). What is design thinking and why is it important?. Review of educational research, 82(3), 330-348.
- A.S. Richterich