Introduction to Design Thinking

Spring 2018, University of Arizona Sustainable Built Environments

5 min readJan 10, 2018

Professor: Jonathan Bean, Ph.D.

“Propuestas de la sesión basada en Design Thinking” by *Esteban Romero* is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Design thinking is difficult to define, which is simultaneously a great strength and significant liability. In this class, we’ll be focusing on a critical approach to design thinking, while you gain experience and skills needed to elaborate and communicate a design. In this class, you’ll learn by doing — though there will be weekly readings as well! — with a special focus on sketching, freehand drawing, elemental modeling, and digital communication. This interdisciplinary design studio is outcomes-based, meaning that you will be working towards projects with larger and sometimes difficult-to-define goals. You will build and improve your own skills while contributing to the growth and improvement of everyone in the class.

Participating fully in this class will help you develop:

Creative strategies that will help you discover how to see the world differently.
A iterative creative process that will help you understand how to think about the world — what it is and what it could be—differently.
Fundamentals of design communication, including layout, composition, and color, that give your work agency and authority.

Required Reading

This syllabus. It will be continually updated throughout the semester.

Please also read The Course Policies. They are an integral part of this syllabus.

Required readings will be distributed in class on paper (because it’s not worth spending time to learn about sustainability if you don’t remember what you have read.) Some readings may be posted on the D2L site for this class.

Course Overview

Project 1—2d Design: Seeing and Representing a Social Scene

What we see looking down is regularity. Now this is a truth, but it’s only a partial one. Get down to eye level — the way people see the place — and you don’t see regularity. Instead you see sort of an amiable miscellany.
— William Whyte in The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces

Key dates:

Crit*, Wednesday, January 22
Review, Wednesday, January 24

Crit is short for critique. This is a semi-formal presentation that’s intended to help you improve your work in preparation for a formal design review. Work you present at a crit should be complete enough to get the idea across—think of it like a rough draft of a paper, or, if you were working at a design firm, an idea that’s developed enough to show to your colleagues for feedback. On the other hand, work you present at a review should come across as a final, polished product—think of it like a manuscript that’s ready for publication, or work that you are asking your boss or customer to invest in. We’ll have several crits and reviews throughout the semester. Successful students will aim to improve the quality of the work and they way it is presented each time.

Sample sketchbook — “You’d think by now I’d have learnt not to bother sketching on the train #floodhack” by *Paul Downey* is licensed under CC BY 2.0

After completing this project, you should notice improvements in your abilities to:

Observe and analyze people’s behavior in space;
Do freehand sketching, diagramming, and drawing; and
Use and, when necessary, invent graphic conventions to represent complex behaviors or spatial arrangements.

January 10

Our point of departure is William Whyte’s classic film The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. We’ll be watching this film in class and discussing it. If you missed class please watch the film on your own at archive.org. You’ll need just over an hour. Make sure to watch both reels. It’s retro, but a classic piece of environmental analysis.

Before Friday’s class, please:

Identify and visit three different public spaces in Tucson that interest you. One of these must be new to you, meaning that it’s a place where you have not spent a significant amount of time, and at least one space must be unique — meaning no one else in the class claims it before you do on this Google sheet (note that you must be signed on to your University account to access this link.) Take a few photographs to document the public space. Add them to Slack in the #2d channel.

Friday, January 12

We’ll start to practice observation and drawing in class.

Creative exercises:

Due before noon Monday, January 15: add to the #2d channel in Slack draft drawings per assignment sheet distributed in class.
Due Wednesday, January 17: bring to class up to 3 sheets of drawings of the public space you choose per assignment sheet distributed in class.

Weekend reading:

Kelley, Tom, and Littman, Jonathan. 2000. “Innovation Begins with an Eye.” In The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America’s Leading Design Firm, 23–52. New York: Currency/Doubleday.
Aspelund, Karl. 2006. “Inspiration.” In The Design Process, 15–21. New York: Fairchild Publications, Inc.

Wednesday, January 17

We’ll talk about the readings (be sure to bring printed copies of your reading responses!) and review your drawings.

Friday, January 19

We’ll practice hard line drawing, by making plan, elevation, and section drawings through cutting and drawing tomatoes. Many thanks to my colleague Clare Robinson for the seed of this exercise.

We’ll continue to talk about line weight — what it is and why it matters—and will practice using an architectural scale.

Creative exercises:

Due end of day Monday, January 22: add to the #2d channel in Slack sketches from the Edwards reading (below).
Due Wednesday, January 24: draw to scale the public space you choose per assignment sheet distributed in class on Wednesday, January 17.

Weekend reading: