Postgraduate Course: Design Thinking (CMSE11301)
Course Outline
| School | Business School |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 15 |
ECTS Credits | 7.5 |
| Summary | This course will introduce students from the Business School to fundamental approaches to
designing and design thinking, relevant to four orders of designing - visual, material, service and
system (Buchanan, 1992; Golsby-Smith, 1996) and relating this to business models as designable
constructions. |
| Course description |
The first half of the course introduces students to the theoretical backgrounds underlying applied approaches to design thinking in a lecture and seminar format. A history of research regarding design activity is outlined, through two fundamental paradigms of thinking about design-as-method in the 1960s through to the design as knowledge application and expertise through the 1980s. (Dorst 2006; Dorst & Dijkhuis 1995). Finally, we review more recent literature describing design as social system (Woodhouse and Patton, 2004), and the implications of an science and technology studies (STS) approach to understanding design thinking and activity. Throughout, special emphasis is placed upon understanding designing as both an iterative and generative activity, focussing on the fundamental practice of prototyping. The second half of the course outlines an alternative approach to designing and design thinking is outlined through a re-interpretation of theories of differentiation as outlined by Chamberlin (1933). Students will be engaged in a team exercise to design and develop, through intervention with identified stakeholders, an alternative model to an existing product, service, process or business model, prototype their developments and test their findings through the form of a pop-up shop, to be held on the University campus. Findings and insights from the intervention will result in an individual case study report for final submission.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Describe and critically discuss the range of design thinking approaches and frameworks
- Analyse problems from a design thinking perspective;
- Critically apply the principles of design thinking to address innovation problems.
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Reading List
ESSENTIAL READING
Chamberlin, E(1933) Chapter 5: Product Differentiation and the Theory of Value. In The Theory Of Monopolistic Competition: A Re-Orientation Of The Theory Of Value. London : Oxford University Press.
Golsby-Smith, T (1996) Fourth Order Design: A practical perspective. Design Issues, 12(1) pp5-25.
Dorst, CH (2006) Design problems and design paradoxes. Design Issues, 22(3) pp4-17
Dorst, CH and Dijkhuis, J (1995) Comparing paradigms for describing design activity. Design Studies, 16, 261-274
Simon, H (1969) Sciences of the Artificial. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
Woodhouse, E and Patton, JW (2004) Design by Society: Science and Technology Studies and the Social Shaping of Design. Design Issues, 20(3) pp1-12.
Schon, D (1994) The Reflective Practitioner. Surrey: Ashgate.
RECOMMENDED READING
Martin, R (2009) The design of business, Harvard Business School Press. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Cognitive and subject specific skills:
-Integrate the design thinking concepts and relate them to real-world innovation problems.
Transferable skills:
-Engage with stakeholders to elicit requirements;
-Design and deliver a design innovation.
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| Keywords | EI-DT |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Mr Arno Verhoeven
Tel: (0131 6)51 5808
Email: |
Course secretary | Mrs Yvonne Sanderson
Tel: (0131 6)51 5333
Email: |
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