Principled Innovation meets Design: The video

by | Thursday, November 07, 2019

Quick summary: In which I disparage the buzzword “design thinking” even while praising the idea of design; point to the value-neutral nature of design and the need for a more principled approach, and end with a video that seeks to capture a vision of principled innovation embedded into the design process.

Design thinking is the latest buzzword in education. It has been variously described as being the new liberal arts or even your secret weapon for building a better good. Design thinking is now part of pricey executive leadership programs as much as it is part of K12 education.

I am somewhat uncomfortable with this hype for a range of reasons. The first being that design thinking seems like just another fad that educators have to deal with. And like all fads it will end and nothing would have really changed. Second, and maybe more important, is that it is increasingly clear design thinking does not necessarily leads to good solutions. Examples abound—of companies and organizations that have used design thinking to manipulate and trick users. A lot has been written about dark design or dark patterns. (I addressed some of these issues in this video, and Danah Henriksen and I have a chapter on this very topic, titled: Move slow & nurture things: Human-centered values in a disruptive world). Along these lines, the renowned scholar of design, Richard Buchanan, had this to say:

‘The Holocaust was one of the most tragic, prominent products of design in the 20th century. It was designed thoroughly, but with a horrifying ethical foundation. And the fault lies in the people; Albert Speer and his surrounding henchmen. Design and creativity are neutral tools. But people need to know when and how to use and when not to use them.’ (See Henriksen 2019, p. 26)

Let it be said again. Design and creativity are neutral tools!

© Photo: Alex on Unsplash. Designed by @punyamishra

And I write all this with a great love and respect for design and the design process. I have always considered myself as being a educator-designer and, more recently, I am proud to have been part of a range of projects that focus on educational innovation through design-based problem solving. As the website of the Office of Scholarship and Innovation (OofSI) says:

We believe the design process is a powerful approach to addressing challenges in education. We collaborate with partners across the education landscape to develop mindsets and cultures that value creativity and intrapreneurship–creating change and taking risks to improve an organization from within.

Our projects vary greatly, depending on need and context. (Click here for a complete list of projects we have been involved in.) One thing we have learned through our work, however, (and consistent with Buchanan’s quote above) is that design is more than just a process. It needs to be driven by an explicit commitment to a deeper set of values and ethical principles. At the heart of our work around educational innovation is the question: We can, but should we?

This has led us (working closely with another team in the college) to ground our design-based approach within a broader context what we call principled innovation. Principled innovation, in this context, is defined as the “ability to imagine new concepts, catalyze ideas, and form new solutions, guided by principles that create positive change for humanity.”

Over the past few months we have been working on developing a framework for design and principled innovation. This work was led, this past summer, by Melissa Warr, who worked with Jennifer Stein and myself to create short videos to explain our approach. Claire Gilbert, our in-house multimedia specialist has been working on creating more professional versions of these videos, the first of which is now available. Enjoy

A few randomly selected blog posts…

Recreating D-Day…

... on a shoe-string budget. Three designers and a big empty beach, see the results! http://www.youtube.com/v/WRS9cpOMYv0

Wordle, McCain v.s. Obama

As I was playing with Wordle (see previous postings here and here) I realized that it could be used for political analysis. So here are John McCain and Barack Obama's acceptance speeches as a word-map. Can you without, my telling you so, figure out which is which? A...

TPCK (a.k.a TPACK) as Article of the Week!!

Teachers College Record chooses a couple of articles each week to offer freely to visitors to its website. These are featured in their email newsletter (TCRecord this week), and goes out to thousands of people. Imagine my surprise when I opened my newsletter a few...

Photos from SITE08

Matt has Flickrd photos from SITE08. Some of these photos are taken by me, but the rules are that the owner of the camera automatically gets the bragging rights 🙂 and since I didn't take my camera along, he takes credit for all the pictures. Given that a bunch of...

The recurring cycle of hype and despair around ed tech

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. — George Santayana (1905, p. 284) The Atlantic has an article titled "Why tech still hasn't solved education's problems" focusing on the failed promise of MOOCs and asks the question Why has the promised...

Contextualizing TPACK within systems and culture

Contextualizing TPACK within systems and culture

Melissa Warr and I were recently asked to write a afterword to a special issue of the journal Computers in Human Behavior. The focus of the special issue was on the kinds of knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSA) teachers need to successfully integrate technology in...

The perception of taste

A new study (with brain scanning no less) indicates that the more expensive the wine the better it tastes. As the MindHacks article (Higher price makes cheap wine taste better) reports, participants rated the more expensive wine as being more likeable even it was...

Photography update

I have continued adding photographs from the trip to my Flickr Site... I had posted about this earlier but I guess it is time for another reminder. There are now 380 photographs on the "Travels in Asia 2008" Flickr-set (and more coming soon). Go to the...

Common sense in science class

Common sense in science class

Students can sometimes perceive scientific ideas to be in conflict with their common sense. How do we approach such conflicts in the classroom? Do we see these commonsense ideas as being wrong or, at best, misconceived? Alternatively, do we see them as resources and...

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  1. Move slow & nurture things: Human-Centered values in a disruptive world – Punya Mishra's Web - […] positive change for humanity.” (For applications of principled innovation to our work see (a) principled innovation meets design; and…
  2. A Blog Crossover: Our Framework v. 2.0 | Talking About Design - […] avatar: design thinking) has been receiving some significant attention recently. I have written elsewhere about some concerns I have with this…
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