Design Thinking: Understanding How Designers Think and Work

by Nigel Cross

Design thinking is the core creative process for any designer; this book explores and explains this apparently mysterious "design ability".Focusing on what designers do when they design, Design Thinking is structured around a series of in-depth case studies of outstanding and expert designers at work, interwoven with overviews and analyses. The range covered reflects the breadth of Design, from hardware to software product design, from architecture to Formula One design. The book offers new insights and understanding of design thinking, based on evidence from observation and investigation of design practice.Design Thinking is the distillation of the work of one of Design's most influential thinkers. Nigel Cross goes to the heart of what it means to think and work as a designer. The book is an ideal guide for anyone who wants to be a designer or to know how good designers work in the field of contemporary Design.

Genres: Design, Business, Art, Architecture, Nonfiction, Research, Management

176 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2011

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

The podcast Not So Standard Deviations convinced me to read this book by doing a book club series about it. Hilary and Roger believe that Nigel's ideas about the process of design are translatable to data science. I agree with them, but I didn't enjoy the process of reading this book. I don't like the setup or seriousness around the experiments that are described. But some of the conclusions drawn from them and separately near the end of the book felt important and useful to me. I definitely enjoyed the podcast about the book better than the book itself.

[Neda · Rating 4 out of 5]

این کتاب با عنوان
تفکر طراحی
فهم چگونگی تفکر و کار طراحان
نایجل کراس
با ترجمه آقای مهدی مقیمی، انتشارات وارش به چاپ رسیده است.

خواندن کتاب را به طراحان و معماران پیشنهاد می‌کنم.

[Ganesh Sreeramulu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Am a complete novice on this topic. So the first chapter just flew right over my head. But started to correlate as design thinking was explained in conjunction with designers and fields that I enjoy ( Think Gordon Murray, F1, Racing etc ) .

But again felt it drift as the author started to make comparison between designers working in isolation vs designers working in a team. It was a bit generic and could be applied to any field , let alone design.

In hindsight , what would I have not given to have speak aloud sessions from my old team at work. Would have been able to relate and understand more

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Prominent folks in my field (data science) have made the argument that the field of design has a lot in common with it, in terms of how we can understand its process, how we can learn to do it well, how people can teach it it to others, etc. I would largely agree after reading this book, and I think I as a practitioner have a lot to gain by reflecting on successful process and where the overlap is. This book itself seemed strongest to me when it focused on specific case studies.

[Jarrod · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found the first half of this book informative but the second half relied far too heavily on one particular case study with all examples of effective behaviour coming from this one study. There were good lessons in there but it would have been a far better book to see these as trends over multiple studies.

[Greg Bem · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a book on design, this book feels terribly designed. I'm not a designer and found it really hard to understand what the book's entire purpose was, and how it might be expanded through future readings.

[Indrajith K · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book brought me back to using pencil and paper! I was so inspired that I read chapter 4 - "How Designers Think" many many times. Every time, I read I found something missed out from my last read. I surely like to read it a few more times this year.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Exactly what the subtitle says it is, an exploration of how designers execute the design process. Interesting inasmuch as it describes some interesting things about the journey from novice to expert, but probably could have covered the content in 1/4 of the length.

[Eduard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good book! I've enjoyed a lot reading it: he sets some important points about how a designer mind works. The case studies are well chosen, and it's based on science and trustful case studies. Really recommended.

The only con: it ends so suddenly that feels like something is missing.

[Olivia · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good. Very satisfying illustration of design from engineering to aesthetics to implementation. I’m not done reading this, and I might never be able to put it away, but before I do I just wanted to rate it 5 stars, since I really do give it 5 stars.

[Piko Piko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exactly the book I've been looking for to help me understand the thinking process involved in chess, and writing.

[Ryan Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written, analytical look at design thinking.

[Bradley Wilson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Came highly reviewed by a couple people I follow in the data science world. Not sure what the hype is...

[Harish B · Rating 3 out of 5]

A disappointing read. Not much insights on design thinking and no tools offered.

[Abhinav Mahajan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book and lovely case studies to explain how the designers work.

[Maurits👽 · Rating 3 out of 5]

tja

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nigel Cross is the first name in design thinking in the design academic literature. This book retains a scholarly tone that does not stray from that work, and in fact feels like an extended remix of "Expertise in Design: an overview" with supporting case studies. The main insights of this book are entirely sound:
* that good designers don't work in an entirely stage-wise fashion, but form their understanding of the problem in response to potential solutions, iterating between activities opportunistically.
* designers don't necessarily accept the parameters of their brief, but change the problem under the demand of factors discovered in those solutions.
* beginning designers get stuck in analysis, intermediate designers become too fixated on their approaches, and master designers pursue many different approaches to see the situation from all angles.

For the most part, the points are hard earned from a combination of case studies, interviews, and literature reviews. Not all of the points are quite as solid: for example, the end introduces levels of expertise (neophyte, novice, expert, master) that appear to be more external criteria, such as education and recognition, than grounded in any particular distinction in design ability. However, the key findings are well reinforced.

If you already know enough about Prof. Cross to want to read this based on his prior work, you probably already know the basics of what it contains. Nonetheless, it retains interest and is a quick read, and has many pull quotes ready for design research academic writing.

[Arnold Saputra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chapter 1 of this book is very hard to understand. Nigel Cross use lot of diffculty terms from design, architectural and scientifics term. Chapter 1 is TERRIBLE if you read print version, you have to open dictionary a lot!

Fortunately, Design thinking book change the style of story telling from very hard theory in chapter 1 to become design process story at chapter 2 to the end. For me it's more interesting how the designer do daily process of design thinking more than, the theory behind it. How the designer approach and understanding the promblem widely is the key of great solutions. This book is fit for product designer, industrial designer and architect.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent introduction to--obviously--thinking like a designer. It uses examples from real-life designers in various fields, explores ways in which innovation and creativity are fostered, and provides beginners the foundations of understanding the characteristics held by designers. Highly recommended for anyone looking to engage with their creative side.

[George Wang]

http://dschool.stanford.edu/recommend...

[Omayma]

It is ok. It just didn't meet my expectations.

[Max · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book

Excellent book, a lot of it is applicable to problem-solving in general. The progression between ideas and concepts was very clear and easy for follow.

[Mohammed Elwahsh · Rating 1 out of 5]

Won't say that it was a waste of time... But it is really poor

[Mills College Library]

745.4 C9514 2011