Quick Guide to Design Thinking

by Ida Engholm

Design thinking is an increasingly widespread approach. In recent years it has been launched as a method that enables even the most conservative company to adopt agile, innovative and entrepreneurial mindsets and to think outside the box.

But what is design thinking, how did it emerge, and what does it do? In ‘Quick guide to design thinking’ Ida Engholm highlights the concept of design thinking and shows it from a Danish perspective.

The book outlines the research behind design thinking and provides an overview of the many different professions, theories and methods that have contributed to developing and defining design thinking as a research and practice field. Further, it offers an introduction to current debates about design thinking and concludes in a call for design activism as a path to a sustainable future.

Ida Engholm is a professor of design theory and history at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Design. She is the founder of the Diploma Programme in Design Management and the Master of Design programme at the Academy. She has published twelve books and is the author of more than ninety research articles on design and design-related topics.

Genres: Design

112 pages, Paperback

First published September 9, 2020

Reviews

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Indeed a very quick guide. Mostly consider this as a directory to read further into studies, articles and books. I went into this with the expectation to have a quick overview of different models and ways of thinking, but got more of a history lesson and a scratch in the surface - yet a good foundation for looking further into it.

I'm rating two stars, because I had to remove a star solely on the basis of choosing an AWFUL neon orange colour for illustration text and accent colour. No matter in what light you are reading in, this orange will make you question your choice of reading this book.

The structure of chapters and the repetitiveness of sentences is honestly embarrassing. Take the first bit of chapter 4 and use it as the introduction. Not to talk about the layout that, at first sight messy, will not be a problem as you read on. It creates a flow.

Having read this, I did learn a few new things, but not enough to really justify another read.

[Baru · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a reference and summary book that puts a lot of design thinking* theory into context. A nice resource for the design pro who does not shy away from academics.

If I read it four or five years ago, I’d hate it: there are no examples, no specific tools, it is very academic and with an occasional hiss at IDEO that would seem unnecessary to me when I first started (after my life changing first encounter with emphatize-define-ideate-prototype-test).

But having read a lot of the referenced books and papers now, this was actually quite useful in sketching out how do these relate to and interact with one another over time. It sometimes does feel a little heated but generally makes up some helpful categories and trends.

*Worthy to note that it only covers “pure” design thinking, not going deep enough into participatory approaches and completely overlooking speculative design / design fiction.

Removing extra star for the neon orange print, that was a bad idea and hurts to read.

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book by accident at the Design Museum in Copenhagen; I liked the design and was wondering what’s with a book about design thinking from 2023? It’s the first book I’ve read in a while that has an academic feel to it, including history and evolution of design thinking and it’s not just written as an article. I really enjoyed it!

It made me think I would love to attend Ida Engholm’s classes and hear her talk about this topic as a professor.

[Ana-Maria Bivol · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit too technical and lacks examples or use cases which made it a little boring and confusing.