Design thinking: Don’t call it a “process”

As an undergrad, Barry Katz never gave design a second thought. He was situated squarely in the humanities, studying history and philosophy, politics and economics, wrapping the whole of it up at the end with an interdisciplinary humanities PhD. He landed neatly at Stanford, teaching history of technology courses to engineering students. But over time, his focus shifted from the history of the objects themselves to the way that people and objects interact. And that was design.

When this was pointed out to him, he can be forgiven for being a bit taken aback. “Design” seemed a rather thin concept to encompass his wide-ranging background and interests. It took some research into the professional discipline of design—so much richer and more complex than the typical understanding of the term—to recognize that, much to his surprise, he had become a designer. Or more precisely, a design thinker. A design historian.

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For the full article, as originally published, see here.