School of Electronics & Communication Engineering

Prof. Kavya B S
kavya.bs@reva.edu.in
OUTLINE

1. Origin of Design Thinking

2. Examples
3. Modern History of DT
4. Types of Thinking Process
5. Assignment (Case Study)

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Origin of Design Thinking
 ORIGIN OF DESIGN THINKING

• Ancient India is known for its contribution in the development of arts, science, civilization and
humanities.
• We need to understand the design thought process and the competency developed by laying equal
emphasis on discipline, skills, empathy and team work as that on conceptual knowledge.
• Why the new age designer should study the Ancient Indian thinking process?
What will be the gain?
And how it can be implemented in learning and design?

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 • Indus people were the first in the world to build
planned cities with scientific drainage system
1. INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION (3300-1300BC) with precise measurement, weighing system and
equipment.
• They have used process-oriented modelling
techniques for organizing and optimizing its
resources.
• Each city had well-planned architecture, public
granaries, efficient sewage and drainage system,
citadels and places for social gathering
• The division of space into separate blocks
organized on a grid is seen not only in the layout
of city streets and neighborhood but also in-
house plans, the panels of painted designs on
pottery, ritual diagrams on seals and individual
signs of the Indus script.
• The uniformity and similarity in the construction
and architecture of all the cities in Indus Valley
suggest that there was a strong centralized
government that coordinated the organization
efforts and laid out the standards.

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 • Veena is one of the oldest string instruments
2. VEENA (1200 - 1500 BC) used in Indian classical music and one of the
finest example of a design that blends physics
and mathematics with art.
• The tone vibrating from the hunter's bow string,
as he shot an arrow, is what inspired the creation
of the Vil Yazh
• Frist an exotic harp-like instrument Akasa was
created, tied up on the treetop for the strings to
vibrate from the currents of wind and then
Audumbari veena that was played to accompany
chanting during yajnas.
• The veena is 1.5m long, made from wood and
has two large gourds at both ends. It has a body
with a thick wide neck the end of which is
carved into the head of a dragon.
• A small resonator is attached to the underside of
the neck.
• The veena has 24 metal frets and 4 strings that
run over the frets.

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 HISTORY OF DT:
John E Arnold was one of the first
authors to use the term 'design thinking‘
in the book "Creative Engineering"
(1959).

He (March 14, 1913 – September 28,

1963) was an American professor of
Mechanical Engineering as well as
Business Administration at Stanford
University.
“A designer is an emerging synthesis of artist, inventor, mechanic, objective economist and evolutionary strategist.”

• Nigel Cross, Emeritus Professor of Design Studies at The Open University, UK, in the paper Designerly ways of knowing:
design discipline versus design science (2001), unfolds the attempts to “scientise” design, and bring the field within the
objective of rational sciences. Buckminster Fuller, called for a ‘design science revolution', based on science, technology
and rationalism, to overcome the human and environmental problems that he believed could not be solved by politics
and economics"
• Horst Rittel, a Design Theorist known for coining the term "Wicked Problems" (i.e. extremely complex/multi-
1960 dimensional problems) in the mid 1960's focused on the application of design methodologies in tackling 
Wicked Problems and how they were influential in the work of many design practitioners and academics of the time.
• Wicked problems are precisely complex and multi-dimensional problems that require a collaborative methodology
that involves gaining a deep understanding of humans.

• Computer scientist and Nobel Prize laureate Herbert A. Simon was the first to mention design
as a science or way of thinking in his 1969 book, “Sciences of the Artificial”.
• He is noted to have spoken of rapid prototyping and testing through observation, concepts
1970 which form the core of many design and entrepreneurial processes right now

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 •In his 1982 paper, Cross compared designers’ problem solving to the non-design
related problem solutions we develop in our everyday lives.
•Peter Rowe, then Director of Urban Design Programs at Harvard, published his
book Design Thinking in 1987, which focuses on the way the architectural
1980 designer approaches his task through the lens of the inquiry.

•IDEO was formed and showcased its design process modelled on the work developed at
the Stanford Design School.
•In 1992, Richard Buchanan, published his article, about the origins of Design Thinking.
•In the article, he discussed how the sciences developed over time from the Renaissance

and formalized in the specializations and processes they used, and integrating these
1990 highly specialized fields of knowledge, so that they can be jointly applied to the new
problems we are faced with from a holistic perspective.

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Types of Thinking Process
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Innovation should never start from an idea; it should start with a problem/real world issues
Eg: Mahindra Reva/e2o
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• Madurai City is famous for?
• What is the key difference between DT and traditional process?

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DIVERGENT & CONVERGENT THINKING

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ASSIGNMENT 2
For Practice Session 2
• Identify a case study (story) from history where the concept
of DT was used.
• Find one Wicked Problem in today’s scenario

Note:
• Student must maintain a separate assignment book for
Design Thinking subject
• The assignment book must be carried along for both theory
and practice sessions

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THANK YOU