As we close out the first decade of the 21st century, here are some emerging themes and trends in the human-centered design landscape. From a “back-to-basics” focus on the fundamental mindsets and skills to a growing awareness of the role of equity in design, here are some trends to watch in the next decade.

The themes and trends below are based on my experiences as a practitioner, and by no means is this intended to be a comprehensive, authoritative list. I welcome feedback as to what trends and themes others are seeing on the horizon.

Note that this post was originally published on Medium; the version here has been edited for museum professionals and practitioners.

1. There is a “back-to-basics” focus on the fundamental mindsets and skills of design thinking.

I‘ve observed a growing demand from both nonprofit and for-profit organizations for support and training around the fundamentals, such as active listening skills and empathy-building methods.

While more and more professionals have been exposed to the overall design thinking process through online and in-person workshops and classes, there is a sense that some of the essentials have been neglected. This to me represents a sophisticated understanding of the design thinking framework, as a good design thinker is only as good as their foundational skills.

In addition to active listening and empathy-building, other fundamentals include comfort with ambiguity, a bias to action, group facilitation skills, and an ability to mindfully separate convergent from divergent activities.

A team generating ideas, after reviewing the fundamentals of brainstorming “best practices.”

2. There is a growing awareness around the role that equity plays in the design process.

With the increased focus on DEAI (Diversity, Equity, Access, and Inclusion), there has also been an increased awareness of the important role that equity plays in design. This is something I‘ve observed more among my museum, nonprofit, and education clients, but I believe this trend will continue to grow in the for-profit sector in the coming decade.

Bringing equity into design merges the design thinking framework with racial equity work, considering the conditions, actions, and intentions that must be taken to achieve inclusive, equitable outcomes.

There are many smart individuals and organizations leading the path in this space, amplifying the design thinking process to consider problems through the lens of equity, and embracing co-design and other inclusive practices that bring stakeholders, visitors, and users into the design process as equal partners.

Tools such as the Liberatory Design Cards from the Stanford d.school’s K12 Lab and the National Equity Project provide concrete, actionable tools that human-centered designers can incorporate into their work.

3. More for-profit organizations are beginning to operationalize design thinking, although smaller nonprofits and museums still lag behind.

From Blue Shield of California’s high-profile, company-wide design thinking initiative to Starbucks’ state-of-the-art innovation center, an increasing number of companies are making design thinking an integral part of how they do business, and staffing up accordingly.

A “human-centered design hallway” in a library. Image courtesy of the Richfield Branch of the Akron-Summit County Public Library.

While large nonprofit institutions and government entities are dedicating operating resources and in-house positions to design thinking, smaller nonprofits, especially in the arts, still lag behind.

Modest staff “residency” positions like the Design Thinker in Residence at the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art are a start, but most human-centered design work is still part of the “additional duties as required” of existing positions.

This means that the heavy-lifting is carried out on the margins, by people already juggling numerous other responsibilities. These people must be creative, entrepreneurial, and indefatigable, such as this librarian who transformed a service hallway into a human-centered design lab.

4. There are increasingly specialized applications of design thinking to niche sectors and industries.

Image from http://www.designthinkingforlibraries.com

When I first started this site in 2013, the only other domain-specific applications of design thinking were to libraries and education. When I attended the Executive Education Program in design thinking at the Stanford d.school, I was the only person from an arts organization, and only one of three people from a nonprofit. The majority were from Fortune 500 companies.

When I returned to my organization, SFMOMA, I had to figure out, on my own, how to adapt and modify the design thinking tools and methods for the context of a museum. Today, however, there are increasingly specialized applications of design thinking to a variety of sectors, from national parks to the legal profession to the food and restaurant industry. And as the field matures, we will continue to see even more specific applications to niche industries. This will serve the field well, beyond the early-stage “one-size-fits-all” approach.

5. Misconceptions about what design thinking is, and is not, still persist.

Despite all of the growth and progress of the last decade, there are still many misconceptions about what design thinking is and is not. The endless and ugly debates over semantics, process steps, and intent persist. Unfortunately, I still experience this at museum conferences, with many peers and colleagues misunderstanding how design thinking is applied in practice.

While digging into each and every critique of design thinking is far beyond the scope of this, it is my hope that as practitioners continue to mature, skills levels increase, and the application of design thinking becomes more sophisticated and focused, these misunderstandings will begin to subside, and design thinkers can focus on doing good work inside institutions.