Design ≠ design thinking
This guest post is from Molly Clare Wilson, an experience designer and teacher in San Francisco. When we confuse “design” and “design thinking,” everyone loses. Designers get their backs up at the […]
Workshops + Consulting
Leverage design thinking to enhance your visitor experience, address issues of equity and inclusion, develop new programs, and solve complex problems Please note: As of fall 2020, we are only […]
Selling the benefits of design thinking to your organization
This guest post is from Jack Ludden, Head of the Web Group and New Media Development at the J. Paul Getty Trust. Jack and his team help the entire Getty organization better manage, transform and present content on a multitude of digital distribution channels.
Interview with Helen Charman, Head of Learning, Design Museum London
A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of speaking with Helen Charman, Head of Learning at the Design Museum in London. Helen’s role is to develop and oversee formal and informal learning programs at London's museum of international contemporary design.
You can’t innovate innovation
You can’t innovate in the abstract. This should be obvious by analogy: you don’t learn to bake in the abstract. You learn by baking blueberry muffins, devils food cake, popovers, meringues, sourdough bread, and cherry pie, getting better and more inventive as you start to understand how baking works. You’ll only get better and better at your innovation process, whether it’s design thinking or something else, as you try pointing it at different problems.
Interview with Emily Lytle-Painter of the J. Paul Getty Museum
For this post, I spoke with Emily Lytle-Painter, the education technologist at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the woman behind @MuseumofEmily on Twitter. Emily was an enthusiastic participant in a design thinking workshop at the Getty this past summer, and I wanted to check in with her to hear how things were going.
“This will never work here”: six strategies for facing internal resistance to design thinking
As I work with museums on how to integrate design thinking into their ongoing processes, I find myself spending a lot of time talking with my peers about the resistance—and […]
Empathy as the starting point for innovation
One of the core principles of design thinking is its focus on human values at every stage of the process. And empathy for the people for whom you’re designing is fundamental to […]
Breaking assumptions with empathy
Over and over, one of the big lessons in design thinking seems to be don’t assume—discover directly. The insights gained from talking directly to users informs our understanding of their needs, which in turn makes all the difference between spinning one’s wheels and developing solutions that people can actually use. And prototyping and iterating along the way provide constant check-ins and mechanisms for adjustments.
Stepping into the “continuum of innovation”: kicking-off design thinking in your museum
I've had numerous inquiries from colleagues at institutions around the world about how to get started with design thinking at home. To step into into this "continuum of innovation," there are some strategies and approaches you can implement to kick-off the process and start infusing the design thinking ethos into your work culture. Some of these are more attitudinal, while others are tactical.
Getting out there: a bias towards action
Holding back and striving for perfection is how many museums and cultural institutions approach new digital projects. Months, or years, go by before we "get out there."
What is Design Thinking?
What is design thinking? Design thinking is framework for problem-solving, creativity, and innovation that leverages the principles of design for solving complex challenges. Also referred to as human-centered design, it […]
Publications
Our Publications Mitroff Silvers, D. Using Improv in Design Sprints to Build More Creative and Collaborative Teams. In J. Knapp and J. Zeratsky (eds), Sprint Stories. October 2019. Mitroff Silvers, […]
Tools + Resources
Tools + Resources for Design Thinkers 18F Design Methods Cards 18F is a civic consultancy inside US government that enables federal agencies to rapidly deploy digital tools and services. The 18F […]