Voices from the Field: Exploring Connections Between Design Thinking Approaches and Sustainability Challenges

Nicole M. Ardoin (), Alison W. Bowers () and Daniella Lumkong ()
Additional contact information
Nicole M. Ardoin: Stanford University
Alison W. Bowers: Stanford University
Daniella Lumkong: Stanford University

A chapter in Design Thinking Research, 2023, pp 91-106 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract The range and complexity of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals make clear the need for innovative, effective, and efficient problem-solving approaches involving the people most impacted by the issues being addressed. In previous work, we argued that design thinking provides a useful and appropriate process for generating sustainability-oriented solutions and outlined five characteristics of design thinking that support this argument. In this chapter, we present findings from 20 semi-structured, qualitative interviews with sustainability practitioners, designers, and university professors from 9 countries who have used design thinking approaches in their work. Based on a deductive coding analysis of the interview data, we found support for all five of our suggested design thinking characteristics as facilitators of sustainability solutions. Nearly all interviewees appeared to value design thinking as a tool for sustainability work because design thinking is participatory and people-focused. Many interviewees also emphasized that design thinking encourages creativity, diversity in thought and action, systems thinking, and a streamlined approach to action. These findings add further support for calls to use design thinking as a tool in sustainability work and suggest a need for more in-depth exploration to solidify a theoretical understanding of why, how, and under what conditions design thinking approaches are effective in the quest for addressing sustainability challenges.

Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:undchp:978-3-031-36103-6_5

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783031361036

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-36103-6_5

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Understanding Innovation from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().