Applying Design Thinking on Design Thinking: How human-centricity shaped a university-wide module.

<p dir="ltr">This abstract presents an overview of how Design Thinking principles were applied to a Design Thinking course titled 'UDE2222 Design Innovation'. The eponymous course is a required module across more than 40 university degree programmes and a co-requisite for the University Social Innovation module at the Singapore Institute of Technology. This case study explores the process of finetuning a university-wide module that is taken by multiple disciplines. The methodology is appropriately ethnographic and iterative in prototyping. The research was conducted by reviewing a significant number of student feedback through the teaching evaluation forms and by gathering teaching faculty members' concerns. Insights collected shaped the design of the design thinking course. The study is structured around how various relevant mindsets are fused together in the programme. From melding the Design Thinking tenets of Human-Centricity and Lean Management's continuous improvement, to bracketing the traditional Design Thinking principles with Critical Thinking and Futures Thinking, the module created a typologically new way of designing innovations. The module moved beyond the overly used double diamond or 5-steps of Design Thinking. Key findings in each cycle of refinement of the module will be detailed and discussed. Additionally, the study highlights how the new module addresses the inertia to change. In a typical context of module design, most curriculum content remain unchanged for years. However, with the changes in learning styles as augmented by generative artificial intelligence, coupled with the growing rate of uncertainty in a Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear, and Incomprehensible (BANI) world, the Design Thinking principles popularised by IDEO and the Stanford d.school (Design school) in the late 1990s, has to evolve. The said module serves as a testimony of its own doctrines. The study concludes that the dire need to be intellectually honest in constantly applying Design Thinking on itself. This has important implications for not just the field of design but every industry that needs to be critical, human-centric, and future-forward in their thinking, particularly in their practice and understanding of innovation in a systemic way. The research contributes to the existing body of works that sit at the intersection of critical thinking, design thinking and futures thinking. It offers practical recommendations for educators and innovators alike. In summary, 'Applying Design Thinking on Design Thinking' provides valuable insights into improving curriculum real-time in an ever-evolving world, demonstrating the effectiveness of Design Thinking as an anecdote to its own tendency to be in stasis as an established innovation model. The findings underscore the importance of, metaphorically, taking its own medicine, and pave the way for further research into Design Thinking.</p>