What is in a name? Since design and design thinking became objects of study, the vocabulary used in this term has been considered to be problematic. For example, the word thinking is being disputed. Theorists convincingly demonstrated that design thinking is all about doing (e.g. Kimbell 2011) and that design thinking cannot be studied apart from the practice of designing. Following Lucy Suchman (2000), who argues that human actions, or what we do, is being constructed and reconstructed through interactions with the social and the material world (objects), design thinking should have been dubbed as design doing. However, it is now so commonly used we (have to) stick to it.

Also, some of the keywords in design thinking seem to be used interchangeably: like an idea and a concept. When a graphic designer or a product designer mentions 'a concept' they do not have the same meaning. What a product designer thinks of when using the term 'concept', a graphic designer would define as being an 'idea'. Within the specific context of their individual practice, these words are meaningful, but across practices, the meaning differs. To advance our understanding of design thinking, we will develop a concise vocabulary to use within this course for the terms: frame, idea, concept, and design.

---

References

• Kimbell, L. (2011). Rethinking design thinking: Part I. Design and Culture, 3(3), 285-306.

• Suchman, L. (2000). Embodied practices of engineering work. Mind, Culture, and activity, 7(1-2), 4-18.