Krippendorf (1998) stated, "design is making sense of things". What he meant is that designing is trying to create a synthesis between conflicting requirements and the stakes at hand. To get there, an important step is to make sense of the observations and insights gathered during the Discovery Stage. Discovery is not just about gathering and analyzing data, it is also about making sense of it and being capable to communicate it in such a way that others also understand the situation at hand. What seems to be the problem? Who is involved? What are positive contributions towards solutions?

Design thinking also became popular because several ‘designerly methods’ were developed to make sense of the situation and present the essence of it. This enabled others to grasp it as well. Nowadays, these methods are being used in many different fields. We will discuss two of them in this Unit: personas and customer journey mapping.

References

• Krippendorff, K. (1989). On the essential contexts of artifacts or on the proposition that" design is making sense (of things)". Design issues, 5(2), 9-39.