DES3600 Design and Systems Thinking
2 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits
Over the past two decades, a combination of changes in political, technological, and cultural arenas have dramatically increases the need for companies, organizations, and individuals to innovate. In the future, generating and implementing new solutions, be they products, processes, or organizations, will require at the minimum two sets of skills. First, with many markets saturated with offerings exhibiting vast amounts of product variety, simply offering a new feature is unlikely to succeed. Instead, solutions that help their users accomplish their deep-seated goals will prevail. Consequently, a deep and detailed understanding of the underlying emotions and aspirations of the users that design thinking helps to develop, is sine-qua-non condition for success. Second, technological and political developments have made the world a much more interconnected place. People and devices today are much more connected than in the past. Similarly, many problems have grown in complexity, and require involvement and consideration of various stakeholder groups and how they might be affected. As a result, a systems understanding is the second required skill set. This course will introduce students to these two skill sets.
Prerequisites: None