Distributed Cognition as an Approach to Understand Design Thinking in Practice

Abstract

Background While design thinking is now established as method for creative problem solving, continued efforts towards theory construction to explain design thinking are ongoing. To contribute to an understanding of design thinking, I position a distributed theory of mind as scaffold to explain design thinking in practice. Methods I commence with a discussion of design thinking, its foundations and evolution to describe a process applied to enhance creative problem solving. I then discuss how a distributed theory of mind may help explain the designer’s construction of design representations, as scaffold for thought towards propositional design solutions. Results A distributed approach to explain design thinking aligns with more established design theory: wicked design problems, appositional reasoning, and problem framing. Conclusions Due to design’s applied nature, and the constructed emergence of design representations as distributors of thought towards future solution possibilities, a distributed theory of mind (re)positions design practice, skill and expertise as fundamental to design thinking.