1.
Where I am from, and what I do
The Association for the
Advancement of Computing in
Education (AACE), founded in
1981, serves the edtech
community with international
conferences, journals, digital
library and social media channels
(AACE Review).
As the largest university-based
local government training,
advisory, and research
organization in the United States,
the School of Government serves
more than 12,000 public officials
each year.

2.
Overview
o Design Thinking
Background
o Workshop Examples
& Methods
o Discussion & Ideas

3.
What’s the idea? Design Thinking
Design Thinking is problem solving method geared to
overcome wicked problems.
o Transcend the immediate boundaries of the problem to ensure that the
right questions are being addressed
o Analyze, synthesize, diverge, generate insights from different domains
o Drawing, prototyping and storytelling (Brown, 2009)
o Constraints as inspiration (Brown, 2009)
o Not directed toward a technological "quick fix” but toward new
integrations of signs, things, actions, and environments (Buchanan,
1992)
o Fosters civic literacy, empathy, cultural awareness and risk taking
(Sharples at al., 2016)
Design Thinking

4.
Design Thinking and Cognitive Bias
(Liedtka, 2015)
 Projection bias: People have a tendency to project their
past experiences and thus over-estimate the extent to
which the future will resemble the present.
 Hot/cold gap: People’s emotional state, whether emotion-
laden (hot) or not (cold), unduly influences their
assessment of the potential value of an idea.
 Egocentric empathy gap: People consistently overestimate
the similarity between what they value and what others
value.
 Focusing illusion: People tend to over-estimate the effect
of one factor at the expense of others, overreacting to
specific stimuli, and ignoring others.

5.
“Even on a cursory inspection,
just what design thinking is
supposed to be is not well
understood, either by the
public or those who claim to
practice it”.
Kimbell,
2011
Design Thinking

6.
http://dschool.stanford.edu/dgift/
80 minute,
interactive video with
individual and
partner activities,
more at
https://goo.gl/LU8q8
F
Design Thinking: Resources

7.
Related Approaches: LEGO Serious Play
Lego Serious Play is a collaborative, creative method that
uses Lego blocks and figures to develop scenarios for
organizational development, conflict resolution or web
design.
Characteristics:
• Strategic planning tools and systems
• Improve group problem solving
• Learning, listening and collaborating by making and creating
• Building solutions and prototypes using bricks
• Creating flow experience for participants

8.
Related Approaches: Participatory
Design
Participatory Design is an approach that involves the users
of a product early on in the development process.
Characteristics:
• Paradigm shift from ‘users as subjects’ to ‘users as partners’
• Based on participatory action research - empowerment
Barriers:
• Difficulties in organizing and expressing ideas
• Difficulties in harmonizing implicit design goals
• Difficulties in maintaining openness

9.
Design Thinking is for YOU
What’s on your plate right
now?
Take 2 minutes to note down
what’s on your plate right
now.

10.
Wicked Problem Checklist
https://goo.gl/AbwfWz

11.
Design Thinking Use Cases
Website Redesign Workshops
o School of Government
(2013/14)
o Carolina MPA Website
Redesign (2016)
o Center for Faculty Excellence
(2017)
o Center for Public Leadership
and Governance (2018)
o Development Finance Initiative
(current)
Designing Web Apps / Tools
Designing Courses /
Curricula/ …
o Public Executive Leadership
Academy course design
workshop series (2017)
o Inclusive Community
Engagement & Development
(2018)

12.
Design Thinking Examples: Website
Strucure with LEGOs
Content Sections
Annotate
Groups structure the main areas of the website /
navigation / homepage

13.
Please think about
the website as a
museum. What are
10 things you want
to point visitors to?
(Really useful
resources,
interesting events,
services,
downloads,
projects…)
Design Thinking Examples: Website as
Museum (Flyer)

14.
Design Thinking Examples: Content
Types
‘Information Curators’ describe the content using visual building blocks
provided

15.
Design Thinking Examples: Website
Categories

16.
Design Thinking Examples: Website
Strucure with LEGOs

17.
Audience: Pwebsite ersonas
Personas are fictional, yet data-driven, user biographies
that allow design teams to relate to the users’ point of
view instead of focusing on personal experiences and
anecdotes.
Understanding Website Audiences:
Personas

18.
Collaboration / Consulting Work at FH
Münster, Germany
https://www.fh-muenster.de/wandelwerk/index.php

19.
o February 2018: Design thinking workshop at
Muenster University of Applied Sciences
(Germany)
o Workshop theme: Inclusive community
development - designing neighborhoods for
engagement, social cohesion and inclusion
o Part of the research cluster ‘participation and
well-being’
o Participants: Faculty from different disciplines,
city planners, architects and students
Case Study A: Inclusive Community
Development

20.
Ice Breaker: Tell Me About Your
Neighborhood – Who / What Is Not On
the Map?
o Draw a map of your own
neighborhood.
o What are some barriers to
inclusiveness and social
activities that you
experience?
o Who do you never meet in
your neighborhood? Why
do you think that is?

21.
‘I do not interact with
the people in my
neighborhood.
Everyone has a
house with garden,
every yard is fenced
in. And everyone gets
home from work to do
their own thing.
Results: Unexpected Barriers

22.
(1) DEFINE & FOCUS: Specify which social
inclusion problem you want to solve.
(2) GENERATE & DEBATE Generate 3-5
ideas to address the problem with novel
solutions or disruptive technologies.
(3) SELECT & SKETCH Choose one of your
ideas and sketch it out in more detail
(literally).
(4) BUILD & PRESENT: Design a prototype
or three-dimensional representation of
your solution with the materials in the
room (card board, paper, tape, clay).
Design Thinking Cycle

23.
Design Thinking Outcomes

24.
o February 2018: Design thinking
workshop at Muenster
University of Applied Sciences
(Germany)
o Workshop theme: Pedagogical
Planning for Engineers –
training engineering students to
become vocational school
teachers
o Participants: 10 Students
o Location: Innovation Lab
Case Study: Engineering Students As
Teacher Candidates

25.
Students worked in
groups on lesson
planning.
Students identified
threshold concepts.
Curricular Planning & Lesson Planning

26.
Design Thinking
• We randomly assigned threshhold concepts.
• Students develop a pedagogical approach using design
thinking as a technique.

27.
Evaluation
o Qualtrics survey
o Total of 18 responses (both groups):
11 (15) + 7 (8)
o One binary, three Likert, four open
ended questions
o distributed by email with a
personalized invitation link
o Design Thinking book prize

28.
Evaluation Results
How effective is design thinking….. (n=18, participants from both
workshops)

29.
Evaluation Results – Positive Aspects
o To receive impulses to think in other
directions.
o Interdisciplinary approach
o The open approach and the integration of
different perspectives.
o Creativity, possibility to think through
unconventional ideas.
o Personas allowed me to see my students as
actual people for the very first time.

30.
Evaluation Results – Negative Aspects
o It is unclear how to move from first ideas to
further development of innovative, marketable
products / services.
o It lacks the opportunity to research whether
the imagined solution already exists, and
whether it makes any sense.
o Realistic assessments of models and ideas: all
comments and ideas were treated equal (both
strength and weakness), missing data (ideas
arise from a ‘gut feeling’)

31.
o Encourage participants to build
upon each others ideas
o Make sure that participants tackle
wicked problems
o Structured Follow-up: Allow to
further develop / research ideas,
share back with the group
o Time delayed two-day format,
blended approach, flipgrid?
Lessons Learned: Design Thinking Cycle

32.
(How) Will You Use Design Thinking?
Adapted from Sanders, Brandt & Binder,
2011
Panke & Harth (2018) / Harth & Panke
(2018)
https://goo.gl/QyCQVP
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326331098
Handout
Planning
Special
Issue
Forthcoming