Beyond the Scope of Design thinking: DesignCommunication

Abstract

Design thinking as an everyday tool in managerial practice provides a systematic framework for generating new and creative ideas, therefore opening up the practice of design not only to designers (educated in art schools) but anyone who intends to create something with a purpose in an organization. The purpose of current paper is to enrich the design-related academic and managerial discussion with the concept and methodology of designcommunication, DIS.CO, which provides an intuitive and emphatic frame of thought for solving open, ill-structured problems. Designcommunication = communication integrated into development. The authors use the compound noun ‘design communication’ as ‘designcommunication’ written in one word as by DESIGNCOMMUNICATION they want to refer to the phenomenon: ‘communication integrated into development.’ Designcommunication is not merely a function or a form, but it is also content, message, style and culture together. It is an approach that strives to connect design, everyday economies, strategic communication and their real status. Communication in this form is not an additional frippery, but communication is created simultaneously with research and problem solving and is coded into the development of the given product, service or process. While thinking implies a conscious human activity to solve, interpret things around us, communication is an evolutionary necessity – which immediately describes a core difference and relation of design thinking and designcommunication.