Book of the Week: Change By Design

05 Jan 2013

This week’s book is Change by Design by Tim Brown, the CEO of IDEO, a well known design firm in silicon valley. This book is also divided into two parts, just like Dead Aid, Tao Te Ching and Flatland. I’m beginning to sense a pattern. The first part of the book fleshes out design thinking with some historical examples and the second part talks about how design thinking can impact the world, the big picture. Before Tim can convince you of design thinking’s impact the world, he describes the techniques used by designers for designing products and how that evolved into designing experiences. A designer is ultimately concerned with how people interact with whatever they are designing, be it a physical product or a service. First ideas are needed. “If you want to have good ideas you must have many ideas. Most of them will be wrong, and what you have to learn is which ones to throw away.” -Linus Pauling By having lots of ideas, it opens up the playing field and covers the problem space before one can narrow down on what is truly important. Ideas start as observations. These observations plant seeds that turn into ideas. The idea is just the inspiration, next comes perspiration. To advance the design process, it is helpful to have quick prototypes, which allow a conversation to take place. These conversations lead to a better product and a compelling story. By using these design techniques, IDEO was able to make innovative products bringing bags of money to the companies they helped. Eventually this grew from designing products into designing interactions and experiences. For the design process to be successful, the company must have design in it’s culture. Tim points out how various companies innovate. Then from companies, the text moves into doing social good in the second part. These are feel good stories. The last chapter is about designing life, things that people and companies can do to embrace design thinking. Design is not some magical thing that only creative people can do. It is a process that results in innovation, which is vital for solving the world’s problems. If you are interested in design, I recommend checking out the Stanford d.school. Purchase Change By Design on Amazon.com or check it out from your local library.