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Unveiling the Construct of Design Thinking: An Exploratory Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 May 2022

M. Oliveira  and
E. Zancul
M. Oliveira
Affiliation:
University of São Paulo, Brazil
E. Zancul*
Affiliation:
University of São Paulo, Brazil
*
[email protected]

Abstract

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Design thinking does not have a consensually defined construct in the academic literature. This foundational fragility hinders theory building in the field. This study addresses this gap by providing a construct of design thinking following guidelines for developing theory-building instruments. We propose a non-normative, comprehensive construct composed of a conceptual definition and a subset of properties that portray tangible design thinking expressions. The proposed construct aims to provide a grounded foundation to support the advancement of design thinking theory building and testing.

Keywords

design thinkingconstructtheory buildingdesign theoryhuman-centred design
Type
Article
Information
Proceedings of the Design Society , Volume 2: DESIGN2022 , May 2022 , pp. 41 - 50
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
The Author(s), 2022.

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