Comments on: Engineering by Design

By: Alana Renfro

Alana Renfro — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 02:20:44 +0000

I am a huge fan of Dartmouth; my father-in-law is a Tuck alum and we visit the bookstore and campus as a family with our little ones in tow whenever we’re on the East Coast. Needless to say, I was thrilled to see this article!

Design Thinking is a superb concept. Alongside this great article, here are a few other resources to touch the tip of this invaluable process of innovation:

MIT Sloan Design Thinking: http://sloanreview.mit.edu/special-report/design-thinking/
FastCompany Design Experts: http://www.fastcompany.com/expert-designers
SVA MFA in IxD: http://interactiondesign.sva.edu/
Tim Brown’s IDEO: http://designthinking.ideo.com/
Stanford’s d.school: http://dschool.typepad.com/news/

By: karenendicott

karenendicott — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:38:28 +0000

Fast Company picked up this article. Check it out at http://www.fastcompany.com/1576793/do-improv-comedians-make-the-best-design-thinkers?partner=rss

By: Mark Hurst

Mark Hurst — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:07:08 +0000

You might also link to the design-related presentations within Gel Videos -
http://gelconference.com/videos/design/

By: Janet Rae-Dupree

Janet Rae-Dupree — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:47:27 +0000

I do wish the article had at least given a nod to others expanding “Improv Wisdom” into the workplace, such as author Patricia Ryan Madson, who wrote the book on it five years ago, and the consulting group On Your Feet out of Portland, OR. For a peek at what they’re up to, please see my article “Can Executives Learn to Ignore the Script?” at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/business/02unbox.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

By: richard

richard — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:29:01 +0000

“The most surprising thing to me about design is the fact that you can learn it,” says engineering major Francis Fortin-Houle ’10. “When I first came to Dartmouth, I thought it was a skill that you either have or that you don’t have. Little did I know how wrong I was.”

Er, not sure that’s entirely fair or true. There are plenty of attributes that have to be ‘natural’ if the faculty of designing can be bought to bear professionally. I’m not dissing what you do but I do worry about the over-democratisation of skills and the confusion of ‘self-authorship’ with creativity. Design certianly isn’t a process but there’s no denying the importance of a structure to set it against, especiallly in a commercial context – which I do, everyday.

I’m no luddite, but I see it as increasingly important to be honest about what people are – and are not – capable of. The current lens of ‘every-one-can’ does distort the picture and undermine the ability of specialists to practice a craft and be respected for it.

Hey, at least your post galvanised me to reply!
Best wishes
Richard