DL2022 Zoe Rose - ‘Scientific design methods’ and ‘applied creativity’: a lost history

When were the concepts behind the double diamond invented? When was the first 'how might we' question asked? When did people start 'brainstorming'? The answers are all in a 30 year period after the end of World War 2, when parallel intellectual movements centred around creating scientific methodologies for creativity and design thrived in America and the UK. Many of the ideas, principles, and design processes of that age are still with us today. In this talk, we will do more than describe yet another design process model - we will explore the historical and cultural origins of the design and creativity methods that are still common in design, and interrogate how those origins could be embedding biased assumptions in the work we do today.