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Developing Breakthrough Projects:

Design Thinking for Social Innovation

te 401

ABOUT the class

Design Thinking for Social Innovation tackles social needs and issues through an immersive exploration of design thinking. Social innovation seeks to create transformational change in underserved, underrepresented, and disadvantaged communities at the local to international levels. We know that many social issues are often too complex to be solved by using traditional methods. Understanding that these are vast, difficult, and overwhelming, and social problems like poverty, homelessness, hunger, clean water, and violence are just a small sliver of the issues our society faces. 

 

A fundamental goal of the class will be to cultivate the creative, synthetic, and divergent thinking of students while asking them to take on new behaviors of work. Structured as a weekly, project-based studio, students will be deeply engaged and will learn, practice, and use the tools and attitudes of design: collaboration, experimentation, empathizing, synthesis, and evaluation. Working in teams will be essential to establishing trust and building rapport. The work that you’ll do in this class will be collaborative and engaging. We want you to learn and evaluate ideas with one another in a way that will encourage deeper thinking and reflection as applied to social issues.

About
Tools

classroom tools

Image by Scott Webb

SLACK

This is the tool we'll primarily be using to communicate with each other outside of class. Click here to view a video on how to use it. 

Image by Rumman Amin

BOX

This is the tool we'll be using to submit assignments for credit. Each student will have a private folder editable only by them and the instructors.

past 

lectures

Lectures
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optional readings

​There are no required books for this class and any readings that you might have will be provided to you. With this said, the following are examples of the types of readings we will have in this class and that will be helpful in your understanding of the design thinking process and what makes it remarkably effective in social innovation work:

 

Additionally, for those interested in learning more about social innovation in the context of design and design thinking, the following are great places to start. This list is not exhaustive, so if you have a suggestion, please let the course instructors know. 

  • Costner Bedzin, S. and Camarena, H., (2018), Innovation from Within: Redefining How Nonprofits Solves Problems, Oxford University Press, ISBN: 978-0-19-085879-7 

  • Vislosky O’Grady, J. and Vislosky O’Grady, K. (2009), A Design Researcher’s Manual: Succeed in Design by Knowing Your Clients and What They Really Need, Rockport Publishing, ISBN: 978-1-59253-557-6

  • Martin, B. and Hannington, B., (2018), The Pocket Universal Methods of Design: 100 Ways to Research Complex Problems, Develop Innovative Ideas, and Design Effective Solutions, Quarto Publishing Group, ISBN: 978-63159-374-1

  • Lupton, E. (2017), Design is Storytelling, Cooper Hewitt, ISBN: 978-1-942303-19-0

  • Heller, C. (2018), The Intergalactic Design Guide: Harnessing the Creative Potential of Social Design, Island Press, ISBN: 978-1-61091-881-7

  • Pollak, P. (2009), Out of Poverty: What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, ISBN: 978-1605092768

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