In Part 1 of this feature series, Richard Perez, Director of the Hasso Plattner d-school Afrika at the University of Cape Town (UCT), unpacked the role of space in design-led thinking. Associate Professor Janice McMillan from the Learning and Discovery Lab further explores the topic by contextualising the role of place in collaboration, teaching and learning.
In the context of teaching and learning, place and space are often used interchangeably. However, while there is a link between the two, there are some crucial differences which are important to note in the educational sphere, as well as in the broader social contexts within which education and notions of learning are located.
The link between education and context in the use of both ‘place’ and ‘space’ should also be emphasised, particularly when it comes to teaching, learning and practising design-led thinking.
Space is usually about location, whereas place is usually geographical and geopolitical.
When people, politics, and history are taken into account, it’s usually more useful to talk about place, because we all come into spaces with histories and through making meaning, space becomes place through our own set of experiences.
More specifically, in teaching and learning, space is the classroom, and place is the classroom in relationship with and to others – for example, learners, teachers, and coaches.
These terms are crucial in thinking through educational processes. According to Grunewald (2003:627), “recognizing that places are what people make of them”, is an approach that puts people at the centre of places and place-making:
“If human beings are responsible for place making, then we must become conscious of ourselves as place makers and participants in the sociopolitical process of place making. Educationally, this means developing the connections with places that allow us to invest them with particular kinds of meaning.”[1]
Therefore, place is what gives a space meaning and a connection to a cultural or personal identity.
Framing learning with the concept of ‘place’ can be a useful tool in education and teamwork as a way to get to know others. This can happen through the stories of a particular place and how and in what way we feel connected to a given place.
Either of these approaches can help others in the team learn a bit more about their team members, and how, through identifying with certain places, shapes how they see and experience the social world.
However, creating a sense of psychological safety is crucial in these types of team collaboration exercises. To assist in fostering a psychologically safe environment, setting the context for a given collaboration exercise or practice should also be intentionally creative from the outset, especially where there are power dynamics at work.
For example, this could involve using metaphors to verbally navigate complex issues such as differing histories and positionalities. Using communicative artefacts such as pictures and personal items could also contribute to how a team thinks about or interacts in a collaborative place.
These methods could be used to frame questions in a design thinking process in interesting ways.
As a result, a place can be a really useful vehicle for getting teams to get to know each other without judgement and criticism. However, setting up an enabling environment for this is imperative.
Design thinking also happens in ‘a place’ and therefore, we need to be mindful of the role of place in shaping both people, purpose and ultimately practice. Practitioners and researchers thus need to shift mindsets from understanding design thinking as an isolated practice to understanding it as a ‘socially situated’ practice and part of a much bigger ecosystem.
In other words, bringing ‘place’ into design thinking as part of the framing of design leads to understanding design thinking as a complex socially situated practice (Kimbell 2011)[2], i.e. it is a practice in which diverse groups of people with their varied backgrounds and ways of knowing come to learn together. This brings a level of complexity into design and design thinking, positioning it a potentially important approach to complex problem-solving[3].
To conclude, in design-led thinking, it is important to acknowledge processes of power and privilege in place. We need to make the effort to shift focus off the individual design-thinking coach and the broader coaching team to include the project partner and the broader social context as an example.
Such a shift reflects the understanding that design thinking is not a neutral practice; it is a social practice located at the nexus of a complex set of power relations visible across a range of places, both locally and globally.
[1] Gruenewald, D. A. (2003). Foundations of place: A multidisciplinary framework for place-conscious education. American Educational Research Journal, 40(3), 619-654 pg. 627.
[2] Kimbell, L. (2011). Rethinking design thinking Part 1. Design and Culture, 3(3), pp. 285-306.
[3] Kimbell, L. (2012). Rethinking design thinking Part 2. Design and Culture, 4(2), pp. 129-14
The programme was presented over 10 weeks and this cohort consisted of four teams of students from various academic backgrounds, each team guided by a dedicated design-thinking coach.
The partners for the 2023 second-semester programme were HyTrA (Hydrogen Tryout Areal for Microgrids in South Africa) and the Goedgedacht Trust.
In addition, the programme contributors were Oribi, CatalyzU, and Bertha House. Contributing to the practice sessions, each of these contributors afforded the programme participants an introduction to organisations using design thinking principles in their respective operating contexts. These included social activism, start-ups and innovation, social design and food justice.
The practice sessions demonstrate to participants the different possibilities and directions they can take as design thinking practitioners and affords them the opportunity to establish and leverage networks that may support them in bringing their ideas to life.
Experience designer, Nondo-Jacob Sikazwe, was also involved with the Prototyping Deep-Dive Day as a design expert. This session was used to expose the participants to a wide range of prototyping tools used by design experts across different industries.
The design challenge posed to this cohort was to leverage technology to improve clean-energy access for farming communities where loadshedding reduces a farm’s production capacity.
Each team on the programme focused on different aspects and real-world scenarios of where this challenge is faced on the Goedgedacht farm.
Coached by Evan Robinson, Team Jamzes looked at finding new ways for a farm manager to integrate sustainable energy sources into irrigation where there are often constraints to the irrigation process due to inconsistent power supply.
This issue often leads to crop losses, as well as a loss in the overall investment in the farm.
To mitigate this challenge, the Jamzes proposed a raised water storage tank which converts kinetic energy into an energy source to power the irrigation system when there’s no electricity on the farm.
Combining the benefits of hydro- and wind-power technology, this aims to create a more reliable and efficient energy generation and water supply system.
The Fantastic 4our looked at ways for farm workers to expand their – and the community’s – skill sets and remain relevant. In addition, the team coached by Levina Perumal, also explored ways to empower farm workers to pursue careers beyond the farm.
The Fantastic 4our proposed a development programme that aims to equip farm workers with a range of skills which also contribute to productivity on the farm itself.
This programme seeks to build capacity for local farmers and could be integrated into the Goedgedacht Trust’s Path Onto Prosperity programme – an existing development programme championed by the programme partner.
The Innovation Nation team, coached be Sinalo Bambeni, investigated how to simplify jargon for new energy systems for logistics, procurement and IT managers working on farms. They found that the jargonised information available to these managers often leave them feeling disengaged or blindsided.
Innovation Nation proposed a website connecting farmers to vetted green energy service providers and industry experts. The purpose of this platform is to provide farmers with the relevant information when they’re planning to purchase or maintain new energy systems.
Gratitude Galaxies, coached by Bradwin Sitzer, looked at ways for farm maintenance workers to stay informed and engaged with logistics and operations on the Goedgedacht farm.
They found that when the farm purchases new equipment, the maintenance workers who are responsible for maintaining it, don’t always receive the relevant information on how to conduct this.
Using a user-centric approach, Gratitude Galaxies proposed an app that connects these maintenance workers to a database of up to date information on how to maintain new and existing farm equipment.
The information can be accessed by scanning QR codes placed on the farm equipment via any smartphone.
The Foundation Programme in Design Thinking aims to equip students with
The 10-week programme further affords them with the opportunity to examine solutions and appraise user feedback to demonstrate empathetic design practices, while also learning to operate effectively and communicate collaboratively in multidisciplinary teams.
It’s been just over a year since the HPI d-school building on UCT’s middle campus became home to the Hasso Plattner d-school Afrika. The new building has been purposefully designed to leverage the power of space (in both its architecture and interior design) in fostering collaboration, creativity, and innovation.
The building features radically flexible learning spaces where we can experiment and collaborate with the students to both understand and allow for the emergence of what future learning spaces could look like, and become.
In this context, space is the classroom, location, and physical geography in which teaching and learning happens. As a result and according to the Stanford d.school, space “can shape behaviour. When it comes to inspiring creativity, a student’s relationship to their physical environment is paramount.”
If the goal with a space is to embed a behaviour or enhance an activity, we need to see spaces as laboratories that are purposely designed to enable this. At the d-school Afrika, for example, we view the spaces as laboratories that have been carefully designed to drive the creative and collaborative behaviour that we want students to experience and ultimately, practise.
Consider traditional laboratories in universities, specifically at science faculties: all the equipment, furniture and space has been purposefully designed to drive knowledge development and practice in that field.
The same is relevant for design-thinking spaces like the d-school however, the focus is on driving innovation and co-creation.
At the d-school building this was taken a step further. For example, the various studios in the building are open plan and serve as a blank canvas that invites users to create their desired experimental setup for a given challenge they’re aiming to solve. The building also features interchangeable rooms that can either be used as a large workspace or split into two separate working spaces.
In addition, all the furniture and equipment (e.g., whiteboards, TVs, etc.) in the building are mobile – on actual wheels – and can be arranged fit for the user’s purposes. This affords teams the freedom to create and recreate the space for each collaboration session.
This freedom of mobility in itself also contributes to deeper collaboration, creativity, and innovation in the teams using the space.
Jonathan Ray, partner at KMH and lead architect for the d-school building explains that architects, as an example, understand how the various characteristics of any given space – from its size, proportion, materiality, lighting and acoustics, to how open or closed it is – help determine a space’s overall character.
“But this is only half the story,” he says “Spaces come to life and have meaning through their occupants and when they are in use. So, to a certain extent, every building is different and the designer needs to understand both the collective culture of the building's occupants and what they want to achieve in order to make successful spaces that foster a particular type of response.”
According to Jonathan, KMH found design-thinking principles and methods an extremely useful way to construct a deep and nuanced shared vision for a project such as the d-school building.
“We’ve successfully used these tools on another education-sector project,” he says “and it yielded a similar result to what we experienced with the d-school, in particular the sense of ownership and common purpose for everyone involved in the project, including the client.”
Using teams in an organisation as a further example of this practice, there is no one-size-fits all approach because every organisation is different. There will certainly be an element of exploration and experimentation to find out what works best for your teams.
However, there is an underlying principle that space alone will not drive innovation and co-creation.
Design-led Thinking should rather be viewed as an ecosystem consisting of a unique space (or laboratory), a structured process or activity within that space, and the diversity of people who are engaged within that space.
Suddenly, the mic was in Calvin Mayanta’s hands. At first, he stuttered, looking bewildered by the news he’d just received. He scanned the room full of entrepreneurs, designers and design thinking experts. An uncomfortable moment passed. Then things clicked – and Calvin began to speak.
‘I answered all the questions,’ he says proudly, reflecting on the moment at the 2022 d.confestival when he and his team, Inspiring Minds, had been named as one of five winners of the Global Design Thinking Challenge. The contest aimed to address the 4th Sustainable Development Goal: “Ensure inclusive and equitable education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.”
‘I had to sit down after and just observe everything. I was like, Oh snap. Is it me? Is it us?’
Of the 340 participants across 12 institutions throughout the world, Inspiring Minds had been identified as having the most potential for impact. Their solution to the challenge was to create the I.C.E (Ignite, Create, Equip) Programme, a system which aims to spark innovation and growth among learners; build and harness community, teamwork, and creative expression; and equip learners with essential critical thinking skills, from effective communication, to moral imagination, to open-mindedness.
The team built a space that children are able to walk into and feel as though they are champions – a place where they are able to choose what they learn. That may be contemporary, futureproof skills such as coding, or the ability to successfully write a CV: hard and soft skills that are essential for the new world, but that are excluded from most schools – public or private.
‘That was actually a beautiful experience,’ Calvin says of the challenge. ‘It hit home. Like, I went through that – it’s something I’ve experienced.’ Calvin recounts the schools he has walked through – while performing research, and in his own childhood – that do not feel conducive to learning. They left him asking: ‘Why do these places feel like prisons? Why don’t they feel like a learning place for a child?’ So began his journey to create the type of classroom where children could ‘transform into butterflies,’ he says.
His work with personally resonant challenges does not stop there. Alongside his full-time job as a UX Designer, Calvin also runs four (4!) start-ups. One of those aims is to improve parents’ ability to see their children’s progress at school. It is an important step in improving accessibility in teacher-parent-student relations, particularly in a country where many parents are unable to attend school meetings because of commitments at work.
Calvin explains the gist: ‘It’s a dashboard where the teacher will upload everything related to that child. If they’re skipping classes, not doing homework, not submitting assignments – the parent will just have to log in and then they will see everything.’
Already, Calvin has tested the prototype at two schools, and they ‘fell in love with the idea,’ he says.
Of his extraordinary busyness, plethora of ideas, and drive to make a difference, Calvin credits the Hasso Plattner d-school Afrika. In 2018, he participated in the Foundation Programme in Design Thinking – and it changed his life.
‘I honestly feel like I have some sort of superpower now. I’m low-key like Superman,’ he says, and his delivery verifies just that. He speaks with a self-certainty that has struck a fine balance between confidence and modesty. It is based on evidence too: a recent string of successes has aligned him on a powerful, steady flight path. But it has not always been that way.
In 2020, three of his businesses ‘failed dismally,’ he says. ‘That was the most painful experience I’ve ever felt. Like, I put so much blood and sweat and so much work and time and then…’ He pauses. ‘There was this moment after – not peace. Just quiet.’
He had to take a few steps back. Absorb everything. Emit it again. Eventually, the knowledge of the importance of failure returned to him. He had failed early – he had failed fast. He had taken the principles of design thinking into the real world.
Now, he decided he had to use them within himself. After a period of deep reflection, cracks in the quiet began to appear. His energy was coming back – his ideas were breaking through.
‘I started to help other people build businesses, to help them succeed. When they won, I was happy. It was like I had to help them with theirs before I could start my own.’
Small steps built him up again. And Calvin continues to flourish. He still returns to the d-school Afrika at times to meet project partners or simply to work. It reminds him of 2018, the year that he became himself and discovered his power.
‘That seed of design was planted in me,’ he says. ‘It’s growing and this is the outcome of it. This is my home.’
Tech4Democracy is a global initiative developed by IE University, in partnership with the U.S. Department of State, that aims to advance democracy-affirming technologies by:
There are limited spaces available to this exclusive event.
15:00 – 15:10 PM INSTITUTIONAL WELCOME
Richard Perez, Founding Director, Hasso Plattner School of Design Thinking Afrika, University of Cape Town
Irene Blázquez, Director, Center for the Governance of Change, IE University
Todd Haskell, Consul General of the United States in Cape Town
Khaliq Dollie, Digital Advisor, Microsoft
15:10 – 15:30 PM KEYNOTE SPEECH
Melvyn Lubega, technology entrepreneur
15:30 – 15:50 PM OPENING COMMENTS BY THE COMPETITION JUDGES
Andrew Bailey, Senior Manager: Innovation, University of Cape Town
Buntu Majaja, CEO, SA Innovation Summit
Zanyiwe Nthatisi-Asare, CEO, Digitally Legal
Richard Perez, Founding Director, Hasso Plattner School of Design Thinking Afrika, University of Cape Town
Vanessa Ramanjam, Program Manager, Solutions Space, Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town
15:50 – 16:50 PM COMPETITION OF DEMOCRACY-AFFIRMING STARTUPS
Five companies will pitch their innovations and have a Q&A with the judge panel.
16:50 – 17:00 PM COMPETITION WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT AND CLOSING REMARKS
Carlos Luca de Tena, Executive Director, Center for the Governance of Change, IE University
17:00 – 19:30 PM NETWORKING COCKTAIL
Networking cocktail
Part of President Biden’s Summit for Democracy, Tech4Democracy’s purpose is to mobilize democratic governments, the private sector and civil society to defend democracy today and safeguard it for future generations.
For more information please visit Tech4Democracy’s website here.
Preparing for the world of work can be a nerve-wracking experience in this day and age. Everyone knows that AI and technology are changing the way we work and in a post-COVID world graduates need to be ready to adapt to new roles, but what skills specifically can help get them there? The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report lists critical thinking and problem solving as priority skills, but is seems that even what defines critical thinking is shifting.
In the past, critical thinking involved reflection, independent thought, and the ability to remain objective while searching for a solution. This is not an ideal method anymore – it simply doesn’t hold up to the complexity, ambiguity and disruption of the world we live in.
The critical thinking and problem-solving skills that are the most relevant today and will be in even more in demand in the future, take a human-centred approach that is big on problem exploration, empathy and co-creation, understands the value in connecting with local realities, knowledge and systems, and recognises the power of creativity and wild ideas. This is called design-led thinking.
Yes, you are! We all have an essential ability to empathise with people facing challenges that need to be solved. We also know how important it is to put our heads together to address complex problems, and we appreciate that diversity gives us a rich basket of local knowledge to draw on. And even if you haven’t used visual thinking or had a wild idea since Grade R, we’re all still capable of developing a creative way to think.
Unlocking the power of design-led thinking is accessible to everyone. Microsoft’s Kevin Wo, managing director for Singapore has called design thinking a key skill for mastering the future. And in the next five years it will likely become standard practice everywhere because it’s by far the most effective tool we have to help us find the best solutions to the world’s biggest problems in a meaningful and sustainable way.
Companies and industries face challenges today on an unprecedented scale. Doing business in a globalised world, means that everything is becoming more intertwined and connecting us in ways they never have before. Design thinking provides a way to engage with this complexity in a creative and regenerative way.
In fact, the business case for Design Thinking is so compelling and is growing to such an extent, that we are seeing a rapid onboarding of design-led thinkers who understand its concepts and can apply the tools and techniques needed to help solve ambiguous or complex challenges while coping with a high degree of uncertainty.
Design thinking has the potential to unleash people’s full creative energies, win their commitment, and radically improve processes, argues Jeanne Liedtka in Harvard Business Review. One of the reasons it’s thought to be so effective is that its approach helps to counteract human biases that thwart creativity while at the same time following a structured process to tackle a particular challenge.
This ability to do things differently is especially needed when trying to meet the expectations placed on industries and organisations to design products and services that speak to the challenges of building a sustainable future. Solving such big and intractable problems by choosing from a set of worn-out strategies just doesn’t cut it anymore.
The UN Development Programme has been vocal about why it favours Design Thinking as the best tool to move organisations towards achieving the 17 global Sustainable Development Goals. This is because the approach, instead of being linear, involves looping back and forth through the various phases of ideation and exploration, gathering diverse points of view along the way, through synthesis, prototyping and testing. The resulting solutions are more likely to be sustainable precisely because they’re designed to evolve through a continuous feedback loop that places the needs and desires of the human beings most affected, at the centre of the solution, whether it’s a product, service or system.
Design Thinking is more than a process or method used to solve a set of challenges. It’s a mindset, a way of thinking that can be applied over again to new challenges in any setting. Wherever innovation or a different way of thinking is needed, it can adjust to different programmes and curricula, methodologies and business practices, corporate strategies and social innovation models. Design thinkers learn how to see real-world problems and use tools and techniques in a way that leads to innovative solutions no matter what their location or context.
Since Design Thinking makes the world a better place, taking onboard the skills needed to apply it in practice is an exciting journey for every practitioner. No matter how big, small or niche the problem, there's a solution waiting to be imagined.
But to get a real-world view of Design Thinking in practice, it’s important to participate in a programme that has partnerships with the private, public, academic and community-based sectors. This exposes students to experiential training that involves working on real-world projects and challenges.
Ultimately, the student of design thinking needs to arrive with an open mind and a curiosity not only about what they can get from design thinking but what they can add back to the process itself. In a very real sense, we are all on a continuous journey towards building a better world that is easier to navigate and safer and more sustainable for all.
Richard Perez is the founding director of Africa’s first school dedicated to Design Thinking, the Hasso Plattner d-school AFRIKA at the University of Cape Town which offers a number of teaching and learning courses including their flagship Foundation Programme in Design Thinking.
