Chapter 2: Challenges and Resistance to Change
Norman's call for a significant shift in design education, urging the integration of science, math, and technology into the curriculum. He advocates for practical knowledge, challenging the overemphasis on high technical skills and highlighting the role of drawing in design thinking.
Norman stresses the necessity of experimental methods tailored for the practical world of design, advocating for collaboration in multidisciplinary teams. He argues for dedicated design courses that meet the profession's practical requirements instead of borrowing from other disciplines. Designers, as practitioners, he asserts, need practical information and good-enough knowledge distinct from theoretical pursuits in other fields.
Emphasizing the importance of multidisciplinary teamwork, Norman discusses the need for designers to collaborate with individuals from diverse disciplines. Effective collaboration, especially in true multidisciplinary teams, is, according to him, crucial for successful design education.
The chapter concludes with Norman's plea for the design profession to shed defensiveness, recognize students' diverse needs, and lead the transformation of design education for the 21st century. He calls for a curriculum that imparts substantive knowledge while equipping designers with tools and skills relevant to contemporary design. The conclusion urges preserving the delightful aspects of design while adapting to the evolving demands of the profession.
How important is drawing?
A major part of design curricula has to do with drawing. “Drawing is essential, ” I am told. “Designers think by doing. We think by drawing.”
I can take three stances with respect to this claim:
"1.There is no evidence for the statement that designers think by drawing. It is similar to the old belief that studying Latin or Greek led to better thinking for which there was also no evidence."
"2. Yes, designers think by making things, by drawing and constructing. This is the argument for making design (and more generally, sketching) a critical part of the curriculum for all designers, even those who design abstract things such as experience and interaction, services and strategies."
"3.There is truth to the statement that designers think by drawing, but imperfect, very rough sketches will suffice. The extreme emphasis on the development of high technical skills is misplaced. Yes, product designers might need this, but everyone else would do far better to learn rapid sketching techniques as an enhancement of the creative process. Today, drawing is taught as an exercise in its own right instead of as one of the multiple components of creative thinking."