Design Thinking: Virtues and Defects of a Project Methodology for Business, Academic Training, and Professional Design

Design Thinking is a methodology that can be used for business innovation, allowing to address complex problems and provide viable solutions by placing the user in the center of reflection. But this methodology can corrupt the reflected and argued work of the design project when it is not carried out applying the appropriate knowledge. This work is structured around a reflection on this methodology and its application in different areas. Firstly, a comparative analysis of representative bibliography is conducted to outline a theoretical basis on Design Thinking. In the second part, a fieldwork based on interviews and observation of creative workshops helps decipher how the Design Thinking is used in different fields, to see up to what extent its application can modify the design results. This article concludes that the broad description of Design Thinking helps to explain the methodology of a project at an educational level, its tools helping to unlock a project at a business level, and its techniques helping to explain the phases of a project at a professional design level.