D.STUDENT HANDBOOK
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d.abilities

8 core design abilities

 

"At the d.school we endeavor to enable our students in eight core design abilities so that they might develop their own creative confidence and also inspire others, take risks, and persevere through tough projects throughout their lives."
- Carissa Carter, d.school Director of Teaching and Learning, “Let’s Stop Talking about THE Design Process”

In the past few years, we've made a concerted effort to empower students with flexible ways of thinking that build on process and focus on abilities. Together, these eight abilities encourage learners to take the ingredients they’ve been given and craft their own creative recipes to suit the problem at hand. Here are a few ways to start engaging with design abilities now!

  • Feel like taking a walk and listening to a podcast? Hear d.school and IDEO founder David Kelley talk about the importance of navigating ambiguity and other core abilities of the most successful design thinking practitioners in this 40-minute long podcast.

  • Feel like pulling out your colored pencils and doing something interactive? This Design Abilities Activity Book gets you coloring while engaging with the abilities art in a thoughtful way that will deepen your understanding of how they show up in creative work. A walkabout scavenger hunt and Bingo game are included, too! (Note: a printer is needed for this one!)

  • Feeling like taking a quick read that gets you the basics? This short booklet on design abilities introduces each one in turn, focusing on examples of specific ways you might exercise this ability, and highlighting design fields that draw deeply on that ability. It also explains why navigating ambiguity is kind of a meta-ability, and the superpower of the bunch!

Whichever you choose, we hope you enjoy learning more about the core creative skills you're developing in your classes this quarter.  This is only the beginning!

 
 

Abilities posters designed and illustrated by Jason Munn

This is the ability to recognize and persist in the discomfort of not knowing, and develop tactics to overcome ambiguity when needed.

Design is loaded with uncertainty. As a result, it involves being present in the moment, re-framing problems, and finding patterns in information. Ambiguity can arise in many places – within a project, a process, or within oneself. It’s important to put students in ambiguous situations and give them tactics to emerge from them.

navigate ambiguity

This means empathizing with and embracing diverse viewpoints , testing new ideas with others, and observing and learning from unfamiliar contexts.

Throughout a design project, it’s important to recognize and take the opportunity to learn from others–both end users and other stakeholders and team members. There is a sensitivity to others that develops with this ability.

learn from others

This ability is about being able to quickly generate ideas – whether written, drawn, or built.

In order to rapidly experiment, you must be able to relax your mind and reach a mode of acceptance. This will eliminate the natural tendency to block ideas that seem off or unfeasible. Then, let your doing lead your thinking – and lead with your hands. This ability pairs naturally with Learn From Others. In many instances, you are experimenting by both generating a flood of new concepts at low resolution (brainstorming) and testing some of those concepts with potential users.

experiment rapidly

This is the ability to make sense of information and find insight and opportunity within.

Data comes from multiple places and has many different forms, both qualitative and quantitative. This ability requires skills in developing frameworks, maps, and abductive thinking. Synthesis is hard for new students. It takes time and is interdependent with navigating ambiguity.

synthesize information

 

This is the ability to form, capture, and relate stories, ideas, concepts, reflections, and learnings to the appropriate audiences.

Communication happens in a variety of contexts. It may include reflecting on your performance to a project team or crafting a video to show your product to a potential investor. As we practice experiential learning at the d.school, communication and storytelling are paramount.

communicate deliberately

This ability involves understanding stakeholders and purpose in order to define the product or service’s features.

Everything is connected. When students are building out a new concept –whether a product, service, or experience – they need to be able to nest the concept within the larger ecosystem that relates to it. We have Ray and Charles Eames to thank for helping us set the scene for this ability. It involves abstraction to define meaning, goals, and principles, as well as precision to define details and features.

move between abstract + concrete

This ability is about thoughtful construction: showing work at the most appropriate level of resolution for the audience and feedback desired.

There are many sub-disciplines of design, each with their own set of tools and techniques. This ability requires a sensitivity to the tools needed to create meaningful work in your domain. UX designers have a specific set of tools to create human-centered digital interfaces. Architects have an arsenal of particular techniques to bring new structures into the world. Every discipline – immunology, macroeconomics, K12 education, whatever it may be – has its own building methods, and in every case, the details matter.

build + craft intentionally

This meta ability is about recognizing a project as a design problem and then deciding on the people, tools, techniques, and processes needed to tackle it.

This ability develops with practice. We see it emerge in our more experienced students. It requires using intuition, adapting old tools to new contexts, and developing original techniques to meet the challenge at hand.

design your design work