How do you use your Post-It notes? I’ve stuck ‘em on my fridge, on my wall, all over the floor, on my windows and frankly wherever they will stick. Post-Its are the quintessential tool for brainstorming sessions. There is something about that little, sticky, portable 3×3 square that takes away all inhibition.
As the field of design and creative construction continues, many emphasize the need to center in on the process. Instead of focusing on design itself, the focus continues to shift toward design thinking. This makes sense as a logical next step. While the visual-nature of problem solving has been at the forefront of most design work, design thinking takes the visual and makes it a piece of the larger process. Thinking becomes visual. (Enter the Post-Its.) Problem solving (and problem awareness/discovery) becomes priority. (Whereas the isolation of visual design only focuses on cosmetic problem solving within the visual plane.) So, we are now hiring designers, not only as experts on the cosmetic, but also as problem solvers.
One can see the shift within the last 20 years by looking at the design groups who embody this approach. The following article I’d like to share with you comes from Wired UK on the firm defining design thinking, IDEO.