Design Thinking & Creativity | Spring 2023

Course Description

In line with Jesuit pedagogy, we will take a “reflection-in-action” approach in this course where we:

Try Things  ➡️ Reflect on What Happens ➡️ Repeat 


Much of the exploration we will undertake will be metacognitive in nature, meaning that we will think critically about our own thinking. This means that we will spend a significant amount of time attending to our process, reflecting on our own experiences, and then making choices for moving forward based on what we discover.

This course seeks to introduce Design Thinking as an action-oriented creative process for engaging deeply with the problems that matter to you. The course is designed to help you: develop habits of mind and tools for thinking to make creativity a reliable resource in your life; cultivate empathy for both others and yourself as the starting point for creative problem-solving; think flexibility by reframing problems and finding ways to move beyond your first good ideas, and adopt an experimental mindset that allows you to try test out your ideas and collaborate with others. The course will take a learn-by-doing approach combined with ample opportunity for reflection. The goal is to integrate Design Thinking with the rest of your liberal arts studies so you leave the course with a broad-based, personalized creative toolkit for tackling problems in your life and in the world.

Course Materials

Deliverables

  • Multimodal Identity Kit

    A large part of design thinking and the creative process involves a deep understanding of who you are— what do you value? What assets do you bring to a team? How do your different group relationships (gender, ethnicity, race, familial roles, professional roles, religious affiliations, etc.) contribute to the unique point of view you bring to any design experience?

  • Metacognitive Letters

    You will complete three metacognitive letters over the course of our time together. In this letter, you will think deeply about and communicate your areas of strength and growth as a designer, connecting your thoughts to the work you are doing in this course. These letters are opportunities to conduct a self-evaluation as well as to synthesize your learning in this course. You should consider how your work is evolving, what you are learning, and where specifically in your work you can point to examples of this.

  • Discord Collaboration

    We’ll be using Discord to create online community during this course. You’ll post reactions to reading or other assigned multimedia, respond to your peers, as well as ask and respond to questions on our Discord server. In the first part of the course, you’ll be responding to reading that I, your professor, assign you. In the second part of the course, you’ll be put on a team— either Maroon or Gold. Each team will alternate between finding readings or other multimedia to share with the class and responding to the contributions of others.

  • Notebook Practice

    Writers, designers, artists, and creative people of all types advocate for the value of keeping a notebook connected to their creative practice. You’ll keep a notebook as part of this course to support your development of mindsets and habits connected to a creative life like observing, curating, paying attention, finding patterns, and experimenting. The form and contents of your notebook are up to you— I’ll provide suggestions, but you’ll ultimately make choices about the materials, methods, and habits that define your notebook practice.

  • Creativity Interview

    The goal of this deliverable is, given the thinking work that you've begun to do about Design Thinking and creativity in this course, how do you see these concepts connecting to other people in your life? It's also meant to give you an opportunity to practice one of our key course themes: Empathize. Additionally, Interviewing is a common practice in Design Thinking at multiple points of the process.

  • Design Challanges

    You’ll go through the entire design process twice— once as part of a group in a Collaborative Design Challenge and then again in your Individual Design Challenge. You’ll present your work at different stages and receive feedback both asynchronously and synchronously in our learning community.

  • Final Portfolio

    As your culminating assessment for this course, you will compile a portfolio showcasing your products and process from this course. Your portfolio should include both tangible examples of evidence from each project in this course, as well as reflection on your process. We’ll discuss options for format in class.