Mapping Design Thinking Resources Outside of Higher Education – An Exploratory Study

This chapter is part of a book about design thinking in higher education. It offers a discussion about the expansion of design thinking has been gaining traction beyond design practice and higher education through the growth of varied Internet-based resources that seek to enable design thinking. However, there is neither systemic evidence about nor an analysis of this development, specifically with regards to the claims that underpin the rise of design thinking. This chapter fills this gap and critically maps the proliferation of learning resources through which ‘design thinking’ is configured outside of or on the edges of academia. It reviews the English-speaking landscape of Internet-based design thinking resources and their claims and assesses the links between them. It showcases the intensity of these links in a ‘typology of design thinking resources’. The discussion highlights the homogeneity of Internet-based design thinking resources, despite the diversity of sites and situations they claim to be relevant to. The chapter argues that the implications of this development for professional design practice is a needed shift towards criticality, through stronger connections to higher education and research. The chapter concludes with an extended set of questions to prompt more critical and reflexive research into the growth of design thinking resources online and their wider socio-economic contexts.