13. Digital transformations and their design – renewal of the socio-technical approach

Deel III Voorbereiden op een veranderend werkveld
problem”
challenge
outcome
“the
discover define develop deliver
Figure 1: The double diamond diagram showing problem space and solution space
(adapted from Design Council, 2019)
The double diamond methodology (Design Council, 2015) states that design
starts with exploring the problem space by discovering and defining what
the challenge is before developing (including testing and refining) multiple
solutions and narrowing down the solution space to one solution to deliver.
The red lines in the diagram show that designing means repeatedly opening
the space before narrowing it down again. And while the “challenge”, the
cross-over between problem space (discover and define) and solution space
(develop and deliver), and the “outcome” are depicted on one linear line, it is
well understood in designerly approaches that the refined challenge at the end
of the discover and define activities might differ substantially from the initial
challenge offered. Equally the outcome need not be a linear consequence of
the refined challenge. Note also that various dotted blue arrows indicate that
the sequence discover-define-develop-deliver is not seen as linear, either.
Rather, designers might (and probably will) revert and pursue other routes
of discover, define, develop, and deliver, to explore the problem and solution
space more widely.
The five stages of design thinking, as illustrated in Figure 2, represent a similar
process that starts with understanding the problem before creating and
testing various solutions:
• empathize (to understand the real concerns of stakeholders);
• define (to find out the deeper roots of the needs);
• ideate (to explore and generate solutions);
• prototype (to make tangible objects for some ideated solutions);
• test (to evaluate the prototypes with the end-users and learn from them).
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