Abstract
Design thinking represents a widely accepted concept originating within the field of design. Best understood as a thought process, design thinking entails approaching problem-solving by first empathizing with a given problem, ideating, prototyping, and testing solutions, among other variations of these steps. The open-ended nature of such a process has permeated different disciplines, from education to management; its apparent simplicity has meant that it can be easily transposed to diverse areas of intervention. However, this translation of how design operates has its limitations. In our contribution, we discuss some of the constraints of design thinking when applied to contemporary design education that seeks to prepare designers to help tackle the current eco-social crisis. In doing so, we present “Collaboration ChitChatter” a tool designed to support eco-social design for complex and collaborative settings by connecting design thinking to the themes of care, power, reciprocity, time, language, continuity, and economy and to the design phases of situating collaboration, co-creating, and sustaining collaboration. Our reflection emerged from in-depth field research, which involved design students, a local NGO, professors, and community members involved in the educational framework of a semester project within the context of a Master of Eco-social Design programme at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano. We believe our reflection is relevant to those working within and outside the field of design.