Insights from Designers to create teachers as designers’ mindsets
In our pursuit of understanding the mindsets that drive the everyday of designers, we embarked on a series of interviews with different designers. Our interviews encompassed a broad spectrum of expertise, that included strategic designers, architects, urban designers, learning designers, UX designers, web designers, and service designers. Our interviewees brought a rich cultural and professional perspective as we had a mix of professional from Denmark, Portugal, Spain, and Finland. To add to this diversity, we interviewed designers with over two decades of design experience, alongside fresh talents who had embarked on their design journey just a year ago. Adding another layer of depth, some of our interviewees also had teaching experiences at the university level.
We got rich data about their understanding of design, their everyday challenges, their passions, their perspective of looking at teachers as designers, among other things, but in this post, we want to share three key aspects: their meaning about the 12 mindsets (add a link to post where we listed the 12 mindsets), the most relevant mindsets and ones that are more difficult to develop.
12 mindsets that are relevant for any professional
As we engaged in the conversations with designers a pattern emerged: an agreement of the relevance of the 12 design mindsets we had extracted from our literature review.
What resonated even more powerfully was thar several interviewees stated that these mindsets transcend the realm of design alone. They mentioned that those mindsets are relevant for all professions as we face a very challenging world.
The most relevant out of the 12
Among the twelve thoughtfully curated design mindsets, there emerged a handful that the interviewees prioritized as the most relevant.
- Visual thinking
- Creativity (including curiosity)
- Empathy and human centeredness
- Problem solving
- Experimentation
- Collaboration, Openness and Diversity
However, their convey the message that these mindsets are not isolated silos but interconnected elements that enrich the design practice.
When reflecting about the most difficult mindsets to develop, empathy and creativity where more often mentioned.
This is a call to cultivate these mindsets in ourselves and in our students. Follow us in the next chapter where we will be talking with teachers to hear their perspectives about the 12 mindsets.