Enhancing Design Thinking Through the Product Design

This research is situated within the design education field and focuses primarily on the use of Design Thinking skills in product design pedagogy. The application of Design Thinking has become an essential component of contemporary design education, and diverse workshop environments offer design students meaningful opportunities to develop their design processes and professional competencies. This dissertation examines two design thinking models, derived as a dichotomy within product conceptual design: ✔️ Cross-Disciplinary Workshop for Product Form Design (CDW for PFD) ✔️ Participatory Workshop for Culturally Oriented Product Design (PW for COPD). The research explores how student designers engage in product design practice through the binaries: the cross-disciplinary workshop conducted through on-campus experiments applying user-centred involved design and the participatory workshop carried out in Southwest China, involving participatory design with local communities. This study contributes to three theoretical aspects of Design Thinking activities in product concept design: Domain-knowledge-oriented co-design activities in collaboration, Broadly inclusive design intentions in product form design, Culturally sensitive practices in culturally oriented product design. Acknowledgement Pre-examiners: • Professor Sirpa Kokko, University of Eastern Finland • Dr Mirja Kälviäinen, LAB University of Applied Sciences, Institute of Design and Fine Arts Custos: • Professor Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen, University of Helsinki Supervisors: • Professor Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen, University of Helsinki • Dr Henna Lahti, University of Helsinki • Dr Seija Kairavuori, University of Helsinki Opponent: • Professor Turkka Keinonen, Aalto University