Critical Thinking for Designers

1. Critical Thinking for Designers

2. In every single day in our life, we are faced
with a number of choices to make, problems
to solve, and ideas to evaluate or analyze.

3. These activities are affected by both internal and external factors
such as
A. Biases,
B. Incomplete information,
C. Distortion, and
D. Prejudices
All these factors affect the process of choosing the right decision or
find the proper solution for problems, which may lead to misleading
solutions or choices.

4. In order to escape this idea trap, critical thinking can
provide a way to alter our mindset -
in order to improve the way we think of problem or
situations -
which subsequently reflect positively on our decisions.

5. Critical thinking is a thinking method that aims to
achieve objective evaluation and analysis of problems,
ideas, or different situations in order to build a clear
unbiased understanding about it over the course of
reaching the optimal solution.

6. Critical Thinking is a self-disciplined, self-directed,
self-monitored, and self-corrective way of thinking
to improve how we communicate ideas and solve
problems.

7. Critical thinking is a handy method to address any situation
before jumping directly to the analysis phase in order to
evaluate or find a solution for it.
This type of thinking is commonly used in different fields of
science and art in order to build a clear objective perception
about different situations that face designers, engineers and
researchers.

8. Principles of Critical
Thinking

9. These principles provides guidelines for critical thinking before
moving to the thinking steps:
a) Collect all the necessary information about the situation in hand
b) Understand and clearly, define all terms associated with the
situation
c) Question the methods used to collect the information and the
current conclusions
d) Understand the hidden assumptions and biases including your
own biases and values
e) Question the source of facts
f) Don’t expect all the answers
g) Look at the big picture of the situation rather than the parts
h) Examine the multiples cause and effect
i) Watch for thought stoppers Introduced by Professor Larry Larson, Ohio University, in his paper
published in the Journal of Biological Education 1990.

10. • The above principles aim to free our mind from biases and ensure
that the situation is clearly defined.
• Also, it aims to ensure that the source of the data collected, the
methods used to collect the data are also free from mistakes,
biases, and inaccuracy.
• This can help us to focus on the problem without any external factors.

11. Stages of Critical Thinking

12. • Based on the above principles, the critical thinking process should
have three main stages;
1. Observe,
2. Question, and
3. Answer.
• In order to clearly understand the three stages, we will use a
design example -

13. Many places are still not accessible for
people with physical disabilities due to the
hard usage of stairs as they always seek
support from others or search for electric
elevators.
Based on this situation, we would like to
explore how to address this problem with
critical thinking.
How people with wheelchair
use the stairs to move from
one level to another.

14. Stage 1 Observe

15. Stage 1 - Observe
• In this stage, we observe the whole situation thoroughly in terms of how people
with disabilities use the stairs, the problems they face, and how they currently
deal with it.
• At this stage, we collect all the necessary information about the current situation
and how other people tried to solve it and the methods they used to achieve this
target.
• At this stage, no questions are asked as we only observe and record our
observation for the next stages.

16. Stage 1 - Observe
• While collecting information and observing the situation, we should take notes of
our findings with a clear definition of the problem in order to ensure that we are
addressing the problem properly.
• Also, we need to understand the biases that may affect our decision and the
biases that may affect other designers who tried to solve the problem.
• This can help us to put the biases or the assumption aside and focus on the
situation.

17. Stage 2
Questio
n

18. Stage 2 - Question
• Based on the observation, we start to ask questions about the situation and the
current solution.
• For example, what is wrong with the current stairs? why people find it hard to
use?
• These questions help clearly define the right problem to address and
subsequently finding the solution, that can directly build a holistic solution.
• That solution considers all the facts regarding the user experience, surrounded
environment, and other users in the place.

19. Stage 2 - Question
• Asking the right questions contribute reaching a clear definition for the current situation and
subsequently analyzing it properly. The questions may take different forms.
• One of the methods that can help explore the situation from different aspects is the Star-
bursting method that allows you to cover the topic using five main types of questions;
1. Why,
2. Who,
3. What,
4. How,
5. Where, and
6. When.
• In this example, the questions can be organized as below:

20. Stage 2 - Question
1. Who: Who is using the target user of the stairs?
2. What: What is the current problem of using the
stairs? What are the different approaches to solving
the problem?
3. How: How can we solve the problem? How can we
make the stairs using experience easier for disabled
people?
4. Where: Where will the new idea be applied?
5. When: When do disabled people use the stairs the
most?
6. Why: Why do we need to change the current stars
design? Why disabled people suffer much from using
the current stairs?

21. Stage 2 - Question
• Another method to ask the right
questions is to use the Elements of
Thought, which reflect how we think
about situations.
• The Elements of Thoughts include
purpose, questions, information,
concussions, concepts, assumptions,
implications, and points of view.

22. Stage 2 - Question
These elements can form the way we think in situations. These elements can be used to form the right
questions as following:
1. Purpose: What are we trying to solve?
2. Questions: What are the questions?
3. Information: What is the information needed to understand the problem?
4. Conclusions: How have others reached different solutions?
5. Concepts: What is the main concept behind the current ideas?
6. Assumptions: What is the assumption we have for this problem?
7. Implications: How can we apply the new ideas?
8. The point of View: What are the different point of views related to the problem?

23. Stage 3 - Answer
• The third step in the critical thinking is to answer all the
raised questions without any biases, prejudices, or
assumptions.
• At this stage, we build a deep understanding of the problem
where we can move forward with the steps required to find
a solution for the problem.
• In the above example, the solution can include placing the
elevator next to the stairs so disabled people can easily find
it, or using sliding area next to the stairs so they can easily
use their wheelchairs.

24. Designers are faced with daily challenges to explore
problems, observe current situations, or find solutions to
improve products and services.
Critical thinking provides a method to
explore different situations while
eliminating any chances for biases,
prejudice, or misleading information.
Critical thinking is a great method to understand the situation in
order to analyze it to define the problems and prototype solutions.

25. The Six Hats of
Critical Thinking

26. • The critical thinking process can
be complex and may be
confusing.
• One of the proven successful
methods to organize both group
and individual thinking is the
six thinking hats, also known as
De Bono’s six thinking hats.
• The method has been first
introduced in 1985 by Edward
De Bono in a book with the
same name.

27. • Human thinking is unstructured and
reinforced in a way that different types of
thoughts can drive individuals and design
thinking groups to think in an unorganized
ways, which can lead to unexpected
results.
• The six thinking hats introduced the
thinking process to follow specific
directions when necessary.
• The thinking hat is a metaphor that
represents each thinking direction as the
hats can be easily put on and taken off.

28. • While the six thinking hats method does not follow
ordinary human thinking, it can be used during a
specific critical thinking session to achieve specific
targets such as solving problems, discussing
argument, in-depth analysis for planning process and
running the creative thinking process.
• Although the method has been introduced for
companies to improve the return of investment (ROI),
it can successfully also be applied to even school
students for the use of design thinking in education.
• The Microsoft education sector introduced this
method for schools in a workshop presentation, De
Bono’s six thinking hats.

30. The Six Thinking Hats

31. • Solving problems using the six thinking hats model requires looking to at
problems with different types of thinking, each type is represented with a hat
color.
• At the end of the discussion session stakeholders should have better
understanding to the problem from different approaches in order to reach
creative and innovative solutions.
• During each critical thinking discussion meeting, the facilitator determines
which hat should be worn in specific part of the discussion.

32. White hat
• This hat represents the facts and the
information available about the problem
or the argument.
• During this part, the stockholders only
share the information about the
problem and take notes with it.
• No further development in the thinking
process should be done.
• Questions in this part can be “what is
the available information?” and “what
are the facts we have?”

33. Yellow hat
• In contrast to the black hat, the yellow hat
supposes to reflect the sun or an optimistic
attitude.
• The stakeholders think from an optimistic
point of view about the problem or
suggestion.
• It helps to spotlight the advantages and
benefits of the suggestions.
• During this the questions which are asked are
“what are the advantages of applying the
solution?” and “why do you think it is
workable?”

34. Black hat
• Wearing the black hat drives attendees to think
about the problem or suggestion cautiously
and defensively.
• The aim of this part is to identify the cons of
the suggestion and the disadvantages and why
the suggestion may not work based on logical
reasons.
• Focusing on the warnings, risks or cautions,
this helps the stakeholders to isolate the
reasoning and think in the solutions in the
yellow one.
• The question that can be asked during this
discussion “what are the risks?” and “why is
the suggestion not working?”

35. Red hat
• The emotions hat presents the stakeholders
feelings about the problem and their gut
reactions toward it.
• The target of using this hat is to understand
the different emotional reactions such as love,
hate, like and dislike.
• The red hat does not aim to understand the
reason behind these feelings.
• The questions that can be asked during this
part is “what do you feel about the
suggestion?” and “what is your gut reaction
toward the suggestion?”

36. Green hat
• This represents the creative thinking part
of the discussion.
• During the critical thinking discussion,
this hat fuels the stakeholders’ thinking to
innovate a thinking creative solution for
the problems or look to the suggestions
from a creative perspective.
• Creative tools can be applied to drive
creativity during the conversations such as
the ‘Lego Serious Play’ and brainstorming
techniques.

37. Blue hat
• This is the process control plan where the meeting
leaders manage difficulties during the discussions.
• It makes sure that the guidelines of the six thinking
hat process is applied.
• This hat can be used to drive the thinking process to
better routes. For example, if there are no ideas, the
facilitators can direct the discussion to the green hat
route.
• The blue hat is a control hat during the critical
thinking discussions, it can also act as a moderation
hat before and after each circle of thinking.
While the resources did not indicate a specific sequence between the
hats, the sequence indicated above is similar to De Bono’s six thinking
hats website.

38. A Scenario of
Applying the Six
Thinking Hats

39. • The six thinking hats can be applied to different scenarios based
on the aim of the discussion.
• Furthermore, it can be applied on an educational level to teach
students creative thinking and how to build solutions based on
in-depth understanding to problems.
• One of the scenarios that involves applying the six thinking hats
is the redesign of a product package, so the flow would go as
following:

40. • The facilitators ask the stakeholders to put the white hat to
discuss the facts associated with the suggestion such
as “what is the current package look like?”, “what is the
design for competitor’s package?” and “what are consumer
feedback about the current package?”
• Then, the yellow hat is worn to identify the advantages of the
redesign process and the product can benefit from the
changes in the design.
• The discussion moderator can ask questions such as “what
are the benefits of the redesign?” and “what are the positive
impact of the redesign“

41. • Then the team wears the black hat to discuss the
disadvantages of applying the design change and how it
can impact badly on product sales and the marketing
target.
• During this part, the stakeholders discuss the risks that
can be faced when the package redesign is applied.
• Then the red hat reflects the stakeholder’s emotional
feelings toward the current package and in changing it.
Do they like the current package? How do they feel regarding
changing it? And what do the end consumers may feel toward
this change?

42. • Then the green hat is worn to think of
the design from a creative and
innovative perspective.
• This part helps the stakeholders to think
about the new design and how they
reflect on the previous discussions parts
on the new design or the current one.
• During the above process the blue hat
can be worn by the chair to moderate
the discussion and direct it in a way that
can facilitate the session.

43. • The six thinking hats method provides a parallel thinking model to get the most out of critical
thinking discussions.
• By organizing the thinking process using the metaphor of the six hats, stakeholders can ensure
that thinking process is covering the topic from different approaches and point of views.
• This organized thinking approach occurs in a small period of time during the discussion to reach
the best possible output of the design thinking process.
• While the six thinking hats method is discussed separately from the design thinking process,
both work closely toward building creative solutions and innovative approaches for solving
problems.