Creating Knowledge in Design Thinking: The Relationship of Process Steps and Knowledge Types

This article analyzes the design thinking process in terms of its capability to create design knowledge. For this purpose, we refer to a typology that suggests four different types of design knowledge as well as three interjacent transitions. According to this typology, design knowledge can be represented in physical artifacts, as tacit gut feeling, as codified knowledge, or as testable theories. We analyze the different process steps of design thinking through extensive case studies of design thinking projects in an educational context and map them to the different levels of this typology. The work presented in this article contributes to a better understanding of the working mechanisms of the design thinking process.