Prototype Dialogues: re-balancing design thinking through negotiations with fabrics, form and future

In this paper, we discuss and challenge design thinking as a process model. Though initially
intended as a process for solving wicked problems, including inequality, environmental issues
and poverty, focus in the later years appears to have been mainly on development for growth.
Faced with the emergent need for green transition and connectivity in times of disruption and
conflict, new ways of thinking and conducting creative processes are needed. Thus, a rebalancing
of design thinking seems to be beneficial.
The implementation of design thinking as a process model has contributed to an increased focus
on the early research phase, particularly on the interaction between user and products/services
with an emphatic approach to understanding users. While we in no way wish to undervalue
knowledge of user needs, we contend that this intense user focus partly cannibalizes the
emphasis on research through experimentation and prototyping in the fuzzy front-end of a design
process. We explore if it is possible to re-balance the design thinking process by re-connecting
experiments and prototypes to the very early phases?
At VIA Design & Business we have observed that Fashion BA-students in their graduation project
tend to carry out predominantly desktop research and some fieldwork for a considerable amount
of the project time. Consequently, they postpone hands-on experiments and prototyping,
apparently feeling that prototyping is the physical outcome of the research and process instead
of prototyping actually being research and process; sometimes to a degree where the knowledge
generated from tangible experiences emerges too late to bring value to the project. The students
thereby miss the opportunity to include and benefit from substantial knowledge coming from
early hands-on experiments.
We discuss how didactic approaches can initiate prototype dialogues in the early stages of the
design process to evaluate the consequences and to re-balance design thinking models. To
support the discussion, we introduce examples of early prototyping from two BA courses with
different perspectives on prototyping. With these two examples, we demonstrate ways in which
early prototyping in the fuzzy front-end of design thinking supports and enhances students'
dialogues with the material of a situation and how it is beneficial for the further process.