Design synthesis

Synthesis in design is the process of making sense of design-problem-related input (brief, research data etc.) that leads to ultimately producing a design output (idea, concept, artifact).

Synthesis should be made explicit, otherwise the designer risks that stakeholders will discount the research that informs the design. Sensemaking can be internal, but synthesis should be explicit to also enable collaboration.

Because synthesis is a deliberate effort to make sense of data, it leads to deep understanding of the problem Actively working with information enables learning. Collaborative synthesis can be a great way of building an understanding of a design problem in a team.

Synthesis is a process of abductive reasoning: creating the most likely hypotheses based on the available data, coming up with new insights, diverse insights.

There are different methods of synthesis:

• for making sense out of data: Affinity Diagrams, Mental model diagrams, Flow diagrams
• for building an experience framework: Concept mapping (method), Ecosystem mapping, Customer Journey mapping

These methods can be used throughout the whole process of synthesis (e.g. Framework for design synthesis)

Tags: design process

ID: 2021-0605-1932

References:

• Kolko – Exposing the Magic of Design