Two things about this quote stand out. First, it recognizes design as a useful process beyond object-making, and second, it was published in 1999 – ten years ago. It was also ten years ago that I started teaching a course at UC Berkeley’s architecture school called, “Beyond Buildings; New Sites for Designers.” The purpose was to help students understand what habits of mind they come to know (often tacitly) through the design studio sequence of classes. Then, we looked at how those skills can be used to make things other than buildings. Over time, that work has boiled down to a list of qualities – or habits of mind – that one could arguably title “How to Think Like a Designer.”

It would be foolhardy to claim this list is absolute or even complete. It has started many conversations and some debates. We are reproducing it here in that spirit. In the following weeks there will be a post about each of these ideas. But for now, here is the whole list. Your comments and insights are welcome and will, no doubt, find their way into future posts.

Design Thinking: Ten Habits of Mind

1. Focused Creativity
2. Generous Collaboration
3. Drawing and Thinking in Pictures
4. Comfort with Ambiguity
5. Non-linear Information Processing
6. Multiple Solutions
7. Learning by Doing
8. Communicate for Understanding
9. Charrette Culture: Shaped by constraints and bounded by time
10. Curiosity is better than Judgment

Clark Kellogg is a designer and partner at Collective Invention.