This book explicates the relationships between design thinking, critical making, and socially responsive technical communication. It leverages the recent technology-powered DIY culture called "the Maker Movement" to identify how citizen innovation can inform cutting-edge social innovation that advocates for equitable change and progress on today’s "wicked" problems. After offering a succinct account of the origin and recent history of design thinking, along with its connections to the design paradigm in writing studies, the book analyzes maker culture and its influences on innovation and education through an ethnographic study of three academic makerspaces. It offers opportunities to cultivate a sense of critical changemaking in technical communication students and practitioners, showcasing examples of socially responsive innovation and expert interviews that urge a disciplinary attention to social justice advocacy and an embrace of the design-thinking principle of radical collaboration. The value of design thinking methodologies for teaching and practicing socially responsible technical communication are demonstrated as the author argues for a future in the field that sees its constituents as leaders in radical innovation to solve wicked social problems. This book is essential reading for instructors, students, and practitioners of technical communication, and can be used as a supplemental text for graduate and undergraduate courses in usability and user-centered design and research.

This concise and flexible core textbook integrates a design thinking approach, rhetorical strategies, and a global perspective to help students succeed as technical and professional communicators in today’s multimodal, mobile, and global community. Design thinking and good communication practices are rooted in empathy and human values. The integrated approach fosters students' ability to address the complex problems they will face in their careers, where they will collaborate with people who present diverse expertise, cultures, languages, and values. This book introduces the knowledge and skills as well as agile activities that help students communicate on projects within local and global communities. Parts 1 and 2 introduce the strategies for design thinking, audience analysis, communicating ethically, collaborating professionally, and managing projects to define problems and implement solutions. In Parts 3 and 4, students learn to compose content in text and visuals. They learn to structure and deliver content by choosing the right genre and selecting effectively from the communication options available in today's multimodal environment. Designing Technical and Professional Communication serves as a flexible core textbook for technical and professional communication courses. An instructor’s manual containing exercises, sample syllabus, and guidance for teaching in a variety of settings is available online at www.routledge.com/9780367549602.

"Effective Teaching of Technical Communication broadens our understanding of current effective teaching and pedagogical methods by facilitating a discussion of important and innovative theories, concepts, and practices related to the teaching of technical communication"--

In today's fast-paced work environment, where e-mail, fax machines, and FedEx have transformed the waypeople communicate, the ability to write succinctly and effectively onthe job can mean the difference between gaining or losing business. Based on the belief that real world simulations of workplace writingsituations provide the best opportunities for improvement, this bookinvites readers to consider actual relationships, situations, and theintangible elements that affect workplace writing. The tips and techniques offered in this book help readers developcritical thinking abilities in conjunction with occasions to practicerealistic workplace writing. Individual scenarios of various lengthsand levels of complexity provide abundant opportunities for readersto practice technical writing forms and learn about importantprinciples. Technical writers, business people, writersand workers training for such positions.

A radical shift in perspective to transform your organization to become more innovative The Design Thinking Playbook is an actionable guide to the future of business. By stepping back and questioning the current mindset, the faults of the status quo stand out in stark relief—and this guide gives you the tools and frameworks you need to kick off a digital transformation. Design Thinking is about approaching things differently with a strong user orientation and fast iterations with multidisciplinary teams to solve wicked problems. It is equally applicable to (re-)design products, services, processes, business models, and ecosystems. It inspires radical innovation as a matter of course, and ignites capabilities beyond mere potential. Unmatched as a source of competitive advantage, Design Thinking is the driving force behind those who will lead industries through transformations and evolutions. This book describes how Design Thinking is applied across a variety of industries, enriched with other proven approaches as well as the necessary tools, and the knowledge to use them effectively. Packed with solutions for common challenges including digital transformation, this practical, highly visual discussion shows you how Design Thinking fits into agile methods within management, innovation, and startups. Explore the digitized future using new design criteria to create real value for the user Foster radical innovation through an inspiring framework for action Gather the right people to build highly-motivated teams Apply Design Thinking, Systems Thinking, Big Data Analytics, and Lean Start-up using new tools and a fresh new perspective Create Minimum Viable Ecosystems (MVEs) for digital processes and services which becomes for example essential in building Blockchain applications Practical frameworks, real-world solutions, and radical innovation wrapped in a whole new outlook give you the power to mindfully lead to new heights. From systems and operations to people, projects, culture, digitalization, and beyond, this invaluable mind shift paves the way for organizations—and individuals—to do great things. When you're ready to give your organization a big step forward, The Design Thinking Playbook is your practical guide to a more innovative future.

Assembling Critical Components presents TPC as a collective identity and provides a framework for situating critical components of the field.

How do you start a design project? How can you generate ideas and concepts in response to a design brief? How do other designers do it? This book will answer all these questions and more. Now in its second edition, the highly popular Design Thinking for Visual Communication identifies methods and thought processes used by designers in order to start the process that eventually leads to a finished piece of work. Step-by-step guidance for each part of the process is highlighted by real-life case studies, enabling the student to see teaching in practice. This focus on ideas and methods eschews an abstract, academic approach in favour of a useable approach to design as a problem-solving activity. The new edition now includes contributions from a broader international range of design practices and adds depth to existing case studies by looking in greater detail at some of the processes used.

Equipping Technical Communicators for Social Justice Work provides action-focused resources and tools—heuristics, methodologies, and theories—for scholars to enact social justice. These resources support the work of scholars and practitioners in conducting research and teaching classes in socially just ways. Each chapter identifies a tool, highlights its relevance to technical communication, and explains how and why it can prepare technical communication scholars for socially just work. For the field of technical and professional communication to maintain its commitment to this work, how social justice intersects with inclusivity through UX, technological, civic, and legal literacies, as well as through community engagement, must be acknowledged. Equipping Technical Communicators for Social Justice Work will be of significance to established scholar-teachers and graduate students, as well as to newcomers to the field. Contributors: Kehinde Alonge, Alison Cardinal, Erin Brock Carlson, Oriana Gilson, Laura Gonzales, Keith Grant-Davie, Angela Haas, Mark Hannah, Kimberly Harper, Sarah Beth Hopton, Natasha Jones, Isidore Kafui Dorpenyo, Liz Lane, Emily Legg, Nicole Lowman, Kristen Moore, Emma Rose, Fernando Sanchez, Jennifer Sano-Franchini, Adam Strantz, Cana Uluak Itchuaqiyaq, Josephine Walwema, Miriam Williams, Han Yu

'It both provides tools and techniques for design thinking and illustrates the principles of usability advocated within through its own layout and organization, and so serves as its own best recommendation.'Technical CommunicationDesign thinking is more than just a new, one-off method of innovation. Its focus is on establishing an innovation-friendly climate in companies and organizations for the long-term. To achieve this, an interdisciplinary team of authors has composed this 'recipe book' that can be practically applied to your everyday business life. This book is for all who intend to understand and practice the design thinking method in the most rapid and uncomplicated way.The first part describes in depth what this method is all about. The second part of this comprehensive book offers you a step-by-step guide to practically apply design thinking. The subsequent sample cases show how to put theory into practice.The authors have gained their expertise in design thinking from both academic and scientific theory, and from countless long-term implementations at companies in various industries.So, benefit from this rich knowledge and start becoming innovative today. This book will show you how it's done.

“Everybody loves an innovation, an idea that sells.“ But how do we arrive at such ideas that sell? And is it possible to learn how to become an innovator? Over the years Design Thinking – a program originally developed in the engineering department of Stanford University and offered by the two D-schools at the Hasso Plattner Institutes in Stanford and in Potsdam – has proved to be really successful in educating innovators. It blends an end-user focus with multidisciplinary collaboration and iterative improvement to produce innovative products, systems, and services. Design Thinking creates a vibrant interactive environment that promotes learning through rapid conceptual prototyping. In 2008, the HPI-Stanford Design Thinking Research Program was initiated, a venture that encourages multidisciplinary teams to investigate various phenomena of innovation in its technical, business, and human aspects. The researchers are guided by two general questions: 1. What are people really thinking and doing when they are engaged in creative design innovation? How can new frameworks, tools, systems, and methods augment, capture, and reuse successful practices? 2. What is the impact on technology, business, and human performance when design thinking is practiced? How do the tools, systems, and methods really work to get the innovation you want when you want it? How do they fail? In this book, the researchers take a system’s view that begins with a demand for deep, evidence-based understanding of design thinking phenomena. They continue with an exploration of tools which can help improve the adaptive expertise needed for design thinking. The final part of the book concerns design thinking in information technology and its relevance for business process modeling and agile software development, i.e. real world creation and deployment of products, services, and enterprise systems.