Design Thinking: User-Centered Multidisciplinary Methodology Based on People and Innovation

The Design for today’s complex world requires a cross-disciplinary and multidisciplinary approach involving several domains of science and learning. Sharing knowledge has aroused a great deal of interest in Design Thinking that has been applied in many organizations and institutions in attempt to acquire creative thinking and a wide-ranged vision broader problem-solving for user-centered innovation. Adopted by individuals, public and private companies, geared towards entrepreneurial initiative, management, use of technology, systems and engineering in the corporate world, its influence has also extended to curricula of university programs. A brief analysis of DT’s indexes showed an increase of 50 to 100% in the search for the term Design Thinking, and indicates that the interest in this methodological tool has intensified in recent years, reaching a considerable growth with expressive levels. This article identifies the bias of the usage application and verifies if DT is a trend, or an asset in addition to a methodology and seeks to determine its real applicability by designers and other areas and segments where strategic human factors are essential.