Design synthesis
The process of organizing, grouping, and interpreting what has been researched until patterns, insights, and design opportunities emerge.
What problem it addresses
Explains how you go from a pile of data to a clear direction for design.
An example
After ten interviews, the team has hundreds of notes.
Synthesis does not summarize: it interprets and proposes what the findings mean.
Why it happens
Get all the information out while it is fresh.
Group and regroup it, looking for patterns and differences.
Interpret it until insights and opportunities are formulated.
Applications in design
Use it like this
Take the information out of notebooks and screens onto a wall or a board, where the whole team can see it.
Avoid
Jumping from data to solutions without going through interpretation.
Don’t fall for it
Do it as a team and explain your groupings to others: they will see connections you do not.
Abduction
What the research says
Kolko describes synthesis as abductive reasoning: proposing the most plausible explanation for what was observed, rather than just deducing or generalizing from the data (Kolko, 2010).
Debated evidence. It is a theoretical framework about how designers work, not an experimental result.
Connections
Used in
Related to
Authors and works
- 1995
Karl Weick
Studied sensemaking: how people and organizations make sense of what happens to them.
- 2010
Jon Kolko
Described synthesis as the engine of design, based on sensemaking and abduction.
Sources
Original sources
- Weick, K. E. (1995). Sensemaking in organizations. Sage.
- Kolko, J. (2010). Abductive thinking and sensemaking: The drivers of design synthesis. Design Issues, 26(1), 15–28. View source: Kolko, J. (2010)
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