Beyond the Double Diamond: thinking about a better design process model

Source: https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/news-opinion/design-process-what-double-diamond

Double Diamond is the name of a design process model developed by the British Design Council in 2005. Divided into four phases — Discover, Define, Develop and Deliver — it is probably the best known and the most popular design process visualization.

The main feature of the Double Diamond is its emphasis on the “divergent” and “convergent thinking”, where first many ideas are created, before refining and narrowing down to the best idea. This is happening twice in this model—once to confirm the problem definition and once to create the solution.

While this is all fine, I have always had some problems with the Double Diamond. Namely:

• It’s completely separating the analysis/discovery and the definition of the problem from the ideation and the delivery of the solution(s). It’s very linear and this is not how great designers really work. Designers are starting with some solution in mind, and there is nothing wrong with that, if they are not too attached to their first ideas. Most design problems are “wicked problems” — such problems are not understood properly until after the formulation of a solution. The vision of the solution stimulates the research and framing of the problem, which is informing and shaping the vision of the solution, and so on.