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There's currently a site on Area 51 devoted to Design Thinking. (Disclosure: I initiated this site.) It's not growing, but there is some interest in Design Thinking—and a lot of related and potential questions.

Note: By "merge", I mean conceptually, not actually moving data from Area 51 on to UX.SE.

It's possible to make the argument that all Design Thinking topics relate to UX, so they might not merit their own separate SE site. Would UX.SE be an appropriate place to ask questions about Design Thinking? Even questions that don't apply Design Thinking to software or web design? For example, questions about how to teach Design Thinking in a corporate setting, or how to implement Design Thinking in an elementary school classroom—would they be within the scope of UX.SE? (Please forgive—and correct—me if my assumption that UX necessary involves computer interaction is incorrect.)

My goal overall is to find the best home for Design Thinking questions. My goal with this question is to listen to this community's input on whether UX.SE would be a good place for the full breadth of Design Thinking questions. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

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    I guess design thinking is conceptually broader than UX/not a subset of UX, but I can't really think of much to do with design thinking that would be explicitly off topic. Either way it'd probably be best to see what example questions float in to compare potential scope/expertise overlap
    – Ben Brocka
    Feb 5, 2015 at 19:58
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    UX.se is really best described as a place for applied design thinking questions. There's always a context: creating software, exploring industrial design, etc. I imagine a lot of design thinking would be hard to make concrete, and as such would be off topic. So I agree with Ben: let's see some examples. Why don't you point your group to this SE site and see what they come and ask about?
    – Rahul
    Feb 5, 2015 at 23:51
  • There is a growing trend of ux moving towards improving business strategy and business processes so the scope of what UX could tackle in the future is quite flexible
    – Okavango
    Feb 14, 2015 at 11:02
  • @Okavango That actually doesn't surprise me, and it's a good reason to consider locating DT discussions on UX.SE. The pattern normally followed by new ideas tends to be divergence-convergence. In this case, the new idea is essentially anthropocentricity. It has spawned many divergent theories and methodologies. In 10-20 years, we'll have consolidated the strongest ones into 1-3 ideas. Maybe we'll just call it "design".
    – Crowder
    Feb 14, 2015 at 13:21

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For what it's worth, I studied Design Thinking as part of my degree and I can't think of a situation during that time when I felt like asking a question about Design Thinking (the methodology itself) on UX.SE was appropriate.

Design Thinking is a much broader area and although someone practicing Design Thinking may be working on a UX problem for which they might ask a question on UX.SE, I don't think questions about Design Thinking itself are particularly suitable here any more than they are on any other Stack Exchange site that involves using design to solve problems.

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  • That's helpful, Matt. I think you're getting at the heart of my question: "Isn't DT broader than UX"? You might consider offering up some example questions to help guide the DT.SE site over on Area51.
    – Crowder
    Feb 13, 2015 at 15:03
  • I might do that, Nathan.
    – Matt Obee
    Feb 13, 2015 at 15:05

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