Deep Design Thinking

Mike Baxter · Seaton Baxter

Jul 2024 · Goal Atlas

About this ebook

This book is a manifesto urging deeper thought about what we design as well as how and why we design. As design thinking deepens, its reach widens, making this a book not just for designers but also for policymakers, government ministers, company CEOs and other makers-of-big-decisions.

The world we live in presents a myriad of complex, critical challenges which design thinking has the potential to resolve. The hope in writing this book is that when future generations look back and reflect on how we succeeded in steering away from our climate-warming, species-killing, polluting habits of the past towards a more productive, life-fulfilling and equitable future, they might see the hand of deep design thinking on the tiller.

Seaton and Mike Baxter are father and son who have both been Professors of Design and have contributed, over several decades between them, to the fields of ecological design, product design and strategy design. This book is the result of many years of discussions between them on the nature of design and the ideas and practicalities that lead to deep design thinking.

About the author

Mike Baxter has been awarded a PhD in Science, a personal Professorship and Chartered Designer status. He has been a government advisor, product designer, higher education leader, web entrepreneur, research scientist, author, keynote speaker, business thought-leader and company director.

An independent business consultant since 2001, Mike has worked for some of the world’s biggest brands (e.g. Cisco, Google, HSBC, Lilly, Skype, Sony PlayStation) and has been an advisor to some of London’s fastest growing tech start-ups and to leading UK universities.

Mike has published three books on strategy (‘The Strategy Manual‘, ‘Core Values’ and ‘University Strategy 2020‘) and writes a regular monthly strategy newsletter (‘Strategy Distilled’).

Seaton Baxter launched the first Masters course in Ecological Design in the UK (Robert Gordon University 1993). He led the Natural Design Group at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design (Dundee University) and the Masters in Ecological Design Thinking at Schumacher College in Devon. He has supervised over 25 PhDs in a variety of design-related subjects. He was professor at Robert Gordon University from 1987 to 1998, at Dundee University from 1999 to 2019 and is now Professor Emeritus at both universities.