Problem framing asks students to take a step back from what and how they are designing and ask the question of why they are designing. Students learn a rigorous process for understanding stakeholder needs and for translating those needs into implications for product design. They will begin to develop greater awareness of the personal, social, competitive and technological contexts that their products fit into, and to learn how to design for those contexts.
“If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it. ”