Design thinking vs. systems thinking for engineering design: What's the difference?

Design thinking (DT) and engineering systems thinking (EST) are two complementary approaches to understanding cognition, organization, and other non-technical factors that influence the design and performance of engineering systems. Until relatively recently, these two concepts have been explored in isolation from one another; design thinking methods have been applied to industrial design and product development, while engineering systems thinking is used in professional systems engineering practice and large-scale, complex systems design. This work seeks to explore the relationship between these two concepts, comparing their historical development, values, applications, and methods. The primary contribution of the work is a set of four concept models that depict plausible relationships between design thinking and systems thinking for engineering design.

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