Library of

Ambiguity

LIBRARY OF AMBIGUITY

We believe that navigating ambiguity is an essential ability in creative work. Our students face a world that is complex and in flux. Equipping students to navigate ambiguity is the most essential thing we do.

Navigating Ambiguity

Design is all about Navigating Ambiguity. When we give our students complex, open-ended, real-world challenges, they must both uncover and identify meaningful “problems” to solve, as well as figure out how to solve them in innovative ways.

The core ability that allows students to do this is Navigating Ambiguity (read about the other design abilities). This ability of thriving in a messy world of parallel possibilities equips learners to both discern and creatively solve complex human challenges. Ultimately, students learn to lean into ambiguity (rather than fear it), because they come to see it as an opportunity.

Navigate Ambiguity

Browse Resources

Ambiguous terrain takes exploration to understand. Explore by playing with the filters below to find resources that will help guide you (and those you teach or lead) on your journey navigating ambiguity. You’ll discover resources that come from both outside and inside the d.school, and have been designed and/or submitted by different folks within our teaching community, students, and broader network. We've designed each resource page so that you can read about what we’ve tried, riff on the content to make it your own, and then share it with others.

Introduction to Design Abilities Suite

Explore 8 different core design abilities over the course of a 2.5 hour workshop and follow-up activities.

Tried and Tested

Activity, Worksheet

Tried and Tested

Get Equipped

DPA: Design Project Abilities

This is a quarter-long project to help students reflect and storytell about how they uniquely practiced design abilities.

Active Experiments

Active Experiments

Get Equipped

Ambiguity Metaphor Exploration Worksheet

Reflect on past experiences to generate a metaphor that sums up your feelings towards ambiguity and tools you use to navigate it.

Tried and Tested

Activity, Worksheet

Tried and Tested

Make it Personal

Learning Zone Reflection Tool

Have learners map their experiences in the different zones to get feedback on how well you are supporting them in navigating ambiguity.

Active Experiments

Active Experiments

Make it Personal

Dear Ambiguity,

Use this as a way to personalize and unpack what ambiguity means at an individual student level.

Tried and Tested

Tried and Tested

Make it Personal

Ambiguity Journey Maps

Use this tool to process how you and your team dove into ambiguity at various levels over the course of a project.

Tried and Tested

Worksheet, Activity

Tried and Tested

Make it Personal

What's This? (Ambiguous Object Exercise)

Have students bring in an ambiguous object and open the class with an imaginative guessing game.

Tried and Tested

Tried and Tested

Experience it

Abilities-Focused Design Syllabus

Take a peek at one example of a design course syllabus that doesn't celebrate any one version process.

Active Experiments

Active Experiments

Experience it

Design Project Scoping Guide

Use this guide to help you shape the framing of a Design Project.

Tried and Tested

Tried and Tested

Experience it

Intangible Stokes

Experiment with these stoke cards to launch quick, collaborative activities to practice ambiguity.

Active Experiments

Active Experiments

Experience it

Improv Wisdom

Read about the key principles of theatrical improvisation and experiment with them in your life.

Tried and Tested

Tried and Tested

Get Equipped

Theatre of the Oppressed

Use the embodied prototyping exercises in this book to experience alternative points of view and explore different possible solutions to a conflict as a group.

Tried and Tested

Book, Activity, Game

Tried and Tested

Make it Personal

Experience it

Evaluation Axes

Prior to making major project decisions, have students go through this activity.

Active Experiments

Active Experiments

Get Equipped

Drawful

Play this game with up to 8 people as a way to get comfortable with ambiguity (and laugh a lot along the way).

Tried and Tested

Tried and Tested

Experience it

Design Project: The Quest for Questions

Ask students to stay in the problem space for the duration of a project.

Active Experiments

Active Experiments

Make it Personal

Team Dashboards

Have teams co-create a team dashboard artifact on a weekly basis to align as a team.

Tried and Tested

Worksheet, Activity

Tried and Tested

Get Equipped

Design Tapas

Use this popcorn-style activity to get students excited about learning design and to preview some of methods and mindsets they'll be learning.

Active Experiments

Active Experiments

Experience it

Polynesian Voyaging Society

Be inspired by a Hawaiian organization which humbly and beautifully models wayfinding both in the Pacific ocean and in our global society.

Tried and Tested

Website, Organization

Tried and Tested

Explore Examples

Focus your Prototype and Test

At the end of a brainstorm, select the idea that you believe most accomplishes what your user needs, and then move forward that one sticky note/concept into this flow of handouts.

Tried and Tested

Tried and Tested

Get Equipped

Ambiguity 101

Use this general slide deck as a visual reference library or to pair with different d.school ambiguity activities.

Tried and Tested

Tried and Tested

Why Ambiguity?

Mid-Century Sense

This quick and fun activity will push you to shift an ambiguous idea into a concrete advertisement.

Tried and Tested

Tried and Tested

Get Equipped

Amélie

Show clips of this film that show Amélie's curiosity and joy during ambiguous moments (like the scenes with the mustached mystery man).

Active Experiments

Active Experiments

Why Ambiguity?

Explore Examples

Make it Personal

The 8 Design Abilities of Creative Problem Solvers

Listen to a short podcast of an interview with d.school founder David Kelley on the importance of design abilities.

Active Experiments

Active Experiments

Why Ambiguity?

All My Sons

Have students read the play, and then relate it to work they have done and will do.

Creative Fodder

Creative Fodder

Explore Examples

Social Dance: Welcome Chance Intrusions!

Read a few short articles and reflections on the power of social dance beyond the dance studio from one of Stanford's most famed teachers.

Creative Fodder

Article or Essay, Website

Creative Fodder

Explore Examples

Double Meanings can be Cowardly

This OpEd explores how ambiguity can serve those in power and thwart those who are not.

Creative Fodder

Creative Fodder

Explore Examples

Design Criteria Canvas

The design criteria canvas helps teams identify what must, should, could, and won't be considered in potential solutions.

Tried and Tested

Worksheet, Activity

Tried and Tested

Get Equipped

"We're Going On An Abilities Hunt" Cards

Use this scavenger hunt to get students using the 8 design abilities, especially navigating ambiguity, on their way to answering a design question.

Active Experiments

Active Experiments

Explore Examples

Make it Personal

Experience it

The Practice of Law and the Intolerance of Certainty

This academic paper challenges myths and narratives around certainty in the legal profession, and inspires us with the vital, creative, and human role that uncertainty plays.

Creative Fodder

Creative Fodder

Explore Examples

Scientific Progess Is Built On Failure

Read this short article to be inspired by how academic researchers learn to take ambiguity in stride.

Creative Fodder

Article or Essay

Creative Fodder

Explore Examples

A Field Guide to Getting Lost

This book is a compelling read to foster personal reflection on how we navigate an uncertain world and build our identity.

Creative Fodder

Creative Fodder

Make it Personal

Endurance

This book and film tells the story of Shackleton's exploration of Antartica, and the ambiguity that ensued due to one mishap after another.

Tried and Tested

Tried and Tested

Explore Examples

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