Connecting urban agriculture with design thinking: a case study from Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT Focusing on an instrumental case study of urban agriculture on a wetland in Zimbabwe, this study explores how focus group discussion can be augmented with design thinking method to enhance public engagement. Design thinking, by virtue of being oriented toward solving complex problems was implemented prior to focus group discussion as a means of generating potential solutions aimed at connecting farmers to the wetland. It emerged from the study that if properly planned and executed, design thinking can be instrumental in enhancing the effectiveness of focus group discussions. On account of being human centric and solution oriented, design thinking can be applied not as a substitute, but a complement to focus group discussions to ensure that the deliberations are specific and not generic. However, there is need for careful planning on where, when, why and how design thinking can be effectively used in augmenting focus group discussions to guard against the use of the method as a mere formality.