Cultural Diversity - a strong didactic design tool?

Understanding the design process and the methodological approach is part of the basic training for students at Design School Kolding. We use the 5C Model/The DSKD Method Cards (Friis and Gelting 2011) as a tool to implement this training. The model divides design methods into four different categories:
• How to create knowledge about what is (1) by experience or (2) by thinking
• How to create knowledge about what might be (3) by experience or (4) by thinking.
In September 2015 a group of undergraduates and teachers teamed up with Brazilian students and professors in Sao Paulo to execute a course about the use of design methods in problem solving.
During the design course cultural diversity appeared on two levels:
• In the students’ projects when doing user research, as well as in the collaboration between Danish and Brazilian students.
• On a didactic level when dealing with situations that are unknown.
Based on the above case study this paper discusses the use of cultural diversity in a design process from a design theoretical and a didactic perspective.