Topic 1 What is design thinking and why do we need it?
- Design thinking is a process for solving problems by prioritizing the consumer’s needs above all else. It relies on observing, with empathy, how people interact with their environments and employs and iterative, hands-on approach to creating innovative solutions (Pamfilie & Croitoru, 2018)
- Design thinking process is not a problem-focused thinking.
- It is a type of thinking focused on the found solutions, calling on imagination, logic, intuition and systemic reasoning to explore the different possibilities and produce results which will then benefit the consumer to the fullest ( Pamfilie & Croitoru, 2018)
Why is Design Thinking Important?
Design thinking comes together with user experience. It has been proved integral to business success many times over.
This concept of “design-centered”thinking involves conceiving solutions and represents a creative process based on building ideas, creating new and innovative ideas which can be applied to any aspect of life (Pamfilie & Croitoru, 2018)
It is a process that is therefore not limited to a certain industry or domain.
Benefits of design thinking
Team members will be encouraged to challenge old ways of thinking. They will also engage in empathetic thinking, which will lead to better understanding of the consumers and their needs. The effect of that is that the staff becomes more productive as thy have freedom to try out various approaches to product and/or service development.
By putting your consumer (or customer) in the middle of your design process, your products or services will lead to better customer experience.The phase of the design thinking process calleed prototyping, allows you to do feedback analysis that will allow you to understand your consumer’s needs and go back to systematically address each need and desire.
After you adopt this methodology and it is reflected in the creation and delivery of your product, your company will become known for listening to its audience. That will lead to your customers feeling heard and they will ultimately become loyal to your company and over time will respond with positive emotions to your logo or your marketing content.
- Enhances productivity Team members will be encouraged to challenge old ways of thinking. They will also engage in empathetic thinking, which will lead to better understanding of the consumers and their needs. The effect of that is that the staff becomes more productive as thy have freedom to try out various approaches to product and/or service development.
- Cultivates Better Customer Experiences By putting your consumer (or customer) in the middle of your design process, your products or services will lead to better customer experience.The phase of the design thinking process calleed prototyping, allows you to do feedback analysis that will allow you to understand your consumer’s needs and go back to systematically address each need and desire.
- Improves Public Perception After you adopt this methodology and it is reflected in the creation and delivery of your product, your company will become known for listening to its audience. That will lead to your customers feeling heard and they will ultimately become loyal to your company and over time will respond with positive emotions to your logo or your marketing content.
There are different various frameworks of design thinking suggested for different industries. Most frameworks include a number of five to seven steps that describe the process.
Design thinking is not always a linear process. Some of the steps described in the schema below may happen several times, and one might even jump back and forth between them.
Moving through the phases of design thinking can help someone start from scratch and move to a new, innovative solution.
The framework presented below includes the five steps in included in the Stanford guide. The step of implementation is seen in other frameworks and has been included here because implementation is crucial.
Source: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/5-stages-in-the-design-thinking-process
Empathize: The goal in this first step is to understand your customer, by doing research and gathering information. For this purpose, you can conduct interviews, organize focus groups, do observations and run surveys. Unless you get into the desires and needs of people you are designing for, what you’re doing cannot be considered Design Thinking.
Define: As a design thinker to define the challenge you are taking on, based on what you have learned about your user and about the context. After becoming an instant-expert on the subject and gaining invaluable empathy for the person you are designing for, this stage is about making sense of the widespread information you have gathered. The questions you should keep in your mind are, What is the problem I am looking at? Why? This is the question that will help framing the problem. Then you should move to How? That will make your problem statement more specific.
Ideate: You ideate in order to transition from identifying problems to creating solutions for your users. Ideation is your chance to combine the understanding you have of the problem space and people you are designing for with your imagination to generate solution concepts. Ideation is what provides both the fuel and also the source material for building prototypes and getting innovative solutions into the hands of your users.
Prototype: This mode is where you create anything the user can interact with. It can be a wall of post-it notes, a gadget you put together, a role-playing activity or a storyboard. To create a prototype, start building something with post-its and/or tape. Identify what is tested. It’s a good idea to come up with a question that can be answered when testing the prototype. Think about what you hope to test, what kind of behavior or response you expect.
Test: This is the mode closer to the protorype and that is why posing the right questions at prototype mode is important. This is when you solicit feedback, about the prototypes you have created, from your users and have another opportunity to gain empathy for the people you are designing for. Testing is another opportunity to understand your user but putting the prototype on their hands, observe and note their interaction with it, how they handle it. It is highly recommend it to test a prototype in a way that feels like an experience for the user.
Implement: This is a step not always included in graphs that include the design thinking process. This is the step where you put your vision into effect and you make sure that your solution is materialized and is practically used by your end users.
Design Thinking Framework
There are different various frameworks of design thinking suggested for different industries. Most frameworks include a number of five to seven steps that describe the process.
Design thinking is not always a linear process. Some of the steps described in the schema below may happen several times, and one might even jump back and forth between them.
Moving through the phases of design thinking can help someone start from scratch and move to a new, innovative solution.
The framework presented below includes the five steps in included in the Stanford guide. The step of implementation is seen in other frameworks and has been included here because implementation is crucial.
Design Thinking Process-Steps
The goal in this first step is to understand your customer, by doing research and gathering information. For this purpose, you can conduct interviews, organize focus groups, do observations and run surveys. Unless you get into the desires and needs of people you are designing for, what you’re doing cannot be considered Design Thinking.
As a design thinker to define the challenge you are taking on, based on what you have learned about your user and about the context. After becoming an instant-expert on the subject and gaining invaluable empathy for the person you are designing for, this stage is about making sense of the widespread information you have gathered. The questions you should keep in your mind are, What is the problem I am looking at? Why? This is the question that will help framing the problem. Then you should move to How? That will make your problem statement more specific.
You ideate in order to transition from identifying problems to creating solutions for your users. Ideation is your chance to combine the understanding you have of the problem space and people you are designing for with your imagination to generate solution concepts. Ideation is what provides both the fuel and also the source material for building prototypes and getting innovative solutions into the hands of your users.
This mode is where you create anything the user can interact with. It can be a wall of post-it notes, a gadget you put together, a role-playing activity or a storyboard. To create a prototype, start building something with post-its and/or tape. Identify what is tested. It’s a good idea to come up with a question that can be answered when testing the prototype. Think about what you hope to test, what kind of behavior or response you expect.
This is the mode closer to the protorype and that is why posing the right questions at prototype mode is important. This is when you solicit feedback, about the prototypes you have created, from your users and have another opportunity to gain empathy for the people you are designing for. Testing is another opportunity to understand your user but putting the prototype on their hands, observe and note their interaction with it, how they handle it. It is highly recommend it to test a prototype in a way that feels like an experience for the user.
This is a step not always included in graphs that include the design thinking process. This is the step where you put your vision into effect and you make sure that your solution is materialized and is practically used by your end users.