DESIGN-THINKING

1.5 credits core course

Spring 2020

Created and compiled by: Shivani Mehta

Course lecturer: Shivani Mehta

smehta@jgu.edu.in

INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE

Design Thinking is both an ideology and a process, concerned with solving complex problems in a
highly user-centric way. Through a mix of academic and practical work in this course, the students
will develop an understanding of design, acquire new design skills, and build a portfolio of design
projects as a strong foundation for future study or work experience. This experiential course
primarily looks at common principles of design and thinking that lead to creative ideas and solutions
in all design disciplines. Within a specially created academic bootcamps, plenary lecturers and
systematically designed process-oriented lectures within the course, students will benefit from
experiential and hand-on learning while doing, at the same time of which benefit from a co-working
environment during the bootcamps, experiencing a completely different way of learning.

COURSE OBJECTIVES
Specifically, the course aims to:

• Demonstrate what design thinking is both theoretically as well as its practical application while
solving problems at contemporary organizations today in the 21st century.

• Demonstrate the different models, theories and methods of the human-centered design.

• Demonstrate how design thinking is improving innovation in organizations. Some further aspects
of this would be sources of innovation, process of innovation, commercialization and diffusion
of innovation, intellectual property rights.

• Discuss and analyze the case studies of how global organizations are implementing design
thinking.

• Help students experience the process of design thinking, and the step-by-step experiential
learning of this process through innovative design-based projects in the bootcamp.
LEARNING GOALS

If you pursue this course, you will gain knowledge about:

• the characteristics of design thinking and how it is different from other types of thinking.
• the value of design thinking and how it can be applied in a wide range of contexts from the
personal to the global.
• how to investigate and think creatively about design problems and opportunities; integrate
different styles of thinking in a design process; and explore, evaluate and critique the design
thinking of others.
• how an attitude of creative problem solving can aid design thinking and assist in addressing
complex real-world problems and challenges.
• The process of design thinking and how to apply and experience this process via a self-created
innovative design thinking research project.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Critical and integrative thinking.

• Awareness of global issues affecting product and service design decisions.
• Effective presentation skills.
• Data gathering and information synthesis.
• Problem solving techniques.
• Innovative and creative problem solving.
• Research skills: use of library electronic resources (books, journals articles, ‘grey; literature,
white papers etc.) search for sources and integration of materials.

TEACHING METHOD

The course will have a judicious mix of lectures, class activities and discussions with external
speakers. You will experience a variety of teaching methods including:
• interactive lectures
• case studies
• seminar presentations
• bootcamp

ATTENDANCE POLICY: As per JGU attendance norms.

GRADING

Evaluation Weightage Nature Explanation/Assessment

Item (%)

Continuous Assessment Framework

Design thinking 50 Individual report Each student needs to submit a 1500
bootcamp project- on MS word (Total words user experience report the main
creating a JGU app! marks: 50). components of which are stakeholder
(total 70 marks) mapping, customer journey mapping,
infographic, user profile, as well as
user research plan. More details in the
deliverables below.

Submission date: 12th June 2020

Release date: Session 02; 1st teaching
week.

20 Individual Pitch Each student will present the summary

(Total marks: 20) of their design thinking project to the
class during one the sessions and is also
required to submit the video pitch to the
lecturer’s email ID. The verbal
presentation/pitch will last for only three
minutes per student and need to
comprise of details of their JGU app
innovation project. More details in the
deliverables section below.

Three-minute video pitches’

submission date: 15th May 2020.
Release date: Session 02; 1st teaching
week.

Design thinking case 30 Individual Each student needs to submit a deck of

study (total 30 submission of an slides (10 slides) on a design thinking
marks) Organizational case study. Every student needs to
case study: choose an organization (any industry,
PowerPoint slides geography) and analyze its design
(Total marks: 30) thinking processes. These presentations
only need to be submitted and not
presented during the class. Further
details will be confirmed during and
class and is given in the deliverables
section below.

Submission date: 29th May 2020

Release date: Session 01; 1st teaching
week.
Note: All the course-works would be discussed in the first two sessions and released thereafter
for the students to begin their work. Students will be helped on any queries they may have in
the subsequent sessions and during the other interactions outside the sessions (for e.g. emails).

DELIVERABLES
(A) Design thinking user experience report- JGU app

Each student will be required to submit a user experience report. Each student needs to work
towards innovating/creating a mobile based application feature for their university (let’s call it
JGU app for now). If there is no existing mobile based application for student/faculty use at the
university, there is all the more an opportunity for you to think about how a mobile based application
can come into place that may intend towards improving the user experience of either the student
body, or the faculty body or the overall administration. At this point, lets work towards creating
features for a possible university based mobile app (JGU app as we call it).

At this point, you are NOT expected to suggest a complete technological innovation but just
experience the process of design thinking by intending to create ONE or TWO aspects of this
university based mobile application.

For example, you may think about creating an app feature where students and faculty can interact
during office hours and get across any messages on a live forum (shared by the class participants and
the faculty involved). This can help them in getting across messages quickly regarding class
cancellations, change of course structure, reading lists etc. as well as give the students an opportunity
to discuss their class based issues with their classmates as well as formulate a community based
experience so that the students can feel more supported more from the point of view of his/her well-
being experience as well as a better academic experience.

Therefore, you must choose ONE or TWO features each for the purpose of mobile app-based feature
of the JGU app. If you chose more than one features, each of those features should be tied into a
common theme (for e.g. sports and recreation, academics, student admissions, health and well-being,
faculty recruitments). Some ideas to get you thinking are follows. Please work on a new idea and be
as innovative as possible (also realistic).

(a) social app feature to make friends for freshers where students can share their common interests
and organize small scale meetups in the university for an inclusive campus experience especially
for freshers.
(b) One stop solution for attendance monitoring and records. Students can check if their attendance
has been correctly recorded, can upload medical reports if they were missing due to health-based
reasons that can be further confirmed by the university health center all on the same platform.
(c) Health and well-being-based app feature where students can seek 24/7 anonymous mental
health support as well as student initiatives to promote positive mental health in the campus (for
e.g. no bullying, ragging etc.) and create an inclusive environment for all students from all walks
of life.
Key elements of the report

• An introduction that provides a synopsis of the brief, the area of engagement that you are looking
at, a brief intro to/synopsis of the JGU App platform. Also, clearly outline the objectives of the report.
• What is the gap/need that you are tapping into? What aspects of improvement in the university
setting are you expecting through your app feature? Are their any other related apps that are
targeting the same feature and audience in your university? If yes, how is your app feature better
or more innovative than that?
• A scoping exercise exploring the main stakeholders involved in the issue you are looking at e.g.
particular student groups, faculties, staff, faculty, administration (create a stakeholder map).
• A profile of your main user group, or groups if appropriate. Justify why they are your main users
using credible research. What are the characteristics (age, occupation, gender, academic interests etc.
of your user group)? (Create a user profile illustration)
• An explanation of the customer/user journey as it currently stands (e.g. if you are exploring a
solution to class cancellations, then explain how class cancellations currently work). This should
explore the stages involved, aspects of customer experience, touch points, and back end operational
processes (Tip: Draw a customer journey map, or series of explanatory diagrams)
• As studying user behavior and experience is the main basis of design thinking projects, can you
think about how you can go about studying user experience for your app feature. You are not
expected to do any research yourself but briefly mention a rough plan of potentially conducting
user experience research for your app feature in the future ( for e.g. if interviews, what would be
the format, any sample questions, who would you interview, how and for how long etc.; if
ethnographic research, how would you go about conducting that).
• Distill any points of improvement for your app feature. with a potential set of recommendations
about things to change/improve.

There will be guidance given to students during the class, as well as samples/templates of
Stakeholder maps, customer journey mapping and user profile.

Other details:
Maximum of 1500 words (illustrations, figures and tables are not counted in word count).
No theoretical references compulsory but very welcome and commended if considered important
to support your work (definitions, books, theory, concepts).
Font size 12, font times new roman, 1.5 line spacing.

Submission date and method: The report needs to be emailed to smehta@jgu.edu.in by 12 noon
IST (Indian Standard time) on 12th June 2020. Please write your full name, Email ID and student ID
on the cover page.
GRADING MATRIX FOR THE DESIGN THINKING USER EXPERIENCE INDIVIDUAL PROJECTS

Maximum points/weightage
Element of the assignment
(Maximum total marks 50)
The innovation potential of the app feature
15
(How innovative and relevant is the app feature in the university context)

Level of understanding of design thinking exhibited in the report and the quality of
user-profile, stakeholder map, customer journey illustration 20
(How well designed are your illustrations and how well you understand design
thinking in the given context).
Level of understanding of the importance of user-experience research in the
context of your app feature, and what is the quality of research plan (how clear you
are about how exactly users’ experience can be studied in your case scenario 10
using the methods that you suggested for e.g. interviews, ethnography).

Critical thinking skills of studying your app feature by giving points of

improvement and set of recommendations about things that can improve in the 05
future.
More details on this report will be provided in the first session, and the students will get all the
support, assistance, and resources from the course lecturer.

(B) JGU App Individual pitch (20% weightage)

Each student needs to present verbally a pitch of their JGU app project in three minutes during one
of the in-class sessions of this course. The pitch must be innovative, compelling, engaging, concise
and should briefly summarize information about:

• What app feature have you suggested/are working on?

• What is the gap that you are potentially filling; what is the need for this app feature?
• What area of engagement in the university are you working on (For e.g., student health experience,
academic experience, international research collaborations, sports and recreation or faculty
recruitments etc.)?
• What is the anticipated improvement in the user experience due to your app feature?
• Who will be your exact users, and who all are your stakeholders?
• How do you plan to research on the app’s user experience in the future, and using what
methodologies?
• Any further points of improvement in your app feature that you can currently identify?

Since you need to verbally present only for three minutes, please rehearse in advance so that you are
not taking any more time and also prepare your pitch potentially and hypothetically targeted towards
decision makers in the university in order to convince them of the use of your proposed app feature.

Since these individual pitches are held before the submission of the final design thinking user
report (Component A), therefore the pitch may only cover the ‘in-process’ plans of your JGU
app project and does not necessarily need to have all finalized details.
Please record a video pitch of yourselves of 3 minutes and send that video to smehta@jgu.edu.in
by end of the day 23:59 IST on 15th May 2020. Please mention your full name and student ID in
the email where you will be attaching the video or putting the link of the video.
Preferred formats: Link to uploaded video on any digital platform (for e.g. Vimeo, you-tube), link to
the uploaded video on cloud storage or directly uploaded to the email.
You will also be asked to present that pitch verbally in one of the sessions of this course (which
exact class will you need to present in will be confirmed in advance, in due course). Both the
video pitches as well as in-class pitches (they are expected to be similar; video pitches are needed
only to have a record of students’ pitch presentations) will be judged to provide each student a grade
that will constitute 20% weightage of this course’s final grade.

GRADING MATRIX FOR THE IN-CLASS INDIVIDUAL STUDENT PITCHES- JGU APP!
Respective weightage
Element of the assignment
(Maximum total marks 20)
Engagement skills
(How well you present and engage with the audience during your pitch) 10

The content and structure of the pitch

(How well you are able to cover relevant information in a very limited time frame of three 10
minutes each)
(C) Design thinking case study

Each student will choose one known organization (any industry) that is known for their innovative
practices. The student needs to research on how the chosen organization have implemented design
thinking practices, how has it enhanced the user experience, what were their design thinking
strategies, how they found a gap/a problem/a need to tap on their existing user experience, how they
went about the process and any known changes in the user experience post the innovation.

This assessment is individual and the medium of presenting the research would be a deck of
slides on MS PowerPoint.

Some of the pointers for the power point presentation are as follows.

(i) Which is the organization that you chose?

(ii) What was the need for the organization to pursue design thinking- what was the problem that
it was intending to solve. What was its specific aim and mission behind the innovation?
(iii) What specific customer experience did it intend to enhance/upgrade?
(iv) What/how was its design thinking process (from empathy, problem identification, ideation,
prototype and user testing)?
(v) What methods/techniques did the organization use to study its’ end consumer’s
behavior/expectations/user experience (for e.g. ethnography, user-interviews, observation
etc.).
(vi) Your personal evaluation of their design thinking process? How convinced were you? Any
suggestions, on the possible future implications for the organization (based on their design
thinking practices), that you may have?

It may not be possible to cover all of the above due to the nature of the assessment (10 slides),
therefore dependent upon the organization that you are working on, some elements may be
more relevant and interesting and you are free to format your work accordingly.

Number of slides: You may consider 10 slides (apart from cover page and references slide) as
an ideal length of this assignment.

Please use the notes’ section of the power-point slides to add more details if needed.
No restrictions on the structure/formatting of slides. Any background, theme of the presentation and
font format can be used. Please write your full name, Email ID and student ID on the cover slide.

Only the deck of slides needs to be submitted, and the assessment would be based on quality of
research. Students will not be needing to present their work verbally in the class although we may
take up discussions and questions/answers of these case studies in one of our classes towards the end
of the course.

Please be concise as there is a lot to cover and restricted slides to submit (concise structure of the
presentation will be an important skill to develop and one of the criteria of assessment). Please add
references used in the last slide in Harvard or APA format (minimum references: 07). Submission
date and method: The power-point slides need to be emailed to smehta@jgu.edu.in by 12 noon IST
on 29th May 2020.
GRADING MATRIX FOR THE INDIVIDUAL DESIGN THINKING CASE STUDY
Maximum points/weightage
Element of the assignment
(Maximum total marks 30)
Research Quality
The level of understanding of design thinking practices in the organization, the
20
nature and quality of references used and the quality of synthesis of the
organization chosen to be presented on the slides.
Structure and formatting of the presentation
The presentation’s structure is concise; the level of creativity exhibited in 10
making the presentation slides, formatting of the slides.

CLASS SCHEDULE

Each session will be of 90 minutes.

Suggested textbook:

Liedtka, J. & Ogilvie, T. (2011). Designing for Growth: A Design Thinking Tool Kit for
Managers. New York, NY: Columbia Business School Publishing.

Compulsary reading: Field guide to Human-Centered-Design (open access online)

https://bestgraz.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Field-Guide-to-Human-Centered-
Design_IDEOorg.pdf

Session No-1 & 2 What is design thinking? What are the key components of it? What is its’
applicability in contemporary organizations?
 Objective of the In this session, we will introduce the concept of design thinking. Key
session pointers for this session would be the discussion of the key components
of design thinking, the practical application/relevance of design
thinking in contemporary organizations, setting the course expectations
between the lecturer and the students and discuss the assessment project
and presentation requirements.
Each of the following five components of design thinking will be
individual separate sessions (each session is highlighted by an
exclusive self-created infographic1).

Empathise – learn about the audience you propose to serve

Define – construct a service offering that is based on user

requirements and insights

Ideate – brainstorm and come up with creative solutions

Prototype – build a representation of one or more of your

ideas to show to others

Test – return to your original user group and test your ideas
for feedback

Readings/reference Design thinking- Forbes India.

material to get started. http://www.forbesindia.com/article/darden-school-of-business/seven-
steps-of-design-thinking/54045/1
Brief video explainer by Harvard Business Review:
https://youtu.be/_WI3B54m6SU

https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/5-stages-in-the-
design-thinking-process

Pedagogy Lecture and class discussion

Session No- 3 & 4 Design thinking & Innovation

Objective of the Different models of design thinking. This session will discuss design
session theories and methods including product aesthetics and human-centered
design

How is design thinking improving innovation in organizations? Sources

of innovation, process of innovation, commercialization and diffusion of
innovation, intellectual property rights.

Case studies of how global organizations are implementing design

1These miniature infographic representations will be used throughout the course, from lectures, bootcamps,
presentations, assignments, and is a small attempt to make five steps of design learning distinct and clear from one
another throughout the learning experience.
 thinking.

Readings Article by McKinsey about the business value of design

https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-design/our-
insights/the-business-value-of-design

Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and

Inspires Innovation- Book by Tim Brown

Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All

Book by David M. Kelley and Tom Kelley

Case study Case study on ‘Corning Glass’- will be given to students during the lecture.

Pedagogy Class lecture and discussion

Session No-5 Understand and Empathy- the first step

Here on, we will begin exploring the journey of design thinking step-by
step. Students will get to work on their projects parallelly getting the
opportunity to experience while doing, as well as benefit from theoretical
and classroom discussions. The idea is to have the right blend of
experiential learning with coherent theoretical foundation.
Empathy experiences are important to challenge our assumptions and
think from the perspective of the people we are designing the solution
for. Immersing ourselves in the experiences of the end consumer is
crucial to creative design thinking. In this session, we will discuss what
empathy means in the design thinking context, what is its relevance in
the overall process of innovative design thinking, how immersive
empathy allows our senses to become tools for learning and gathering
insights and how empathy sparks problem solving. This will be
accompanied by industry cases.
You will learn Empathy techniques: Journey mapping and Empathy
maps

Readings https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/stage-1-in-the-design-
thinking-process-empathise-with-your-users

https://www.ft.com/content/cbf70424-422a-11e7-82b6-896b95f30f58 (for
class discussion).

Pedagogy Class lecture and case studies

Session No-6 Defining a problem- the second step

In this session, we will learn about how to define a problem statement

in the process of design thinking, methods to help a design thinker
synthesize and make sense in the research, affinity diagrams, empathy
maps, personas, designing and framing a design challenge, mapping
the stakeholders.

The session will have the following elements that will be discussed
within the realms of the design thinking projects.

• Define the type of person you are designing for – your user. For
example, you could define the user by developing one or more
personas
• Select the most essential needs, which are the most important to
fulfill. Extract and synthesize these from your observations, research,
fieldwork, and interviews.
• Work to express the insights developed through the synthesis of
your gathered information.

Readings https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/define-and-frame-
your-design-challenge-by-creating-your-point-of-view-and-ask-how-
might-we

Pedagogy Lectures and case studies

Session No-7 Ideation- the third step

This session will talk about the following concepts:

What is Ideation, understanding the elements and thinking modes

that create fruitful ideation sessions, essential ideation techniques.

Find Themes, Create Insight Statements, Explore Your Hunch. How

Might We Create Frameworks, Brainstorm, Bundle Ideas, Get Visual
Mashups, Design Principles, create a Concept, Co-Creation Session
Gut Check, Determine What to Prototype, Storyboard, Role Playing.

Readings Kalbach, J. (2016). “Mapping Experiences”. O’Reilly Media.

Pedagogy Lectures and case studies

Session No- 8 Design thinking Bootcamp

Objective of the Skills expected of design thinking practitioners
session
 Customer mapping journey

User-profile templates

Stakeholder mapping templates

Design thinking workbook sheets

Pedagogy Activity based workshop.

Session No- 9 & 10 Data collection methods including user-experience interviews,

observations, ethnography, action research, auto-ethnography &
alternative methods
Objective of the
session This session will particularly explore the research methods for Human
Centered Design including interviews, focus groups, lab experiments,
participant and non-participant observation, and critical making/
‘provotyping.’

These methods are used both in empathy and testing with the user
group phases.
Readings https://medium.com/design-research-methods
Pedagogy Lectures and class discussions.

Session No. 11 Prototyping- the fourth step

Prototyping and its relevance in the concept development phase

Types of prototyping
Prototyping strategy
Rapid prototyping and virtual prototyping
Prototyping examples
Readings IDEO.org “Design Thinking Toolkit” -- Available for free pdf
download from: https://designthinkingforeducators.com/toolkit/

Pedagogy Lecture and class discussion

 Session No. 12 Testing with the user group- the fifth step

In this session we will learn about how to test a prototype, generating

relevant feedback in user testing, unmoderated remote usability testing
and heuristic evaluation and the process from prototype to product.

Some other points of discussion would be the importance of user-

testing, the process and methods of doing it, as well as case studies of
various organizations.
Readings https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/stage-5-in-the-
design-thinking-process-test
Design thinking guide by Stanford
(https://dschool-
old.stanford.edu/sandbox/groups/dresources/wiki/welcome/attachments/8
e447/d.school%27s%20Design%20Thinking%20Process%20Mode%20
Guide.pdf?sessionID=707ec07aef3c9563e6349c6b5f8daa4c161c328a)
Pedagogy Lecture and class discussion

Session No. 13 & 14 Design thinking: Organizational Case Studies

These two sessions we will discuss the presentations where the students
were asked to analyze and describe organizational case studies relating to
design thinking. These two sessions will be interaction based the protocol
of which will be shared with students in advance. The lecturer will present
detailed design thinking case studies so that the theoretical content on
design thinking could be practically understood.

Pedagogy Case studies & Class discussions

Session No. 15 & 16 Design thinking project pitches

In this session, student will share their experiences of designing an app
feature for the JGU app! Project (Component A of the assessment). They
will also present their 3 minutes pitches in class (which by now they
would have already submitted via video submissions). We will wrap up
the course and conclude the key take away.
Note: The 16 sessions above have clearly delineated the specific content that each will be delivering,
however, the order of these sessions may change. However, the content of each session will remain
as described above.

READING MATERIAL FOR THE COURSE

Students are encouraged to be a reflective learner – in other words think about what you have learnt
and its applicability in the real world. Students are advised not to confine their reading to the
academic literature – there is a lot of valuable material on innovation and design thinking in the
newspapers and business magazines, most of also have useful web sites containing entrepreneurial
resources. Students will be guided regarding the most important readings for each session.

IDEO.org. – The filed guide to human Centered Design- Available for free pdf download from
http://www.designkit.org/resources/1
 Constable: “Talking to Humans” Available for free pdf download from:
http://www.talkingtohumans.com/download

Brown, Tim (2009): Change by Design – How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and
Inspires Innovation, Harper Collins, New York/USA.
Curedale, Robert (2013): design thinking – process and methods manual, Design Community College,
Topanga/USA.
Gray, Dave / Brown, Sunni / Macanufo, James (2010): Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators,
Rulebreakers, and Changemakers, O`Reilly Media, Sebastopol/USA.
Kelley, Tom / Kelley, David (2014): Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential within
us all, HarperCollins, London/UK.
Kelley Tom / Littman, Jonathan (2001): The Art of Innovation, Random House, New York/USA.
Kumar, Vijay (2012): 101 Design Methods: A Structured Approach for Driving Innovation in Your
Organization, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken/USA.
Lewrick, Michael / Link, Patrick / Leifer, Larry (2018): The Design Thinking Playbook: Mindful
Digital Transformation of Teams, Products, Services, Businesses and Ecosystems, John Wiley
& Sons, Hoboken/USA.
Liedtka, Jeanne / Oglivie, Tim (2011): Designing for Growth: A Design Thinking Tool Kit for
Managers, Columbia Univers. Press, New York/USA.
Martin, Bella / Hanington, Bruce (2012): Universal Methods of Design: 100 Ways to Research
Complex Problems, Develop Innovative Ideas, and Design Effective Solutions, Rockport
Publishers, Beverly/USA.
Silverstein, David / Samuel, Philip / DeCarlo, Neil (2012): The Innovator's Toolkit: 50+ Techniques
for Predictable and Sustainable Organic Growth, 2nd edition, John Wiley & Sons,
Hoboken/USA.
Stickdorn, Marc / Schneider, Jakob (2013): This Service Design Thinking, BIS Publishers,
Amsterdam/The Netherlands