Regulation – 2022 Innovation and Design Thinking (BIDTK158)

Module 1:
Design Thinking the concept was developed by DAVID KELLY professor from stanford university who
is also founder of IDEO his work influenced other professors of design school of stanford university like
TERRY VINOGRAD AND LARRY LEIFER.
It is unfortunate that till now there is no agreed definition of design thinking nails man norman group
conducted a study with majority of design professionals of various industries of varying experience to
define design thinking .
But still there is no common agreement on the specifics of design thinking hence design thinking is a
more generic and open-ended framework to solve human problems however design thinking can be
concisely defined as” design thinking is a human-centric solution-based problem-solving and iterative
framework
Human-centric it means design thinking is to understand the user or customer or client ,user is the
person for whom we are designing the product or service and is to be considered in all the stages of
design thinking customer is the god.
Solution Based - design thinking uses problem-solving approaches to solve complex problems of the
organizations as in design thinking is also iterative nature one can obtain more optimal solution for the
problems and can choose the best among them
Problem solving: design thinking is a methodology to deal with the ill-defined complex problem
as design thinking helps in defining the problem and challenging all the constraints and help in
redefining the problem and with the solutions to solve the problem.
Iterative: Iterative in all the stages of design thinking process one can use the results review
question and improve further the outcomes this may take several times to obtain best solution
hence design thinking is a non-linear approach

Design thinking characteristics

the design thinking characteristics are

1.Out of the box approach
it encourages to explore the different alternatives and to obtain innovate solution to the problems
considering user cultural and contextual factors collaborative and multi-disciplinary
2.Collaborative and multi-disciplinary
design thinking need the team work of collaborative and multi-disciplinary persons of having
different skills thinking patterns personalities to use them effectively in all the stages of design
thinking process
3.Yields Innovation : see the figure by combining the three important components that are human

Desirability, technical feasibility and economic viability design thinking yields innovation .

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 Regulation – 2022 Innovation and Design Thinking (BIDTK158)

the benefits of design thinking are

1.Helps on identifying the needs which are not addressed earlier and hence new Opportunities.
2. It reduces the costs and risks in testing the new ideas as it uses concept of fail fast fair cheaply
through prototyping.
3. Bring out innovate solutions rather than adding one more to the existing one four helps the
organization be in competition by learning faster.

Stages of design thinking

There are five stages of design thinking as shown in the figure

fig 1.
They are
1. Emphasize
2. Define
3. Idea
4. Prototype
5. Test
Empathize the first stage of design thinking process is empathize in the main objective of
empathize stage is to understand the users empathetically
Design thinkers need to understand their needs and the things what users really care for this.
Design thinker must remove all his personal assumptions about the problem which he is going to
solve to understand the users empathetically.
He should conduct the interviews to know users interests experiences and for what
they will give value and what motivates them .
Design thinkers should completely understand and feel the environment that enveloping the
problem .
Considering these facts design thinking approach is called as human-centered approach to solve the
problems this stage is very crucial stage and design thinker must collect considerable amount of
data or information and synthesize it which can be used subsequent stages of design thinking
process.
Define
Define is the second stage in design thinking process.
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 Regulation – 2022 Innovation and Design Thinking (BIDTK158)

Define means defining the problem clearly the data or information collected in the first stage should
be sorted and sequenced in a manner that to define the problem that is going to deal more precisely
if the data collected through interviews. it can be analyzed and key phrases related to the problem
are to be highlighted .

Thus in this stage design thinker bring the focus and the clarity of the work to be done as he will
know now what is the real problem it ideal to write this as a problem statement.
It is interesting to note that till now we are defining the problem from the user's perspective
without any conditions or constraints related to the technical feasibility and financial viability of
solutions.
Ideate:
This is the third stage in design thinking process this is really brainstorming stage. design thinkers
now generate as many logical ideas to solve the problems which was defined in the stage 2
generally the ideas generated in this stage are rough ideas and design thinkers should use valid
approaches to solve the problem important thing in this stage is to think outside of the box in order
to ideate several solutions to have some options for prototyping in the later stage
Design thinkers catch the ideas and present to the users in order to refine and filter the ideas which
are really worth investigating further there are several presentation tools available for better
presentation of ideas which will be discussed later.
Video:
In this stage design thinkers should refine and filter the ideas which are technically feasible and
financially viable fail early and fail cheap is an important concept to keep in mind as the idea we
going to implement in the nextstage as prototyping should consume less time and money if it fails
we have other options available as in this ideate stage design thinkers ideated several solutions for
the same problem.
Prototype:
In this stage design thinkers and the other team members work together to generate as many
inexpensive inexpensive in the sense consume less time money and effort as explained earlier
prototypes to enable to explore and investigate the potential solution the main objective of this
prototyping is share something that acts as a basis for communication with all the individuals
connected to the product or service design team all the stakeholders including the users. t is very
important that in this stage.
we are not attempting to the correct solution rather we are exploring some good ideas that can
solve the problem hence we should not waste time in thinking about how to build a prototype every
potential solution is prototyped investigated and then accepted improved re-examined or rejected
as we are exploring more solutions to the problems.
It is important that we should not spend much time and not to build complex and costly prototypes
this will make us easier and quicker to move to another one design thinkers will have a complete
idea about which solutions are mostly solve the problem and the constraints at the end of this
stage.
Test: Test is the final step in design thinking process in this stage the best solutions obtained in the
form of prototypes are tested in the environment of the real product using real users designers and
evaluators to assess that to what extent the problem can be solved .
this is an iterative process as the results obtained from the test can be used to redefine the problem
solutions and proposed prototypes this makes further changes and more refinements of the
prototypes .

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 Regulation – 2022 Innovation and Design Thinking (BIDTK158)

Another important aspect of this stage is it provides us an opportunity to empathize more users as
we are conducted the test observing them more carefully to understand their likes and dislikes
about the solution to their problem which is in the form of prototype.
Besides the user perspective about the solution testing may also help thedesign thinkers personally
to refine the problem and address any pre-concepts that are existing till now.
The result of this stage can be used as a model to build the solution.
It can be observed from the figure1 shown earlier dotted lines show that after the test, test may
give new ideas for the project, design thinkers go back to the ideate stage.
Sometimes test may reveal insights that redefine the problem leads to design thinkers go back to
the defined stage.
During or after test design thinkers learn about the user's thinking then they may go back to the
very initial stage of empathize.
Similar things will happen during the prototype stage and define stage, design thinker may go back
to previous stages and work from that hence total design thinking process is iterative.
Hence it is a non-linear complex problem.
Rules Of Design Thinking
There are four fundamental rules to be followed in design thinking process they are,
1. The human rule all design activity is ultimately social in nature
Research shows all the successful products and services are developed keeping in the mind of end
users hence it human centric
It is necessary to solve technical problem that will satisfy human needs.
2. The ambiguity rule design thinkers should preserve ambiguity
There is no chance for “chance discovery” if the box is closed tightly the constraints enumerated
excessively and the fear of failure is always at hand.
Innovation demands experimentation at the limits of our knowledge at the limits of our ability to
control events and with freedom to see things differently.
3. The redesign rule all design is redesign
The human needs that we seek to satisfy have been with us for millennia
through time and evolution there have been many successful solutions to these problems
because technology and social circumstances change constantly it is imperative to understand how
these needs have been addressed in the past
Then we can apply foresight tools and methods to better estimate social and technical conditions
we will encounter 5, 10, or even 20 years in the future.
4. The tangibility rule making ideas tangible always facilitates communication while conceptual
prototyping has been a central activity in design thinking during the entire period of the research it
is only in the past few years that it was realized that “prototypes are communication media “
the heart of the design thinking process lies at the intersection of technical feasibility, economic
viability and desirability by the user.
EXAMPLES OF DESIGN ORGANIZATIONS
The design management institute (DMI) developed an index called design value index (DVI)
choosing the major 16 publicly traded stock which are to be considered as using design thinking
concept.
The design management institute (DMI) is an international membership organization that connects
design to business to culture to customers and to the changing world. founded in 1975
the index showed a growth of 211 percent when compared with s&p 500. These organizations are
the models of high functional design thinking organizations.

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 Regulation – 2022 Innovation and Design Thinking (BIDTK158)

the Standard And Poor's 500 or simply the S&P 500 is a stock market index tracking the
performance of 500 large companies listed on stock exchanges in the united states.

DVI 2005-2015

Fig2.
see the figure2 this figure shows the examples of organizations successfully implementing design
thinking principles.
these organizations include
APPLE
COCA-COLA
FORD
IBM
NIKE
WALT DISNEY
WHIRLPOOL

This figure2 shows the growth of DVI or design value index is 211 when compared with S&P 500.
These organizations are the models of high functional design thinking organizations.
The standard and poor's 500 or simply the S& P 500 is a stock market index
Tracking the performance of 500 large companies listed on stock exchanges in the united states
these 16 organizations have been apt to conform on the( DMI) for the best practices Criteria.

currently the organizations should meet following six criteria for their admittance in the DVI
1 design operates at scale across the enterprise.
2.design holds a prominent place on the company organizational chart and either sits on the
leadership team or directly reports to a leadership team member.
3. experienced executives manage the design function
4.design sees a growing level of investment to support its growing influence.
5 design enjoys senior leadership support from the top tier of the organization.
6. the company has been publicly traded on a U.S exchange for the last 10 years
and thereby adheres to GAAP accounting rules.

What is innovation????
Innovation is really a confusing buzzword.
Business leader generally agrees that innovation is important but nobody can answer what it
actually means.
According to oxford dictionary innovation is “make changes in something established especially
by introducing new methods ideas or products” may not be giving the definition of the
innovation in the present day context.
Below are the definitions given by few experts for innovation.

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 Regulation – 2022 Innovation and Design Thinking (BIDTK158)

Turning an idea into a solution that adds value from a customer's perspective.
Nick Skelicorn-Author , innovation consultant and creative coach the application of ideas that are
novel and useful creativity the ability to generate novel and useful ideas is the seed of innovation
but unless it's applied and scaled it's still just an idea
David Barkus associate professor of leadership and innovation at Oral Roberts University ,USA
said “innovation is a feasible relevant offering such as a product service process or experience with
a viable business model that is perceived as new and is adopted by customers “
van wolfen ,author and worldwide keynote speaker on innovation: innovation may be defined as
“an idea that satisfies the important aspects value to the customer technically feasible and
financially viable and can be scaled up in simple words idea which can be commercialized”.
integration of innovation and design thinking integration of innovation and design thinking means
Applying the principles of design thinking into innovation process the article published by linda
naman on how to integrate design thinking with creative problem solving for innovation presents
an eight step process for the integration of innovation and design thinking this article published
on 8th September 2016 in linkedin

see the figure 1.3

A framework for design thinking for innovation contains
1. Discovery
2. Reframe Opportunity
3. Incubate
4. Ideate Or Illuminate
5. Evaluate Or Refine Ideas
6. Rapid Prototype And Test
7. Deliver
8. Iterate And Scale

Fig 1.3
Discovery
In this step design thinkers choose a topic that is motivating and compelling then focus and learn
about the topic always design thinking should start with a desired future and the strategies to
approach to achieve an end goal research the topic to get insights ask the following questions
during the research.

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 Regulation – 2022 Innovation and Design Thinking (BIDTK158)

1. What do you need to learn and understand?

2. What are the opportunities embedded in the problem?
3. What stories that the users telling about their experiences?
4 What are their fears hopes and goals that are motivating them ?then ask why?
for each answer to dig much deeper into the problem this makes to get more insights about the
problem.
Frame and reframe
Defining or framing the problem in the right way to create a best solution
Earlier step we collected the pieces of information about the problems .
This stage design thinkers should make a sense of these information collected research further by
seeing the themes,patterns and greater relationships between the bits of information.
Finally unearth users insights to redefine problem areas into our opportunities.
incubate
Creativity generates from the integration of individual and the group reflection.
Give some time to the group to reflect on their ideas and then incubate on their own before starting
a group session on ideation process.
IDEATE
already we design thinkers have deep insights about users “perspective about the problem”.
now generate ideas that contribution and value to users generate as many ideas as possible ,by
asking the question what else? so that we have great number of better options for solving the
problem.
Decide
now in this step present only those ideas that have ureka feeling do this save the time by
eliminating the ideas which are not worth and not to debate on each and every idea in the
group.
select only those ideas that satisfy the three important components of an innovation human
desirability technical feasibility and economic viability .
the group may choose three to four best ideas for further prototype and test.
prototype
prototype is a physical model or a sketch to demonstrate the idea to all the stakeholders including
users
users test the prototype and give their responses and feedback about the product service.
these feedback and responses makes us to either move forward or kill that idea and avoid investing
the time and other resources on it.
Deliver
the prototype made and tested in the previous step to be built and launched in the market for its
success.
iterate
as mentioned earlier designing process is a non-linear and it is an iterative process.
design thinkers use the responses from the stakeholders to further refine the ideas and repeat the
iteration process until there is no addition or subtraction is possible.

SHARED MODEL IN TEAM BASED DESIGN

shared model in team based design:
Communication is very important in design thinking process.

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 Regulation – 2022 Innovation and Design Thinking (BIDTK158)

It generally occurs at the time of representation of ideas or a prototype proper communication

enables the group members could see what they want to say and responds on what they see
there are different modes the ideas can be represented a few of them are one
1.Narrative sketch
2. Conceptual frameworks
3. Physical model
4.Photograph
5. An enactment
6. CAD models

MEDIA MODELS

Media models are powerful tools for as sharing models and more effective in the discussions during
the product development meetings .
there are Two important aspects of media models are
1. Abstraction
2. Resolution

ABSTRACTION
Meaning of abstraction is the state of thinking deeply about something and not paying attention to
what is around you or “can be something pulled or drawn away”.
Here abstraction means amplification through simplification which implies pulling specific
characteristics out of context.
Abstraction can be also used for differentiation between familiar and unfamiliar.

There are four classes of abstraction in most of design projects.

1. Functional abstraction- works- like
2. Formal abstraction appearance or shape.
3. Mathematical abstraction- dimensions and optimization
4. Material abstraction materials

figure 2 shows an example of two levels that are high level and low level of
abstraction

High and Low Level Abstraction in Research Vehicle.

The wooden car represents high level of abstraction whereas steel car represents low level of
abstraction the reasons of saying a woodcar prototype represents high level of abstraction is while
communication to the group the designers will think this a model of a car made of wood and in the
place of wood we can choose any material for a car and designers will have many options for a
material for a final product
steel car prototype restrict the use of other materials designers think that all cars should be made
in steel only this will limit the choices for material
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this example shows how abstraction can make the familiar unfamiliar
RESOLUTION
resolution means the quality & clarity of the shared presentation.

figure 3 shows a sketch of a car in a rough sketch and a computer aided design or cad model

CAD model have high resolution than a sketch by hand media cascades during the development of a
new product. or service it is necessary to enlist at least hundreds if not thousands of
representations.

The term media model coined by jonathan edelman and rebecca karano that refers a single
representation as the arc of new product or service development.
Two important characteristics of media models are abstraction and resolution which can be
treated as two dimensions .
dictionary meaning of cascades is a small waterfall typically one of several that fall in stages down
a steep rocky slope.
cascades of media word refers here the sequence of representations over which the development
of projects and unfolding the different media during the product development cycle.

Fig 4 A media Cascade from a project.

figure 4 shows some focal points of media cascade of a project binding for a snowboard
as brief notes of a project then rough sketches followed by rough prototypes and cad models then
functional prototypes and finally an actual working product.
Now we can see these representations as media model and examine them how they
are different in terms of resolution and abstraction.

The Media Model FrameWork.

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Fig. 5 Media Model FrameWork.

see the figure
There are two dimensions in media model abstraction and resolutions and there are different ways
to represent product development stages
figure 5 refers to the media models framework in two dimensions x dimension indicates resolution
and y dimension indicates abstraction
positive x axis indicates high resolution and negative x axis indicates low resolution.
similarly positive y axis indicates high abstraction and negative y axis indicates low abstraction
from the figure we can note that process modeling tools maps conceptual photos and cad models
represent high resolution and high abstraction
rough sketches represent high abstraction but low resolution manufactured products represent
high resolution but low abstraction
rough physical prototypes represents low resolution and low abstraction user prototypes represent
low abstraction and moderate resolution
CAD models represents physical things in geometries with no specific materials and refers to an
entire class of product not one real product hence cad models highly abstractive nature as cad
models define all the features of the product precisely and there is no vagueness or uncertainty in a
cad model
highly resolved and highly abstract prototypes and rough sketches display low resolution and
differing in the levels in abstraction based on the situation in which they are used rough sketch is
more abstract when compared to a physical model in the situation of designing a physical object the
explanation is in rough sketches. three dimensions of a product are reduced into two dimensions.
in the example of wooden car prototype the material would disadvantages as an abstraction to
avoid a design constraint as in steel prototype.

we can use any materials for a car high abstraction .one should note that manufactured products
who are highly resolved but low abstract
Product development undergoes optimization process before it is manufactured

Hence the final products are not abstract as they are the actual things completion.
Completion
Media models may not represent the final product they only present a part of a Project .Therefore
they present a portrait of incompleteness . This incompleteness grants design engineers to work
more to fill the gaps .In this way media models strengthen in different levels of completion and
allow for discussion in every stage of product development.
media models are classified into three types ,
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 Regulation – 2022 Innovation and Design Thinking (BIDTK158)

they are
1.Ambiguous Media
2.Mathematized Media
3. Hybrid Media

each type strengthens a different kind of completion

1. ambiguous media
rough physical prototypes and rough sketches are the examples of ambiguous media
they help the design thinkers and engineers to fill in the gaps
finally they will be completed as engineers postulate so many possible formulations
they are inconclusive objects and can be expressed in different ways based on the knowledge and
experience designer or engineer.
in this way they encourage divergent conversations see the figure 6

Ambiguous media prototype for a Communication Device.

The objects say : i am not the real thing i am a transitory notion

2.Mathematized media
mathematized media represents highly realistic figures or images with the complete details
including the dimensions hence they encourage convergent conversations
these models generally prevent the big changes see the figure 7.

Fig 7.Mathematical Media, CAD model of a Device for analyzing material.

the objects say: i am the real thing, i am the underlying unchanging truth of the thing.

3.hybrid media
As per ai powered chatonbing.com hybrid media is the strategic use of traditional and new media to
communicate your message in a more effective way
hybrid models have the combinations of different media such as drawings text and photographs
hybrid media grant many kinds of discussions and operations
these models are in the sweet spot for designers
they generally use physical interfaces
in connection with high level frameworks and allows a flexible exploration of how different
elements relate to another.

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Designers can move elements to see how they fit into frameworks and also change the frameworks
to see how they describe phenomena
Hybrid media has an effect and makes the model is completed .In hybrid media mathematized
elements tend not to get changed whereas ambiguous elements invite changes
see the figure 8

Fig.8: Hybrid Media Physical objects with a text narrative on a 2X2

The Objects Say : I am about provisional relationships among things.

TO SUMMARIZE
1. Ambiguous media models -afford paradigmatic shifts
2. Mathematized media models- afford parametric adjustment
3. Hybrid media models- afford understanding and changes in relationships
4. It can be noted that the outstanding design projects apply either have a broadband with media
models or different types of media models.
5. The reason behind this is having various types of media models breed various kinds of thinking
patterns and various kinds of explorations more insights will be collected on moving from one type
of media model to another type as the project is moving forward.

Cognitive Strategies
The media models explained in my previous discussion serve as cognitive prostheses makes
designers to think deeply.
Insights will be gained on moving from one type of media model to another type of varying levels of
abstraction and resolution.
Success of any product development is mainly depending on how design team apply various
cognitive strategies each type of media models
gives designers a different thinking style
for example abstract media which is highly resolved has a cognitive strategy parametric
adjustment.
media models that have low resolution and high abstraction has a cognitive strategy paradigmatic
shifts to understand different cognitive strategies jonathan edelman and Rebecca karano conducted
experiments

however there are several research examples that shows how designers apply different cognitive
strategies.

In conducting any research the people chosen for study are called as Subjects.

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barbara twarskin cognitive scientist has realized that when rough sketches presented experimental
subjects committed to think roughly or conditionally this they called as sketchy thinking
another research in cognitive science has explored the fitness of representations.
cognitive fit theory says that the style or way in which the problem is represented regulates the
thinking model used.
These all researches supports the concept that the kind and the characteristics of the media on
which people engaged have an effect on how people think and subsequently on the nature of their
conversations.
experimental procedure and the data

jonathan edelman and rebecca karano conducted an experiment to understand and get more
insights using media models framework they videotaped four different teams each consists of three
members for to redesign projects using two different types stimuli

RESULTS & INSIGHTS

first stimulus cad model showed convergent conversations subjects suggesting only parametric
changes or and the additional features

second stimulus rough prototype showed divergent conversations subjects suggesting major
changes including adding features and functionality teams diverged from the norms teams
innovative and media supports this innovation teams suggested paradigmatic changes for the cad
model and made many prototypes and rough sketches this had the effect of giving the CAD model a
cognitive vote

first stimulus a CAD model of a device expected to analyze the properties of material see the fig.8

second stimulus -a rough physical prototype of a device expected to project a voice to a specific
user see the figure 9
they gave instructions deliberately wait to see what effects the stimuli will have instructions for the
first stimulus do .
whatever is necessary to take the model forward this product enables you to analyze and identify
the material composition of objects.

this experiment led new insights behaviors unique in the team's art new insights
1 statement of intention

2asking process questions

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3 visualizing user scenarios

4 enacting user scenarios

5 combining metaphors it's like xplus y

6 eureka moments experience one statement of intention after the study it was observed that
teens when working with the cad model deviated from the norm that is convergent conversation
rather they think divergently and their intention is to change the model itself their intention is
neither agree the given cad model or improve the given idea

2 asking process questions

it was also noticed that the team who deviated from the non post a significant number of
process oriented questions during the conversations process-oriented questions means to how the
team shall approach the problem instead focusing only on the problem

example “can we choose the same assumptions in the lab or in the field”

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