Design thinking – Process and Principles

Posted at 30 Aug in Latest Thinking by Aptara 0 Comments

Design thinking is a problem-solving process that’s used by designers and
non-designers alike. It involves five steps: empathize, define, ideate, proto-
type, and test. The first step is to get inside the user’s head—literally!—and
understand how they think and feel about their problems. Then you can create
an empathy map that shows what users want from each aspect of their per-
sonal or professional lives.
Next comes defining the problem statement by identifying what’s wrong and
coming up with ideas for how it could be fixed or improved. Then create mock-
ups or prototypes of your thoughts so you can start testing them out in real-life
situations with real people as early as possible in the design process.
What is Design Thinking?
A human-centered innovation strategy known as “design thinking” integrates
the demands of people, the potential of technology, and the conditions neces-
sary for successful company operations.
Before approving concepts that go to realization, designers investigate several
ways, combine them into fresh ideas and prototypes, and test those with pos-
sible users.
Design thinking is a process that can be applied to a wide range of problems:
working with organizations or individuals, solving intractable social issues or
creating new products, coming up with strategies for competitive advantage,
or managing day-to-day operations more effectively.
For example, You’re looking at ways to improve your company’s customer ex-
perience efforts—but you’re not quite sure which direction would work best.
Try applying design thinking principles like empathy and user research instead
of brainstorming possible solutions from scratch!
Or, Is your team struggling with how best to prepare itself for change by im-
proving its communication and collaboration skills? Design thinking can help
here too! Rather than just talking about it (or even just reading articles), try do-
ing something different—like taking time out each week, so everyone attend-
ing gets their say while still allowing others who didn’t speak last time around
an opportunity too…
 History of design thinking
Design thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation. It combines the
best of two worlds: the humanities, where we find empathy and creativity, and
technology, from which it borrows rapid prototyping and testing.
Design thinking sees problems as opportunities. It’s a way of solving them
through fast iteration, prototyping, and testing your ideas before deciding on
one final solution. It encourages you to think about people when designing
something new—how will it look? What will it feel like? How easy is it for peo-
ple to use?
This approach isn’t just for large corporations or established brands—it works
beautifully in small businesses too!
Types of Design Thinking
Design Thinking is a methodology for innovation that focuses on human-cen-
tered design. It is a humanistic approach to innovation that uses empathy and
creativity to solve problems. Design Thinking can be applied in any industry to
solve problems, create new opportunities, and improve lives.
Process of Design Thinking
 Identify the problem
 Discover the need
 Create solutions
 Test the solution
 Evaluate the solution
Principle 1 — Empathize with your users
Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. It’s a
fundamental part of human relationships, and it’s critical for design thinking.
Empathy does not mean sympathy or feeling sorry for someone, but imagining
what others might want or need in an attempt to see things from their perspec-
tive.
An excellent way to practice empathy is by observing people in their natural
environments—the grocery store checkout line, at home making dinner with
their kids on their lap—and asking questions like: “How do they feel?” “What
are they trying to accomplish?” and “What would make this experience bet-
ter?”
Principle 2 — Define a Meaningful and actionable
problem statement
 This principle is about defining and refining the problem you are trying to
solve. It’s essential to determine a meaningful problem statement before you
start solving it because otherwise, you may find yourself solving the wrong
thing or spending time on tasks that don’t contribute toward your ultimate goal.
A solution statement includes:
 What we think is wrong (problem)
 How we plan on fixing it (action)
Principle 3 — Ideate by challenging assumptions
and creating ideas for innovative solutions
In the design thinking process, you will challenge assumptions to look at your
problem from different perspectives. You will try to uncover latent needs and
develop new ideas for innovative solutions.
The goal is not merely to create a solution but also to generate several possi-
ble solutions that can be tested against each other to learn what works best.
This is why we don’t talk about defining problems; instead, we insist on asking
better questions to avoid getting trapped in what was already known or as-
sumed.
Principle 4 — Prototype to start creating solutions
Prototyping is the process of creating and testing a model of your solution. It’s
a way to test the design, make sure it works as intended, and get feedback
from users. Prototyping helps you understand if your concept is usable and
feasible before spending too much time building something that may not be
usable or feasible.
Ideally, prototypes should be cheap to create — but they also have to be good
enough so that people understand what you are trying to accomplish without
confusing them or making them frustrated with the experience. A good proto-
type will show how something will work without needing lots of explanation;
this makes it easy for everyone involved in the process (including potential
users) to get on board quickly with an idea.
Designers use different methods for prototyping depending on their
goals:
For example, some designers create paper prototypes that allow them to
quickly try out different ideas and iterate through multiple versions over short
periods.
Other designers might prefer digital prototypes using software such as Adobe
XD or Sketch. In other cases, even simple sketches can suffice when working
with stakeholders who don’t have technical expertise in UX processes as user
research experts do.
Principle 5: Test those solutions in the real world.
Many designers and developers feel that when they have a prototype, it’s
ready for presentation to users. However, there are many different ways to
test your solution with real users.
For example, if you are creating a website or application that is meant for
someone else (e.g., an internal system), then testing your design through in-
terviews with end users can help you identify problems before it goes live. You
could also test out prototypes on paper by doing sketches or wireframes of
your ideas and showing them around before moving onto digital mediums
such as websites or apps.
This will allow for feedback from others who may not necessarily be familiar
with how things work behind the scenes on computers but do understand
what would make sense in terms of functionality and usability once they see
something tangible like a mockup rather than just words describing ideas.”
Conclusion
Design thinking is a potent tool for innovators and entrepreneurs. It allows
them to think through problems from multiple angles and find creative solu-
tions that might not have been possible otherwise.
It’s also a great way of approaching any problem you might face in life or busi-
ness, whether designing products or services for customers who aren’t cur-
rently using them or figuring out how to get more people involved with your
cause!
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TAGS:
design process , design thinking , ideation , innovation , problem-solv -
ing , prototyping , user-centered design