Course on “Design Thinking”

Lecture-3
School of Electronics& Communication
Engineering
Design Thinking Team School of ECE
 DT
DEFINITION
Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO: Design thinking is a human-centred approach to
innovation that draws from the designer's toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the
possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.
Other Definitions
Design thinking is a non-linear, iterative process that teams use to understand users,
challenge assumptions, redefine problems and create innovative solutions to prototype
and test.
Design thinking is a process for creative problem solving. In design thinking,
you're pulling together what's desirable from a human point of view with what
is technologically feasible and economically viable.

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INTRODUCTION TO DT

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 FIVE STEPS OF DT
It is important to note that the five phases/stages/or modes are not always sequential.
They do not have to follow any specific order. What’s more, they can often occur in
parallel and repeat iteratively. As such, you should not envision the phases as a
hierarchal or step-by-step process. Instead, you should understand it as an overview of
the modes or phases that contribute to an innovative project, rather than sequential
steps.

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EMPATHIZE
 Empathy is the ability to imagine how another person is feeling and so understand
his/her mood.
 The goal of this phase is to understand your customer, by searching and gathering
information about their business/work/objective.
 One should always adopt a beginner’s mindset to be able to view and analyze
situations with users objectively.
 During this phase, several different tools, such as interviews, focus groups,
observations, and surveys can be used to understand the problems, pains,
objectives and requirements of users.
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SYMPATHY, EMPATHY AND COMPASSION
1. Sympathy means you understand what the other person is feeling even without feeling it yourself.
2. Empathy refers to feeling what another person is feeling
3. Compassion means your feelings have prompted you to take action to relieve the suffering of
another person

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DEFINE
 During the Define stage, you put together the information you have created and gathered
during the Empathize stage.
 Here, you will analyze your observations and synthesize them in order to define the core
problems that you and your team have identified up to this point.
 You should seek to define the problem as a problem statement in a human-centered
manner.
 The Define stage will help the designers in team to gather great ideas to establish
features, functions, and any other elements that will allow them to solve the problems.
 Allow users to resolve issues themselves with the minimum of difficulty.
 In the Define stage you will start to progress to the third stage, Ideate, by asking
questions which can help you look for ideas for solutions.
 Define User Personas and User Journeys

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IDEATE
 In this stage, designers are ready to start generating ideas.
 With solid background of empathy and define stages, you and your team members can
start to "think outside the box" to identify new solutions to the problem statement
you’ve created.
 you can start to look for alternative ways of viewing the problem.
 Brainstorming, Brainwrite, mind map, story board, provocation, Worst Possible Idea, and
scamper techniques are used during ideation.
 Brainstorm and Worst Possible Idea sessions are typically used to stimulate free thinking
and to expand the problem space.
 It is important to get as many ideas or problem solutions as possible at the beginning of
the Ideation phase.
 You should pick some other Ideation techniques by the end of the Ideation phase to help
you investigate and test your ideas so you can find the best way to either solve a problem
or provide the elements required to avoid it.
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PROTOTYPE: A SIMULATION OR SAMPLE VERSION OF A FINAL SOLUTIONS,
WHICH IS USED FOR TESTING PRIOR TO LAUNCH

 The design team should produce a few inexpensive, scaled down versions of the product or
specific features found within the product.
 In this phase they can investigate the problem solutions generated in the previous stage.
 Prototypes may be shared and tested within the team itself, or in other departments, or on a small
group of people outside the design team.
 This is an experimental phase, and the aim is to identify the best possible solution for each of the
problems identified during the first three stages.
 The solutions are implemented within the prototypes, one by one, they are investigated and either
accepted, improved and re-examined, or rejected based on the users’ experiences.
 By the end of this stage, the design team will have a better idea of the constraints inherent to the
product and the problems that are present and have a clear view of how real users would behave,
think, and feel when interacting with the end product.

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TEST
 Designers or evaluators rigorously test the complete product using the best
solutions identified during the prototyping phase.
 This is the final stage of the 5 stage-model, but in an iterative process, the results
generated during the testing phase are often used to redefine one or more problems
and inform the understanding of the users.
 Product is given to users for use and feedback is taken of the product. How users
think, behave, feel. What more they want from manufacturer.
 Even during this phase, alterations and refinements are made in order to rule out
problem solutions and derive as deep an understanding of the product and its users
as possible.
 Test your solution ideas before spending lots of time and money into creating the
final version of the sellable product/service
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 OUTCOMES OF THE COURSE
• Cultivate design thinking as an organizational culture to drive innovation
• Develop a user-centric mindset while designing, innovating, developing and testing
solutions for new products, services and systems
• Utilize observational research and in-depth interviewing skills to arrive at deeper
user insights
• Develop the capability to empathize with potential users to develop meaningful
products and services
• Participate and conduct constructive brainstorming and ideation sessions with
interdisciplinary team members for new ideas and solutions
• Envisage solutions individually and in teams and create and present prototypes
• Develop the ability to test solutions and work on feedback loops

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DESIGN THINKING FOR WHOM
DT program is suitable for
• Team leaders interested to learn innovative methodologies to solve business or
consumer-focused problems
• Directors and senior managers who want to build new business solutions by
applying innovation and design thinking principles
• Working professionals across industries eager to explore design thinking and
innovation and apply them as strategies in their business/ industry
• Those who want to become successful industry leaders

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 DT: ITERATIVE AND NON-LINEAR PROCESS
 Design thinking is an iterative and non-linear process.
 Design team continuously use their results to review, question, and improve their
initial assumptions, understandings and results.
 Results from the final stage of the initial work process inform our understanding of
the problem, help us determine the parameters of the problem, enable us to redefine
the problem, and, perhaps most importantly, provide us with new insights.
 Now we can see alternative solutions that might not have been available with our
previous level of understanding.
 Design thinking is an iterative process in which knowledge is constantly being
questioned and acquired so it can help us redefine a problem in an attempt to identify
alternative strategies and solutions that might not be instantly apparent with our initial
level of understanding.

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WHAT ARE TYPES OF THINKING AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
 Ever wonder why two people equipped with the same knowledge and background
may offer different approaches to solving the same problem?.
 The way one approaches problems and solutions tends to rely a lot on “how” the brain
functions in managing and processing information, and a lot less with the facts
presented.
 The type of thinking style that you’ve adopted to work for you dictates the quality of
your outputs, outcomes, and future.
 In this article we will explore seven most common types of thinking such as Creative
thinking, Analytical thinking, Critical thinking, Concrete thinking, Abstract thinking,
Divergent thinking and Convergent thinking
Creative thinking: An ability to conceive new and innovative ideas by breaking from
established thoughts, theories, rules, and procedures. People who use this thinking often
hear that they “think outside the box”.

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TYPES OF THE THINKING PROCESS
 Analytical thinking: An ability to separate a whole into its basic parts in order to
examine the parts and their relationships. People with this type of thinking are great
problem-solvers and have a structured and methodical way of approaching tasks.
 Critical thinking: The process of exercising careful evaluation or judgment. Critical
thinkers do this in order to determine the authenticity, accuracy, worth, validity, or
value of something. Rather than strictly breaking down information into parts, critical
thinkers explore other elements that could have impacted conclusions.
 Concrete thinking: Often, these types of thinkers prefer to think, comprehend and
apply factual knowledge. It is about thinking of objects or ideas as specific items,
rather than as a theoretical representation of a general concept. It involves practical
thinking only, always literal, and to-the-point.

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TYPES OF THE THINKING PROCESS
 Abstract thinking: An ability to relate seemingly random things with each other and
make the connections that others find difficult to see. People with this type of thinking
pay attention to the hidden meanings behind things relating them to other items,
events, or experiences. Abstract thinkers usually can observe things as theories and/or
possibilities.
 Divergent thinking: This mindset takes the path of exploring an infinite number of
solutions to find one that is effective. So, instead of starting off with a set number of
possibilities and converging on an answer, divergent thinkers go as far and wide as
necessary and move outwards in search of the solution.
 Convergent thinking: A process of combining a finite number of perspectives or
ideas to find a single solution. Convergent thinkers will target these possibilities, or
converge them inwards, to produce a solution.

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• Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person
is experiencing without having had the same experience

• Empathy is the ability to relate to the feelings/emotions of

others

 Define your user – Who are your users?

 What problem they are facing?

 Are there any solutions available?

 Put yourself into their shoes

 Know their pain points

 What makes them happy?

Empathy Map
•It's a powerful visualization
tool

•Helps teams use Emotional

Intelligence

•Gain insight into a target

user

• Developing a better understanding of the person for whom you are designing your product
• Empathy Map helps you synthesize observations and draw out unexpected insights.

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EMPATH MAP STEPS

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EMPATHY MAP

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