Module 2 DESIGN THINKING

WHAT IS DESIGN THINKING, AND WHY IS IT SO POPULAR?

Some of the world’s leading brands, such as Apple, Google, Samsung, and
General Electric, have rapidly adopted the design thinking approach, and design
thinking is being taught at leading universities around the world. What is design
thinking, and why is it so popular and effective?

Design thinking is not an exclusive property of designers—all great innovators

in literature, art, music, science, engineering, and business have practiced it. So, why
call it ‘design thinking’? What’s special about design thinking is that designers’ work
processes can help us systematically extract, teach, learn and apply these human-
centered techniques to solve problems in a creative and innovative way — in our
designs, in our businesses, in our countries, in our lives.

Design Thinking is a design methodology and iterative process that provides a

solution-based approach to solving problems. It’s extremely useful in tackling complex
problems that are ill-defined or unknown, by understanding the human needs involved,
by re-framing the problem in human-centric ways, by creating many ideas in
brainstorming sessions, and by adopting a hands-on approach in prototyping and
testing.

DESIGN THINKING: VARIED DEFINITIONS AND DESCRIPTIONS

There are various ways of teaching and practicing Design Thinking, and
definitions and descriptions vary accordingly.

A Design Methodology

Basically, Design Thinking is a design methodology. It differs from traditional

design approaches in specific ways. For example, some authors characterize Design
Thinking as more creative and user-centered than traditional design approaches.

A Problem-Solving Approach or Process

Design Thinking can be regarded as a problem solving method or, by some

definitions, a process for the resolution of problems. As a solution-based approach to
solving problems, Design Thinking is particularly useful for addressing so-called
“wicked” problems. Wicked means that they are ill-defined or tricky. For ill-defined
problems, both the problem and the solution are unknown at the outset of the
problem-solving process (as opposed to “tame” or “well-defined” problems, where the
problem is evident and the solution is possible with some technical knowledge.) Even
when the general direction of the problem may be clear, considerable time and effort
is spent on clarifying the requirements. Thus, in Design Thinking, a large part of the
problem-solving activity consists of defining and shaping the problem.

 A Creativity Approach

Unlike analytical thinking, which is associated with the “breaking down” of ideas,
Design Thinking is a creative process based on the “building up” of ideas. Analytical
approaches focus on narrowing the design choices, while Design Thinking focuses on
going broad, at least during the early stages of the process.

 A User-Centered Approach That Brings Design into the Business World

Design Thinking is a more creative and user-centered approach to problem solving

than traditional design methods. They point out that “Design Thinking defies the
obvious and instead embraces a more experimental approach.” The heart of the
method is in understanding the customer: All ideas and subsequent work stem from
knowing the customer.

The Design Thinking methodology is not just applied to design problems. Design
Thinking is seen as a way to apply design methodologies to any of life’s situations. It is
often used to explore and define business problems and to define products and
services. In other words, Design Thinking brings the design approach into the
business world. In this vein, Design Thinking has been characterized as a discipline in
which the designer’s sensibility and methods match people’s needs, by applying what is
technically feasible and by contemplating what a viable business strategy can convert
into customer value and market opportunity. As a methodology or style of thinking, it
combines empathy for the context of a problem, creativity in the generation of
insights and solutions, and rationality and feedback to analyze and fit solutions to the
context – All this helps derive a solution that meets user needs and at the same time
generates revenue, that is, drives business success.
PHASES/STAGES OF DESIGN THINKING

We will focus on the five-stage Design Thinking model proposed by the Hasso-
Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford (d.school). d.school is the leading university
when it comes to teaching Design Thinking. The five stages of Design Thinking,
according to d.school, are as follows: Empathize, Define (the problem), Ideate,
Prototype, and Test. Let’s take a closer look at the five different stages of Design
Thinking. Understanding these five stages of Design Thinking will empower anyone to
apply the Design Thinking methods in order to solve complex problems that occur
around us - in our companies, in our countries, and even on the scale of our planet.

1. Empathize

The first stage of the Design Thinking process is to gain an empathic

understanding of the problem you are trying to solve. This involves consulting experts
to find out more about the area of concern through observing, engaging and
empathizing with people to understand their experiences and motivations, as well as
immersing yourself in the physical environment so you can gain a deeper personal
understanding of the issues involved. Empathy is crucial to a human-centered design
process such as Design Thinking, and empathy allows design thinkers to set aside their
own assumptions about the world in order to gain insight into users and their needs.
Depending on time constraints, a substantial amount of information is gathered at this
stage to use during the next stage and to develop the best possible understanding of
the users, their needs, and the problems that underlie the development of that
particular product.

2. Define the problem

During the Define stage, you put together the information you have created and
gathered during the Empathise stage. This is where 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.

To illustrate, instead of defining the problem as your own wish or a need of the
company such as, “We need to increase our food-product market share among young
teenage girls by 5%,” a much better way to define the problem would be, “Teenage
girls need to eat nutritious food in order to thrive, be healthy and grow.

The Define stage will help the designers in your team gather great ideas to
establish features, functions, and any other elements that will allow them to solve the
problems or, at the very least, 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 by
asking: “How might we… encourage teenage girls to perform an action that benefits
them and also involves your company’s food-product or service?

3. Ideate

During the third stage of the Design Thinking process, designers are ready to
start generating ideas. You’ve grown to understand your users and their needs in the
Empathize stage, and you’ve analyzed and synthesized your observations in the Define
stage, and ended up with a human-centered problem statement. With this solid
background, you and your team members can start to "think outside the box" to
identify new solutions to the problem statement you’ve created, and you can start to
look for alternative ways of viewing the problem. There are hundreds of Ideation
techniques such as Brainstorm, Brainwrite, Worst Possible Idea, and SCAMPER.
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 circumvent it.

4. Prototype

The design team will now produce a number of inexpensive, scaled down versions of
the product or specific features found within the product, so they can investigate the
problem solutions generated in the previous stage. Prototypes may be shared and
tested within the team itself, 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, and, one by one, they
are investigated and either accepted, improved and re-examined, or rejected on the
basis of 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 clearer view of how real users would behave, think, and feel when
interacting with the end product.

5. 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, the conditions of use, how people think, behave, and feel, and to
empathize. 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.

THE NON-LINEAR NATURE OF DESIGN THINKING

We may have outlined a direct and linear Design Thinking process in which one
stage seemingly leads to the next with a logical conclusion at user testing. However, in
practice, the process is carried out in a more flexible and non-linear fashion. For
example, different groups within the design team may conduct more than one stage
concurrently, or the designers may collect information and prototype during the
entire project so as to enable them to bring their ideas to life and visualize the
problem solutions. Also, results from the testing phase may reveal some insights about
users, which in turn may lead to another brainstorming session (Ideate) or the
development of new prototypes (Prototype).

It is important to note that the five stages are not always sequential — they
do not have to follow any specific order and they can often occur in parallel and be
repeated iteratively. As such, the stages should be understood as different modes
that contribute to a project, rather than sequential steps. However, the amazing
thing about the five-stage Design Thinking model is that it systematizes and
identifies the 5 stages/modes you would expect to carry out in a design project – and
in any innovative problem-solving project. Every project will involve activities specific
to the

product under development, but the central idea behind each stage remains the same.

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, the conditions of use, how people think, behave, and feel, and to
empathize. 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.

ATTRIBUTES OF DESIGN THINKING

Table 1 below lists the summary of the Design Thinking core attributes,
together with their descriptions. To provide a better overview of the attributes,
some comments based on the definitions were also given.

Table 1. Core Attributes of Design Thinking

ATTRIBUTE DESCRIPTION COMMENT

Being comfortable when things Design Thinking addresses

Ambiguity are unclear or when you don’t wicked, ill-defined and tricky
know the answer problems.

Working together across

People design in
Collaborative disciplines
interdisciplinary teams.

Creating new ideas based on old Design Thinking is a solution-

Constructive ideas, which can also be the based approach that looks for
most successful ideas an improved future result.
Considerable time and effort is
spent on clarifying the
Being interested in things you
requirements. A large part of
Curiosity don’t understand or perceiving
the problem solving activity,
things with fresh eyes
then, consists of problem
definition and problem shaping.
Seeing and understanding
The focus is on user needs
Empathy things from your customers’
(problem context).
point of view

Design Thinking attempts to

Looking at the bigger context
Holistic meet user needs and drive
for the customer
business success.

A cyclical process where The Design Thinking process is

Iterative improvements are made to a typically non-sequential and may
solution or idea regardless of include feedback loops and
 the phase cycles (see below).
Creating ideas with no judgment Particularly in the
Nonjudgmental toward the idea creator or the brainstorming phase, there are
idea no early judgments.
The method encourages
Embracing design thinking as an “outside the box thinking”
Open Mindset approach for any problem (“wild ideas”); it defies the
regardless of industry or scope. obvious and embraces a more
experimental approach.
Source: (from Baeck & Gremett, 2011) with descriptions and comments

CHARACTERISTICS OF DESIGN THINKERS

There is a certain overlap between the attributes of Design Thinking and the
characteristics of Design Thinkers, because the latter perform the former. Following
are the characteristics of design thinkers:

 Focus on human values and needs. Have empathy for the people, solicit user
feedback, and use it in their designs
 Make experimentation an integral part of the design process, are active
“doers”, communicate through meaningful artifacts
 Collaborate with people from various backgrounds and respects their
viewpoints; enable “breakthrough insights and solutions to emerge from the
diversity”.
 Can deal with wicked problems, are curious and optimistic, are integrative
(holistic) thinkers who look at the bigger context for the customer.
 Are mindful of the overall Design Thinking process with respect to goals and
method

SUMMING UP…

Design thinking is essentially a problem-solving approach specific to design,

which involves assessing known aspects of a problem and identifying the more
ambiguous or peripheral factors that contribute to the conditions of a problem. This
contrasts with a more scientific approach where the concrete and known aspects are
tested in order to arrive at a solution. 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. Design thinking is often
referred to as ‘outside the box thinking’, as designers are attempting to develop new
ways of thinking that do not abide by the dominant or more common problem-solving
methods – just like artists do. At the heart of design thinking is the intention to
improve products by analyzing how users interact with products and investigating the
conditions in which they operate. Design thinking offers us a means of digging that bit
deeper to uncover ways of improving user experiences. Companies are facing ill-
defined and complex problems every day—and bringing design.