Prepared by

Prathibha S Nair
Asst. Professor,
Dept of CSE, MBCET
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 Syllabus

Module 2
Design Thinking Approach:-Introduction to
Design Thinking, Iterative Design Thinking
Process Stages: Empathize, Define, Ideate,
Prototype and Test. Design Thinking as
Divergent-Convergent Questioning. Design
Thinking in a Team Environment.

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 DESIGN T H I N K I N G PROCESS

• Design Thinking is a design methodology that provides a
solution-based approach to solving problems.
• 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.

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 ITERATIVE DESIGN THINKING

PROCESS STAGES:
Involves five phases
1. Empathize
2. Define
3. Ideate
4. Prototype
5. and Test
• This is most useful to tackle problems that are ill-defined
or unknown. 4
 THE FIVE
STAGES OF
DESIGN
THINKING

Note:These stages are

not always sequential,
and teams often run
them in parallel, out of
order and repeat them
in an iterative fashion.
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 1
E M PAT H I Z E
-RESEARC H Y O U R USERS'
NEEDS


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 1. E M PAT H I Z E

-RESEARC H Y O U R USERS' N E E D S

• First stage of the design thinking process.

• you should gain an empathetic understanding of the problem you’re
trying to solve, typically through user research.
• Empathy is crucial to a human-centered design process such as
design thinking because it allows you to set aside your own
assumptions about the world and gain real 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.7
 1. E M PAT H I Z E
• 3 steps

-RESEARC H Y O U R USERS' N E E D S

1. Observe
• How users interact with their environment.
• Capture quotes, behaviors and other notes that reflect their
experience.
• Notice what they think,feel, need
2. Engage
• Interviews scheduled or ad-hoc
• Learn how to ask the right questions
3. Immerse
• Find ways “to get into the user’s shoes”
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• Best way to understand the users’ needs

9
2
DEFINE


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 2. DEFINE

- STATE Y O U R USERS' N E E D S A N D
PROBLEMS

• During the Define stage, you put together the information you
have
created and gathered during the Empathize stage.
• Then analyze your observations and synthesize them to define
the core problems you and your team have identified up to this
point
• These definitions are called problem statements.
• Problem statements are concise descriptions of design problems.
• Design teams use them to define the current and ideal states, to
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freely find user-centered solutions.
 2. DEFINE

- STATE Y O U R USERS' N E E D S A N D
PROBLEMS

• Synthesize your observations about your users from the empathize

stage
• Definition of a meaningful and actionable problem statement, which
the design
Thinker will focus on solving
• A great definition of your problem statement => kick start the
ideation process (third stage) in the right direction.
• Unpack your empathy findings into needs and insights and scope
a meaningful challenge
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 2. DEFINE

- STATE Y O U R USERS' N E E D S A N D
PROBLEMS

• Define your Point of View – meaningful and actionable

problem statement
• Preserves emotion and the individual you’re
designing for.
• Includes strong language.
• Uses sensible wording.
• Includes a strong insight.
• Generates lots of possibilities 13
 DEFINE
TOOLS

➢ Point of View
➢ You articulate a POV by combining these three elements – user,
need, and insight.
➢ Insert your information about your user, the needs and your insights
in the following sentence:
➢ [User . . . (descriptive)] needs [need . . . (verb)] because [insight. . .
(compelling)]
➢ How might we?
➢ Short questions that launch brainstorms
➢ Seeds for ideation come out from the point of view statement
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 
DEFINE TOOLS
• Why - How Ladder
Used to find user needs and ways to possibly solve them

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 DEFINETOOLS
• Why - How Ladder

Used to find user needs and ways to possibly solve them

Step 1: Identify a few meaningful user needs and write
them at the bottom of a piece of paper.
Step 2: Ladder up from that need, asking “why?”
• For example, why would a user “need to see a link
between a product and the process that creates it?”
because the user,“needs confidence that it won’t
harm their health by understanding its origin.” 16
 DEFINETOOLS

• Why - How Ladder

Step 3:Ask why again, and continue to ladder from that
same need.
• At a certain point, you’ll reach a very common, abstract
need such as,“the need to be healthy.” This is the top of
the ladder.
Step 4: Climb back down the ladder asking “how?”
• This will give you ideas for how to address the needs

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3
IDEATE

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 3. IDEATE

- CHALLENGE ASSUMPTIONS A N D
CREATE IDEAS

• You are now ready to generate ideas

• The solid background of knowledge from the first two
phases means you can start to “think outside the box”,
look for alternative ways to view the problem and
identify innovative solutions to the problem statement
you’ve created.
• It is important to get as many ideas or problem solutions
as possible at the beginning of the Ideation phase.
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 H O W TO IDEATE

• Ideate = transition from identifying problems to exploring
solutions
• Ideation is leveraged to:
• Harness the collective perspectives and strengths of your team.
• Step beyond obvious solutions and drive innovation.
• Uncover unexpected areas of exploration.
• Create fluency (volume) and flexibility (variety) in your
innovation options.
• You should pick some other Ideation techniques by the end of the
Ideation phase to help you investigate and test your ideas so you
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can find the best solution.

 3. IDEATE
 Ideation Techniques-1

BRAINSTORMING
• Brainstorming is particularly useful here.
• Brainstorming is a method design teams use to generate ideas to
solve clearly defined design problems.
• Brainstorming Rules
• Go for quantity
• Defer judgement
• Encourage wild ideas
• Be visual
• Build on the ideas of others (Yes, AND...)
• Stay focused on topic
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 IDEATE
 Ideation Techniques-2
BRAINW RITE

• The participants write down their ideas on paper

• They pass on their own piece of paper to another participant
• The other participant elaborates on the first person’s ideas and so
forth.
• Another few minutes later, the individual participants will again pass
their papers on to someone else and so the process continues.
• The process takes 15 minutes
• Ideas are discussed afterwards
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 IDEATE
 Ideation Techniques-3
CHALLENGE ASSUMPTIONS

• Identify the assumptions you have about the product

you’re building (especially if you’re stuck)
• Challenge these assumptions
• Are they fixed because they are crucial aspects or because
we have been accustomed to them?
• Very important step if the empathy stage wasn’t well done and
there were many things assumed about the users and their
context
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 IDEATE
 Ideation Techniques-4
MINDMAP

• Process through which the participants build a web of

relationships
• Participants write a problem statement
• They write solutions
• Link statements and solutions between them

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

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 IDEATE
Ideation Techniques-5
CREATIVE PAUSE


The 'creative pause' is defined as the time interval, which

begins when the thinker interrupts conscious preoccupation
with an unsolved problem, and ends when the solution to the
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problem unexpectedly appears in consciousness.
4
PROTOTYPE

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 4. P R O T O T Y P E

- START TO CREATE S O L U T I O N S

• This is an experimental phase.

• The aim is to identify the best possible solution for each
problem found.
• Prototypes may be shared and tested within the team
itself, in other departments, or on a small group of
people outside the design team.
• Team should produce some inexpensive, scaled-down
versions of the product (or specific features found within
the product) to investigate the ideas you’ve generated. 28
 4. P R O T O T Y P E

- START TO CREATE S O L U T I O N S

• 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.
• Types:
1. Low Fidelity Prototyping
2. High Fidelity Prototyping 29
 PROTOTYPING
L O W FIDELITY

• Use basic models or examples

• Just some features
• Methods
• Storyboarding.
• Sketching
• Card sorting.

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

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 L O W FIDELITY PROTOTYPING
PROS CONS
• Quick and inexpensive. • Lack of realism. basic and sometimes
• Possible to make instant changes sketchy nature =>the applicability of
and test new results may lack validity.
iterations.
• Depending on your product,the
• Disposable/throw-away. production of low-fi prototypes may
• Enables the designer to gain an not be appropriate for your intended
overall view of the users.
product using minimal time and
• Such prototypes often remove control
effort,
from the user, as they generally have to
• No advanced technical skills interact in basic ways or simply inform
required an evaluator,demonstrate or write a
• Encourages and fosters design blow-by-blow account of how they
thinking. would use the finished product. 32
 
HIGH FIDELITY PROTOTYPING

• Look and operate closer to the finished product

• For example, a 3D plastic model with movable parts (allowing
users to manipulate and interact with a device in the same manner
as the final design) is high-fi in comparison to, say, a wooden
block.
• Likewise, an early version of a software system developed
using a design program such as Sketch or Adobe Illustrator is
high-fi in comparison to a paper prototype.

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

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 HIGH FIDELITY PROTOTYPING

PROS
• Engaging: the stakeholders can instantly see their vision realized
and will be able to judge how well it meets their expectations,
wants and needs.
• User testing involving high-fi prototypes will allow the
evaluators to gather information with a high level of validity and
applicability. The closer the prototype is to the finished product,
the more confidence the design team will have in how people
will respond to, interact with and perceive the design.

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 HIGH FIDELITY PROTOTYPING
CONS
• They generally take much longer to produce than low-fi
prototypes.
• When testing prototypes, test users are more inclined to
focus and comment on superficial characteristics, as
opposed to the content
• After devoting hours and hours of time producing an accurate
model of how a product will appear and behave, designers are
often loathed to make changes.
• Software prototypes may give test users a false impression of
how good the finished article may be.
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• Making changes to prototypes can take a long time
5
TEST

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 5. T E S T - TRY YOUR S O L U T I O N S O U T

• 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 empathise.
• Evaluators rigorously test the prototypes
• Although this is the final phase, design thinking is iterative: Teams
often use the results to redefine one or more further problems.
• Can return to previous stages to make further iterations, alterations
and refinements – to find or rule out alternative solutions. 38
 5. T E S T - TRY YOUR S O L U T I O N S O U T

• 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.
• Chance to gather feedback, refine solutions, and continue to learn
about your users.
• The test mode is an iterative mode in which you place low-
resolution prototypes in the appropriate context of your user’s
life.
• Prototype as if you know you’re right, but test as if you know
you’re wrong
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 TESTING W I T H USERS

• Allows you to learn about the solution you created but also
about the users (builds empathy)
• Let your user experience the prototype.
• Show don’t tell. Put your prototype in the user’s hands (or your
user in the prototype) and give only the basic context they need
to understand what to do.
• Have them talk through their experience.
• Use prompts.“Tell me what you’re thinking as you do this.”
• Actively observe.
• Don’t immediately “correct” your user.
• Watch how they use (and misuse) your prototype.
• Follow up with questions.
• This is often the most valuable part. 40
 TEST – FEEDBACK CAPTURE MATRIX
M 
• Real-time capture of feedback on presentations and prototypes
• Arranges thoughts and ideas into four categories for easy assessment
• Fill in the matrix as you give or receive feedback.
• 1st quadrant: Constructive criticism
• 2nd quadrant: Place things one likes or finds notable
• 3rd quadrant: Questions raised
• 4th quadrant: new ideas spurred
• User likes • User Criticizes

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• User Wonders new ideas spurred

 D ES I G N T H I N K I N G

• Overall, you should understand that these stages are
different modes which contribute to the entire design
project, rather than sequential steps.
• Your goal throughout is to gain the deepest
understanding of the users and what their ideal
solution/product would be.

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DIVERGENT T H I N K I N G
VS
CONVERGENT THINKING

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 DIVERGENT T H I N K I N G

• It is a thought process or method used to generate
creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions.
• It typically occurs in a spontaneous, free-flowing,
"non-linear" manner, such that many ideas are
generated in an emergent cognitive fashion.
• Divergent thinking uses the imaginationto open
the mind to new possibilities and solutions, and
ultimately become more innovative.

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 CONVERGENT THINKING

• It is the opposite of divergent thinking.
• It generally means the ability to give the "correct" answer to
standard questions that do not require significant creativity, for
instance in most tasks in school and on standardized multiple-
choice tests for intelligence.
• Convergent thinking moves from broad thoughts to concrete
understanding, where the thoughts from divergent thinking can be
narrowed down to the most promising ideas and solutions.

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 DIVERGENT
THINKING
VS
CONVERGENT THINKING

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DESIGN THINKING IN A TEAM
ENVIRONMENT


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 
DESIGN THINKING IN A
TEAM ENVIRONMENT

• Members of a Design Thinking team need to be open

minded, curious, collaborative and allow their
assumptions to be challenged, ready for change, and be
adaptable.
• Cross-disciplinary teams will provide you with the best
results.
• Teams may consist of people unfamiliar with each other,
with external members brought on board either as
specialists or facilitators depending on the availability of
skills. 48
 
DESIGN THINKING IN A
TEAM ENVIRONMENT

• To make a Design Thinking project successful, we need T-

shaped people.
• T-shaped people have a depth of knowledge and
experience in their own fields but they can also reach out
and connect with others horizontally and create
meaningful collaborations.
• All team members should be encouraged to respect each
other's inputs, inorder to discover deeper and to build
upon each other's findings.
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 S O M E OF THE AIMS OF D E S I G N
T H I N K I N G ' S A P P R O A C H ARE TO CREATE:

• Greater inclusiveness (quality of covering or dealing with a range

of subjects/areas)
• Better team cohesion (fact of forming a united whole)
• Higher levels of collaboration and interaction -increased creative
confidence

• Everyone thinks, feels, and experiences things differently.

• Differences are what we need.

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What is Body storm in design thinking?

➢Body storming is a technique used in the first stage

of the design process that takes the customer
viewpoint into account.
➢Instead of trying to visualize or imagine how a
product might be used, body storming requires
the design team to, in essence, act it out as though the
product or process already exists.

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 What is Body storm in design thinking?
➢Body storming takes place in three phases.
➢Level 1: Go Observe
Go to the location to do your work.
➢Level 2: Try It Out
Use role play and props to develop an idea. In this
exercise, a group physically “acts out” an
experience by using whatever they have on hand
or can acquire.
➢Level 3: Reflect on What Happens, and Why
By enacting the experience, the participants will
naturally explore new possibilities, and uncover
flaws or assumptions about how an idea could
work. 52
 
CASE STUDIES

1. Design Thinking Case Study: Innovation at Apple

• https://www.designorate.com/design-thinking-case-study-innovation-at-apple/
2. How We Design on the UberEATS Team
• https://medium.com/uber-design/how-we-design-on-the-ubereats-team-
ff7c41fffb76
3. IBM: Design Thinking Adaptation andAdoption at Scale
• https://thisisdesignthinking.net/2019/07/ibm-design-thinking-adaptation-
adoption-at-scale/

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

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