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FOUNDATION OF DESIGN THINKING
A foundation in design thinking refers to an understanding of the core principles, stages, and mindset that guide this human-centered approach to problem-solving and innovation. It’s often taught in business, engineering, and design disciplines, and is widely used in organizations to tackle complex challenges creatively and collaboratively.
Key Concepts of Design Thinking
- Human-Centered: Focuses on understanding the needs, behaviors, and experiences of the people you’re designing for.
- Iterative: Involves cycles of testing, feedback, and refinement.
- Collaborative: Encourages interdisciplinary teamwork.
- Experimental: Promotes rapid prototyping and learning through failure.
The Stages of Design Thinking
According to the Stanford D.school & IDEO, there are basically five in design thinking. These nclude:
- Empathize
Understand the users and their needs through observation and engagement.
→ Methods: Interviews, immersion, empathy maps. - Define
Clearly articulate the problem you’re trying to solve.
→ Output: A point-of-view or problem statement. - Ideas
Generate a wide range of ideas and potential solutions.
→ Techniques: Brainstorming, SCAMPER, mind mapping. - Prototype
Build quick, tangible representations of one or more ideas.
→ Purpose: To test feasibility and user reaction. - Test
Try out prototypes with real users to gather feedback.
→ Goal: Learn what works, what doesn’t, and iterate.
The Mindset for Design Thinkers
- Bias toward action: As a designer, Don’t wait for perfect data, rather you start building and testing.
- Embrace ambiguity: You have to be comfortable not having all the answers upfront.
- Fail forward: You should learn from failure and refine ideas.
- Focus on users: Constantly return to the needs and feedback of real people.