Beginners guide to Design thinking
Ever heard of the popular phrase “Think Outside the box” ? Design thinking involves thinking on the four edges of those boxes, the corners, the edges and developing a solution based approach in the process.
Humans generally get adapted to a repeated way of solving problems or performing task, this can be most times good as it serves as a way of fast tracking process but it doesn’t follow suit for design thinking. This is because our patterns of thinking are modeled on repetitive task , sometimes seemingly obvious solutions are not usually obvious because we’ve become accustomed to a particular way of thinking. It prevents us from seeing the situation in a way that will enable a new problem solving approach.
Design thinking attempts to employ new ways of thinking which do not conform to the dominant or more conventional way of thinking.
According to d.school , design thinking consist of a five phases:
Empathize- with your users
Define- your users needs, their problem and your insights
Ideate - by challenging assumptions and creating ideas for innovative solutions
Prototype- start creating solutions
Test- Solutions.
Mind you, these phases are iterative and non linear. You don’t have to see them as a step by step process. This means as design thinkers we use our result to continuously review, improve and question initial assumptions.
Design thinking helps us improve the way users interact with products by investigating the conditions which they operate and asking significant questions. Design thinking challenges previously accepted hypothesis and falsify assumptions by proving whether they are right or wrong. It is a process that involves knowledge being constantly questioned, making us improve previously made decisions and ultimately make better decisions.
Design thinking is not only for designers all great innovators have practiced and are still practicing it. Design thinking should be used in our everyday life to communicate, solve problems and make better informed decisions.