Design Thinking applied to Life

By definition, design thinking is a problem-solving framework that utilizes empathetic, creative, and analytical skills to solve problems. We designers normally deal with problems such:

•  A business looking for its next big idea (create a new product or service).
• A government organization trying to get people to conserve energy or water (solve a social problem).
• A technology company that wants a user-friendly design for one of its products (meet a consumer need).

However, design thinking can also be used to solve personal problems, and to design and build our future. Keep reading for an overview of design thinking, and discover how to apply design thinking to our daily life.

The design thinking process involves five steps. These five steps are:

1.      Empathize: Putting people and their needs first. Helps understand the problem from the perspective of the end-user. We understand the way the consumer does things and why, their needs, and what is meaningful to them. This is best attained through observation and interviews (conversations and engagement). It’s a very hands-on experience.

2.     Define: With the information gathered during the “empathize” phase, the problem solver is better equipped to determine what the real problem or challenge is. During the “define” stage, the needs and the insights that were uncovered in the previous step are catalogued and inventoried and the true problem emerges. It’s important to keep in mind that framing the right problem is the only way to create the right solution. The “define” step is concluded once a problem statement has been drafted.

3.      Ideate: During the ideation phase the problem solver uses a creative mindset to generate as many ideas as possible to solve the problem, without the constraint of existing solutions. The objective isn’t to try to find the “right” answer–which is something that doesn’t exist. Instead, many possibilities and alternatives are explored. Some of the tools available for ideation include brainstorming, mind mapping, doodling, among others

4.     Prototyping. A tangible solution is created. Because design thinkers learn by doing, and they build their way forward, the best ideas from the “ideate” stage are chosen to be turned into simple prototypes. Normally between three and five ideas are picked for prototyping. Aims to achieve the objective of failing quickly and cheaply hence speed is key element.

5.     Test: Once we have our prototypes, the fifth phase is going out into the real world and testing them. Failure is part of the design thinking process. Our goal at the testing stage isn’t therefore to be told that our prototypes are a success, but rather to get feedback so that we can make adjustments and refinements and build a better prototype.

The process of ideate, prototype, and test is iterated until the prototype meets the needs of the end user. We do not rule out the go through the entire process from the first step to the last step several times. Iteration is a fundamental part of design thinking.

How then can we apply design thinking to the wicked problem of designing our daily lives? A wicked problem in this case is defined as a big, ambiguous problem that is poorly defined, and poorly bounded. This could include the problem of finding work we love hence, the problem of designing our way to the future we want to have.

Studies show that a singular passion may not be an easy thing to identify for 80% of the population because they are either passionate about many things or there’s no one thing that rises to the level of “that’s what I want to do for the rest my life”. For them passion therefore becomes something that they work into. This is achieved by trying out something new, seeing how it works, tweaking it and experimenting further. And that is what design thinking is all about.

In conclusion, building a future with design thinking means taking improvisational view of life and moving forward by “wayfinding”.