Design Thinking: The Human-Centred Technique That Anyone Can Use

We’ve all heard of design thinking by now, whether we’re designers or not. But what is it, exactly? How can you use it in your business? And why should you care about something that at first glance appears so abstract and creative? In this article, I’ll introduce you to some of the most fundamental concepts of design thinking—from its history and inception to some of the most popular techniques that come from it—and why you need to start practising them today!

Why design thinking is important

Creative thinking is an innovative way to solve problems. Design thinking helps generate new ideas that might not have been possible without a different approach. Designers are well aware of human behavioural characteristics, tendencies, and motivations - meaning they're experts at using empathy to drive innovation. Working in interdisciplinary teams allows each participant's strengths to offset the weaknesses of the others, leading to better ideas than one person could generate alone. The human-centred design leverages prototyping as a communication medium and visual representation of a solution. Prototypes don't need to be polished or perfect—they can be rough around the edges with missing features. However, prototypes allow us to share our ideas with people before investing time and money into developing them further. Design thinking helps solve problems by integrating technical analysis with the contextual understanding of user needs and desires. In this way, designers use their insight on how users interact with their products to make sure products meet their needs. There are 5 key reasons why design thinking is important: creative thinking can solve problems; it provides new ideas for solutions; it has an expert perspective on humans; it works in teams; and finally, prototypes help show product potential.

Challenges of design thinking

Designers often refer to Design Thinking as the innovative way. This may sound straightforward, but there are many challenges for Designers to overcome to make Design Thinking a success. Below, we’ve detailed four of the most common challenges that innovators often encounter when working with design thinking. 1) Working without boundaries is an innovative way that many companies fail. 2) Forcing creative ideas to fit into pre-determined templates can be frustrating and challenging for designers. 3) Researching every aspect of a problem before coming up with potential solutions can take too much time and money. 4) It's important to remember that Design Thinking does not offer guaranteed results; it only provides strategies and tools for solving problems creatively.

How to practice design thinking

1. Identify the human needs and desires that you want to design for. 2. Sketch a range of solutions that might meet those needs and desires, not worrying about if they will work in practice just yet 3. Select which solutions seem best to meet the needs and desires 4. Test the selected solutions by putting them in front of people who might use them 5. Reflect on what you learned from the experiment and use it to shape your next round of ideas 6. When sketching or selecting solutions, think about how different people might react to them 7. When testing solutions, think about how different types of people would react 8. Once you’ve designed a solution and put it in front of others, don’t forget to ask yourself why these users responded positively or negatively to it. Is there something you can do to make this solution better? Would they have reacted differently had they used this product in real life? If so, what are some ways you could test this out? Or is there another need or desire worth designing for?

Identify problems creatively

To design for humans, we need to observe them in their natural habitats. From there, we can uncover the barriers they face and either solve the problem or turn it into an opportunity for innovation. We may find that people are stuck in a terrible traffic jam, but what if we redesign highways so that traffic flows more efficiently? Or how about designing ways to make people’s homes more comfortable and safe with less energy use? With Design Thinking, all types of problems can be turned into new opportunities for innovation. No matter what industry you work in, Design Thinking can help you reimagine your offerings and take your business in exciting new directions. And don’t forget—you don’t have to be a designer to do it! All great innovators in literature, art, music, science, engineering, and business have practised it. So why call it Design Thinking? What's special about Design Thinking is that designers' work processes can help us systematically identify and address problems using human-centred techniques.

Get over our obsession with ideas

The first stage in this process is 'generate', or coming up with several ideas for the solution. We often see Design Thinking touted as a way to come up with these solutions. While it is not a quick fix, Design Thinking can help you come up with new ideas.?

One of the major misconceptions about Design Thinking is that its processes are limited to design thinkers—in reality, all great innovators use it. So why call it Design Thinking? What’s special about Design Thinking is that designers’ work processes can help us systematically get over our obsession with ideas. Instead of thinking that only good ideas lead to successful products, we must focus on what people need and give them creative freedom. Designers should experiment more so they can broaden their horizons and create better products than before. For example, one designer developed an eco-friendly bike by creating 3D printed prototypes and testing different shapes on his bike frame.

A strong argument for Design Thinking is how its practices make it accessible to anyone—not just designers. One designer created an eco-friendly bike by experimenting with 3D printed prototypes and testing different shapes on his bike frame. With a little creativity, we could develop efficient car technologies without the automotive engineers' know-how.

Don’t define problems too narrowly

Design thinking is a technique anyone can use to solve any problem. It doesn’t work well when we try to see problems as just one thing, like producing an online chatbot. Instead, design thinking starts by trying to identify the problem or pain point you want to solve, then uncovers all the different facets of it and finally works out what to do about it. To get started, ask yourself these three questions: What’s your goal? Whom are you designing for? What need are they trying to satisfy? How does this need relate to their current situation? How might your solution affect them? Are there other people who would benefit from it too? Could there be unintended consequences to your solution? To ensure that you’ve considered everything, come up with two solutions. Evaluate each option against your goals and values, considering how each option will affect the people involved. Finally, take into account how feasible each option is—can you execute it in a timely way with the resources available?

Take into account everyone’s point of view

In an era where data is ubiquitous, design thinking can provide a means to make meaning out of complexity. Design Thinking is a human-centred technique that relies on empathy and creativity. To be successful, one must balance rigour with relevance. It’s about finding the sweet spot between doing something radically new and making meaningful improvements in ways that are both practical and possible.?

It’s about the power of thoughtful questioning; it’s about understanding what it feels like to use your product or service, or if you’re in a business-to-business setting, understanding what it feels like for your customers. And it's about the emotional connection people have with products or services they love. All great innovators in literature, art, music, science, engineering, and business have practised it. So why call it Design Thinking? What's special about Design Thinking is that designers' work processes can help us systematically uncover innovative solutions—and do so far more efficiently than any other discipline.

Question assumptions on all sides

1. Design Thinking is just for designers. Wrong! 2. Designers are creative, but they don’t always have the analytical side to drive decisions. Wrong! Designers have an intuitive design process that looks at the relationships between people and their environment and then balances these connections with a structured research process that tells us what we should do about them. By combining these two processes, designers can create novel products and services.?

In other words, Design Thinking involves questioning assumptions on all sides of the situation to bring together seemingly unrelated ideas from many different sources (potentially including you) into something entirely new. It was developed by three professors—Tom Kelley, David Kelley, and John Seely Brown—who recognised the need for more systematic approaches to innovation than the traditional trial-and-error methods of inventors and engineers. They created a six-step process where anyone can engage in Design Thinking. Here it is 1. Start with empathy—listen and observe potential users before making any judgments or decisions. 2. Create options—brainstorm as many solutions as possible using your imagination and creativity to find better ways of doing things or solving problems. 3. Choose the best option—focus on what works rather than dismissing anything that doesn't work the first time around. 4. Make it happen—put your idea into action to test out how well it works in practice, adjusting and refining as necessary along the way. 5. Be curious, not critical—ask why? not what if? 6. Inspire others—use examples of successful implementations to show others how Design Thinking can help them too.

Generate a multitude of solutions

A human-centred technique is at the heart of Design Thinking. This human-centred design starts with deep insights about people and what they need and wants, combined with an inbuilt drive to challenge our assumptions. A good Design Thinker will work hard at exploring, understanding, and empathising with their clients and customers. They’ll think deeply about these people's challenges and find creative ways to address them. They’ll also research how other organisations have solved similar problems, but most importantly they’ll ask questions that start from a place of empathy and understanding.?

When designers ask themselves, What are we trying to accomplish? What would success look like? What is going on for this person or organisation? - than solutions flow more easily. A great example of this was when Facebook designer Caitlin Winner observed children drawing around her, drawing something called Silly Faces which became one of Facebook's first features. As she studied her audience, she noticed there were only ever drawings of eyes and mouths so she designed a tool for users to draw anything—and it was adopted by over 10 million people.

Decide which projects are worth exploring further

It is easy to get caught up in a wave of new ideas and lose sight of which ones are worth exploring further. For me, the following two projects seem to be good candidates for further investigation.?

The first project (A Tool to Create Fashion) has been on my mind for some time and I would like to conduct more research to develop a final plan. My gut feeling tells me that this idea could work but I need to know more about the feasibility of this idea before moving forward with it. The second project (Garden Fresh Tomato Sauce) is also intriguing because I am interested in starting my own company and this product seems like an interesting place to start. However, since I don’t have much experience in this area, I would want to do more research and talk to experts who can guide how best to proceed. If all goes well, there is potential for additional follow-up posts as we learn from our mistakes or take advantage of fortuitous events.

Document what you learn from your research

The human-centred technique of Design Thinking is now influencing fields far beyond the design field. It has become a relevant way of tackling many different kinds of challenges, such as new product development, business process innovation, information design and so on. Designers’ approaches to problem-solving are grounded in experience and observation; they think about how people might use or react to their designs. They also work collaboratively with colleagues from other disciplines. With this approach, it becomes possible to address tough problems that would otherwise be unsolvable by employing an array of smart minds from diverse backgrounds in the quest for solutions. In some cases, designers and others work together to generate ideas. In others, designers will create prototypes of potential solutions. Either way, if you're trying to get your head around a big problem—or even if you're just trying to decide what flavour of ice cream you want—Design Thinking can help you out!

Key Takeaways

The key takeaway is that everyone, not just designers, can use Design Thinking in their work. To be sure, the techniques are a process and methodology invented by designers and refined over time to address human needs more than those of machines. In particular, the design thinking process has five phases: empathise with your user; define their unmet need; ideate many solutions for their need; experiment or prototype solutions with them; put these solutions into production. There are different ways you might approach any one of these steps depending on what kind of project you’re working on. For example, if you’re an artist trying to develop a new painting technique, then your goal might be to deepen your understanding of what makes good art by interacting with other artists first before focusing on developing prototypes or running experiments. If you're an engineer who's looking to improve efficiency in a machine, then it might make sense to start by prototyping potential solutions before committing to producing anything.