Design thinking

I have been thinking about design thinking. I tend to think about design thinking when I am using a piece of kit that is basically a frock on a pig. It might be a pretty frock, but it is still on a pig. That is when we wish that the companies which made the products we are using did more design thinking.

Design thinking is taking a strategic view to meeting consumer needs and desires, building lateral thinking and user-friendliness into the DNA of the project from its inception... which in turn "leads to dramatic new forms of value" (Brown, 2008, p. 86). Consider the iPhone when compared to the old Nokia bricks. The iPhone had design thinking built in. In its time, the iPhone delivered what customers didn't even know they needed. 

It helps, I think, to consider design thinking as a five step process to help us sort out problems where there are lots of unknowns. The five steps in the process are (Interaction Design Foundation, 2022):

1. Empathise: we need to understand what the problem is. We have to explore the problem broadly, and talk to a lot of people. We need to talk to users. We need to watch users do what they do. We need to find out what the REAL problem is (sometimes the users don't really know). The real problem is nearly always bigger, "more nuanced, or different" to what we assume at the outset (Linke, 2017).
2. Define: We try to analyse all that we have seen, and synthesise everything to define what the core problems are (Interaction Design Foundation, 2022). We effectively "define the question" (Mueller-Roterburg, 2020, p. 17). 
3. Ideate: Then we brainstorm. A lot. We need to include all the "wild and crazy ideas" (Linke, 2017), so we don't leave anything off the table. We get lateral on it; we look for different ways to solve the problem, to apply different thinking (Interaction Design Foundation, 2022).
4. Prototype: Now we experiment. We try lots of stuff and see what sticks, through trying inexpensive, scaled-down versions to investigate ideas. We "outline, design, model, or simulate them so that the potential customer understands your idea and can test it" (Mueller-Roterburg, 2020, p. 17).
5. Test: "design thinking is iterative: [t]eams often use the results to redefine one or more further problems. [We] return to previous stages to make further iterations, alterations and refinements – to find or rule out alternative solutions" (Interaction Design Foundation, 2022).  “We explore potential solutions through modeling and prototyping. We design, we build, we test, and repeat — this design iteration process is absolutely critical to effective design thinking” (Linke, 2017). We also need product testers who are good at breaking things so we can ensure that the result is just as robust as we would expect it to be. 

The steps are not necessarily linear. We are likely to need to take an iterative path, forward and backward, until we think we have it roughly right. Time after time. 

I hope that helps!

Sam

References:

Brown, T. (2008). Design Thinking. Harvard Business Review, 86(6), 84-92. Reprint R0806E.

Interaction Design Foundation. (2022). Design Thinking. https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/design-thinking

Linke, R. (14 September 2017). Design thinking, explained. MIT Management. https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/design-thinking-explained 

Mueller-Roterburg, C. (2020). Design Thinking for Dummies. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.