By SARAH GIBBONS on July 31, 2016
Abstract: What is design thinking? Why is it so interesting? This paper mainly introduces the development history and background of design thinking, briefly and vividly summarizes its six stages. Design thinking is hands-on and user-centric to guide problem solving, drive innovation, and ultimately eliminate homogeneity to achieve differentiation and reflect competitive advantages.
History of design thinking
There’s a misconception that design thinking is just getting started. In fact, people have been using design thinking for years: monuments, Bridges, cars, subway systems. Throughout history, the best designers have relied on the human-centric creative design process to create meaningful and impactful designs.
As early as the early 20th century, husband-and-wife designers Charls and Ray Eames insisted on “learning by doing” before designing the “Ames Chair”, and explored the massive needs and constraints behind the chair. The chair is still in production today, 70 years later. In the 1960s, fashion designer Jean Muir had a famous design strategy called the ‘common sense’ approach, in which he attached great importance to how his clothes looked to others. These designers were pioneers of innovation at the time. Their design methodology can also be seen as early design thinking — an insight into users’ lifestyles and unmet needs. Milton Glaser, designer of the “I ❤ NY” logo for the New York State Department of Commerce, also put it nicely: “We think all the time, but we don’t really understand [what users really want]… It’s attention itself that allows us to truly understand the nature of users’ needs and fully understand their needs.”
Despite early user-centric design artifacts, design has not had a high status in the business world. It is often remembered as an afterthought, and is merely a means to enhance the aesthetic. So many companies are simply not meeting the real needs of customers. As a result, some companies have pushed the designer’s role from the limited back end of product development to the beginning of product design. And its human-centric approach sets it apart: its designs meet users’ needs and are profitable.
Large companies need a system of standardization before they can put people first. Design Thinking is a standardized framework for solving traditional business problems with creative design processes.
At the end of the 20th century, Roger Martin and IDEO designers David Kelly & Tim Brown jointly put forward the design thinking, which summarized the design methods and ideas that had been brewing for many years into a unified statement.
What is design thinking? Definition of design thinking
Design thinking is an ideology supported by an accompanying process. To fully understand this concept, it is necessary to clarify “design thinking ideology” and “design thinking process”.
Definition: “Design thinking ideology” emphasizes hands-on, user-centered approach to problem solving and design innovation to achieve differentiation and competitiveness. This “hands-on”, “user-centric” approach is dictated by the “design thought process”. There are six distinct stages in the design thinking process, which are described in detail below.
How does design thinking work? — The process of design thinking
Design thinking as a whole follows a circular process of 1) understand, 2) explore, and 3) materialize. It can be divided into six stages: empathize with the user (empathize), define the problem (define), form the concept (ideate), draw the prototype (prototype), test (test), implement (implement).
Figure 1: Design thinking process (translated by Xiaoyuan)
· Empathize with users (i.e. understand users with empathy) : conduct user research to understand users’ behavior, language, thoughts, and feelings.
Suppose your goal is to improve the boarding experience for new users. You need to talk to real users, see what they do, how they think, and what they want, and think about “what motivates or discourages users” and “where they are frustrated”. The goal is to gather as much information as possible in a way that resonates with and truly understands users.
· Defining questions: According to the survey results, observe what pain points users have. After identifying user needs, list optimization points.
This phase builds on the previous phase and helps us further understand the user. Or take the boarding experience. According to the previous research results, we can summarize the current experience of passengers. Think about whether different passengers have the same pain points; Identify unmet passenger needs.
· Concept formation: Generate a series of crazy ideas and creativity for users’ unmet needs. Participants are free to play with their own ideas; At this stage, the quantity of ideas is more important than the quality.
It’s best to get the whole team involved and briefly describe each idea. Ideas are then exchanged, and good ideas are fused and modified to form a universally agreed solution.
· Prototype drawing: Make the conceptual scheme into a real and touchable prototype. The goal is to identify what works and what doesn’t in a solution. At the same time, we used feedback from the prototype to weigh whether our solution should be more impactful or feasible.
If your task is to design a new sign-up page, draw wireframes, discuss them with your team and put together suggestions. Then quickly adjust the proposal based on the suggestion and discuss it again with a different group of people.
· Testing: Take your prototype to users and get feedback. At the same time, think “does this design solution solve users’ pain points and meet users’ needs? Does it make the user feel better, think more clearly, perform tasks more smoothly?”
Invite real users to test prototypes and validate design goals. Are passengers complaining less about the boarding experience? Does the new login page increase the cost of time and money for users? To achieve your final design vision, test it several times.
· Implementation: Develop your design vision online. Make sure it makes a real difference to the end user’s quality of life.
This is one of the most important aspects of design thinking, and one of the most overlooked. Don Norman said, “We need to do more design.” Design thinking is not magic. Theory without practice is useless. And remember Milton Glaser’s words: “Innovative design is the hardest. Because ‘innovation’ is a verb, it takes a long time. We have to create an idea in our heads and then make it happen. Often this is a long and difficult process. But if you do, your work will have value and meaning.
Why follow design thinking? — Advantages of design thinking
Why learn and use design thinking? There are many reasons. Through induction, we find that the advantages of design thinking are:
· Start from user data and adhere to user-centered; Focus on real non-virtual user needs; And test it with a real user base.
· Draw on the wisdom of the collective experts, establish the collective language, and respect the suggestions of each participant.
· Use multiple methods to solve the same problem and encourage innovation.
Jakob Nielsen told us, “If a great design solves the wrong problem, it will fail.”
Flexibility — Design thinking can be adjusted
Design thinking, when first introduced to it, is complex and profound. But I want to tell you that the six stages of design thinking need not be mechanically and sequentially operated. We can use it as a guiding principle and apply it as needed. Learn to be a chef, not a busybody: The product design process is like a recipe, and can be tweaked to suit the situation.
These six phases are iterative and cyclical, as opposed to a pure linear design process (see Figure 2). After the initial prototype, we often go back to the first two stages of “understanding” to further resonate with the user and define the problem in depth. Only when you have a good idea and a complete prototype can you truly express your design concept. It can also accurately assess the effectiveness of the solution from the beginning of the design. With this in mind, it is valuable to do user research again. Before making a decision, clarify what information about the user is not known and what use cases in the prototype are not investigated.
Each stage can also be repeated. We often iterate over and over again in one session, reaching the goal of one stage and moving on to the next. For example, there are many solutions that arise when “defining a problem” because different participants have different backgrounds and expertise. This stage requires the collective wisdom of all participants and generally takes a long time. If there is no agreement, it is necessary to repeat “define the problem” several times. The output of each phase should be reasonable enough to serve as a guide for the rest of the phase, without straying from our focus.
Figure 2 (translated by Xiaoyuan)
Scalability — The “ambition” of design Thinking
The nature of convenient design thinking and barrier-free endows it with strong expansibility. Companies that previously refused to change their minds now have their own design guidelines. Design thinking applies not only to traditional product design, but also to social, environmental and economic problems. Design thinking is easy to understand and can be widely used; But if “problem” is defined inaccurately, the whole design process can be tricky. Design thinking can be used to optimize small feature points, such as search. It could also be used to create transformative programmes, such as career ladders for teachers, to retain more talent in education.
conclusion
In the age of “experience”, we experience a wide variety of services and products, and psychological expectations are rising. As information and technology evolve, experiences become more complex; Every technological advance also brings new demand challenges. Design thinking is a way to solve problems, but it also creates more opportunities and promotes more innovation.
Translator introduction:
Internet practitioners, keen on user experience, interaction design and service design
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Link: Design Thinking 101