Introduction to

Design Thinking
Follow the step-by-step instructions. The course will take 2 to
3 hours to complete and you can start and stop at any time.

STEP 1: Familiarize yourself

with the Course Materials
Welcome to this Design Thinking
Workshop from the Dunin-Deshpande
Queen's Innovation Centre.
This workshop will provide you with an overview of Design Thinking, and then guide you
through an example where all elements of the design thinking process will be applied. Design
Thinking is a tool that helps us focus on what our user says, thinks, feels and does. You will gain
a deeper understanding of the problem through practicing empathy and observing the user, then
defining the problem, brainstorming ideas, and finally prototyping and testing to validate
assumptions and answer outstanding questions. This is an iterative approach that embeds the
process of seeking feedback from our user, ensuring we are focussed on the right problem, which
allows us to co-create solutions that are more meaningful. Design Thinking is a human-centred
and collaborative approach to problem-solving that offers creative, iterative and practical
solutions.

Your next steps are to read through the introductory materials that will orient you to the course:
 Course Outline
 Certification and Assessment Information
 Copyright Information
 Accessibility Information, and
 Take the Pre-Workshop Survey
Course outline
Learning Outcomes
1. Explain the steps in the Design Thinking Methodology
2. Develop solutions using the Design Thinking Methodology
3. Test the societal desirability and intended impact of an idea using
Design Thinking

Topic Schedule at a Glance

Empathizing: Interviews & Questioning

Defining: Problem Statements

Ideating: Idea Generation

Prototyping: Minimum Viable Products, Prototypes & Pilots

Testing: Experiments, Assumptions

Employability Skills
This course has been developed to help you to further enhance the following
range of employability / transferable skills and behaviours:

Knowledge & Intellectual Capacities,

 Knowledge in an Area of Specialization

 Creative Thinking
 Problem Solving
 Critical Thinking
 Information Literacy

Research-Focus / Practice-Orientation,

 Application of Knowledge
 Knowledge Creation and Dissemination
 Inquiry & Analysis

Leadership,
  Initiative
 Nurturing Others

Interpersonal Capacities,

 Collaboration
 Written & Oral Communication
 Digital literacies
 Disposition to Improve
 Influencing
 Mentoring
 Working in Teams
 Empathy

Personal Capacities,

 Self-Management
 Ethical Reasoning
 Adaptability
 Social Intelligence
 Emotional Intelligence
 Resilience

Community Engagement,

 Civic Engagement
 Global Learning
 Intercultural Competence

How to Proceed with the Workshop

STEP 1: Familiarize yourself with the course materialsIn this section you will prepare to start the
workshop and take a Pre-Workshop Survey.,

STEP 2: Start the workshopIn this section you go through the materials and complete the design
challenge.,

STEP 3: Submit your assessments and complete the workshopIn this section you will submit your Design
Challenge and take two quizzes.
Suggested Time Commitment
This online workshop is a preliminary activity that is designed to prepare you
for an in-person workshop. The course material is delivered in a singular
module with additional activities. Learners can expect to invest
approximately 3-5 hours in this online workshop and activities.

Certification and Assessment

Information
Certification
The successful completion of this workshop results in an official and
verified Introduction to Design Thinking certificate from Queen's University.

In order to obtain the certificate you will need to obtain a 70% average on
the deliverables at the end of the workshop.

After the course is complete and your grade has been calculated, you will
receive an email with a digital certificate that you can include on your
resume and share on your digital networks.

Types of Assessment
This workshop contains 3 forms of assessment designed to scaffold learners
from foundational practice activities through to applying the materials and
testing knowledge.

The three forms of assessment are:

Self-Check Activities: integrated throughout the workshop is a series of

ungraded self-check activities and quizzes that are designed for you to check
your understanding of the materials as you progress.

Design Challenge Activities: integrated throughout the workshop is a series of

ungraded design challenge activities that are designed for you to apply the
techniques presented as you progress. These activities are to be submitted
as a single file to the Course Website after you have completed the
workshop. Submission of these activities will be required prior to attendance
at any subsequent live, in-person workshop, or determined by your workshop
organizer.

Design Thinking Quizzes: once you complete the online workshop, you will
take the Quizzes in the Course Website. Completion of these Quizzes will be
required prior to complete the workshop and receive the certificate.

Assessment Breakdown by Module

Module, Activities, Description, Alignment with Learning Outcome (1,2 or 3)

Overview,

Self-Check Quiz 1, Quiz questions to check your understanding of provided content. Unlimited
attempts and immediate feedback will be provided., 1, 2

Empathizing,

Self-Check Activity 1, From a list of interview questions, select those questions that will allow us
to draw insights and provide us a better understanding of the user's needs., 1, 2

Self-Check Activity 2, By framing the questions using what, how, and why, we are able to better
understand the behaviours and challenges experienced by our users. Select the cards that will
encourage the interviewee to tell stories through open-ended questions., 1, 2

Design Challenge: Empathy, Observe user behaviour and record notes at given locations., 1, 2

Defining,

Self-Check Activity 3, Outline the major components of problem statements (narrow enough,
broad enough), 1, 2

Design Challenge: Defining, Create your own problem statement., 1, 2

Ideating,

Design Challenge: Ideation, Generate ideas based on your own problem statement., 1, 2

Prototyping,

Prototype: Differentiation Activity, Assess differences between Minimal Viable Product (MVP),
Prototype, and Pilot in three drag and drop activities. , 1, 2

Design Challenge, Create your own storyboard of your user interacting with your proposed
solution.,

Testing,

Design Challenge, Using your idea, identify key assumptions, and design an experiment. , 1, 2, 3
Copyright Information
Copyright
The creator invites others to use, change and remix the material, provided
they follow the Creative Commons licensing agreement as follows:

 Attribution —must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license,

and indicate where any changes were made. This can be done in any
reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor
endorses a person or specific use.
 NonCommercial —may not use the material for commercial purposes.
 ShareAlike — can remix, transform, or build upon the material,
however, distribution of contributions must be done under the same
license as the original.
 No additional restrictions — may not apply legal terms or technological
measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license
permits.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial

4.0 International License.
Pre-Workshop Survey
Please reflect upon what you hope to get out of this workshop.
Your feedback is very important to us, as we seek to ensure
that we deliver the best possible education to all future
students.
This survey contains 3 short questions, and should take no
longer than 2 minutes.

Question 1
To what extent do you hope that this course will help you to
learn about the basics of Design Thinking?

Question 1 options:
A. No, I don't think I will learn anything.
B. I think I will learn the basics.
C. Yes, I hope to learn a lot.

Question 2
To what extent do you hope that this course will help you to
improve your creative thinking and problem-solving skills?
Question 2 options:
A. No, I don't think I will improve these skills.
B. I hope to improve these skills somewhat.
C. Yes, I hope to greatly improve these skills.

Question 3
To what extent do you hope that this course will help you to
have ideas that you will be able to use you in your
venture/workplace/studies?
A. No, I don't think this course is relevant to my
venture/workplace/studies.,
 B. This will be of some relevance to my
venture/workplace/studies.
C.

STEP 2: Start the workshop

here
At this point you have read through the Course Outline and Assessment Information in detail. If
necessary please save this information and keep it for future reference. Your next steps are to:

 Proceed to the preliminary readings for this course. These will provide you with a broad
overview of the concepts and hopefully stimulate your imagination for the workshop
itself.
 Print out the Design Challenge MS Word file, which contains worksheets and
information to complete the Design Challenge.
 Open the Design Thinking module. This online module guides you through the stages of
design thinking and integrates the design thinking challenge deliverable that you will
produce as you progress through the module.

Preliminary Readings
Please read this introduction to Design Thinking from IDEO

[Link]

Please read these cases for inspiration about design thinking:

[Link]

[Link]

You should spend approximately 30 minutes on these readings.

Design Thinking Workshop - Design

Challenges
Word doc attached

Design Thinking Workshop

This is an interactive module:

[Link]

STEP 3: Submit your

assessments and complete the
workshop!
Now that you have completed the workshop you should be well equipped to submit the final
deliverables. Your next steps are to:

 Take Scenario Quiz 1

 Take Scenario Quiz 2
 Take the Final Quiz
 Submit your Design Challenge
o PLEASE SUBMIT ALL THESE TO YOUR PROGRAM COACH AND
MEGAN

Good luck!
Scenario Quiz 1 – GE
Healthcare MRI Machine
This scenario quiz covers all the content from the online module and readings.

 Grading: Scenario Quiz 1 consists of five (5) questions for a total of five (5) marks on the
quiz.
 Time Available: On average, most students will complete this quiz within ten (10)
minutes.
 Number of Attempts: You have one (1) attempt to complete the quiz. Once you begin the
quiz, you must complete it in entirety.

Read this scenario and answer the questions below:

Doug Dietz, an industrial designer for GE Healthcare, designed
a new MRI machine. Doug was excited to see the finished
product installed in a hospital that had purchased it. As he
was walking down the hallway to the room where the new
machine was installed, he saw a young family standing
outside the room. As he got closer, he saw a little girl weeping
as her parents tried to reassure her that she was brave
enough to do the MRI scan.
Suddenly Doug realized that the experience of getting an MRI
was completely different than he thought, especially from the
perspective of a child.
He followed the family into the dark room where he saw a
large warning sign. Doug noticed that the machine looked like
a large brick with a hole in it and that there was a loud noise
coming from the machine. The little girl was getting more and
more upset.
After putting himself in the young patient's shoes, observing
the scanning process in a hospital setting, and interviewing
many children and parents, Doug received consistent
feedback that the experience of getting an MRI was anxiety-
inducing for children and stressful for parents. Doug also
learned that 80% of children needed to be sedated in order to
receive an MRI in his machine. Doug found the most
challenging part for parents wasn't the financial cost of the
test or having to take the time off work, it was not knowing
how they were going get their children through the test. Doug
Dietz was compelled to do something about the fact that
children needed to take the scan.
Doug decided to host brainstorming sessions in a daycare
setting and included children, parents, nurses, practitioners,
and museum experts who were responsible for curating
experiences. They acted out games and scenarios together.
They designed new MRI experiences for children with
colourful, themed rooms like a jungle adventure and a pirate
adventure. The elements of the room that were previously
viewed as scary were replaced with imagery and interactive
components such as audio-visual effects. When Doug Dietz
returned to the hospital to see the new MRI rooms in use, he
heard a six year old patient turn to his parents and ask, "Can
we come back again tomorrow?" After it was implemented,
the percentage of children that needed to be sedated to
receive an MRI dropped to 10%, a huge success for Doug.
Question 1 (1 point)
Which of the following is an example of an observation?
Question 1 options:
A. The little girl was scared of certain features of the room
and noises of the machine.
B. The MRI testing room was dark. There was a large warning
sign on the machine and the machine itself looked like a
large brick with a hole in it. A loud noise was coming from
the machine. The little girl was getting more and more
visibly upset.
C. [The little girl is inexperienced as a patient and not used to
hospital rooms.
 D. The experience of getting an MRI was completely different
than Doug thought, especially for children.
Question 2 (1 point)
According to Design Thinking, how should Doug empathize in
this situation?
Question 2 options:
A. Realize that he was wrong about the experience for children of
getting an MRI.
B. Shadow the little girl and her parents in the hospital before,
during, and after the scan in order to understand what it is like
for them.
C. Understand and share the feelings of the parent and the child in
this situation.

Question 3 (1 point)
Select an example of a strong insight that Doug Dietz could
have formed from his observations and interviews.
Question 3 options:

A. The MRI machine is poorly designed for children.

B. Children and their parents need an MRI scan experience that is
more comfortable for them.
C. The parents' biggest concern is how they are going to get their
child through the necessary MRI scan, rather than financial
burden or time cost.

Question 4 (1 point)
Select a well-constructed problem statement for Doug
Dietz'challenge:
Question 4 options:
 A. Children and their parents need an MRI scan experience that is
more comfortable to reduce their anxiety when performing the
scan.
B. The MRI experience needs to be more child-friendly.
C. There are problems with the current MRI machine design
because 80% of child patients need to be sedated.
D. There are problems with the current MRI machine design
because it is anxiety-inducing for children and stressful for
parents.

Question 5 (1 point)
According to the Design Thinking process, which of these
shows strong use of the Prototyping and Testing phases?
Question 5 options:
A. Doug Dietz designed and built an MRI machine which was
sold to a hospital. When Doug Dietz went to visit the
hospital, he saw real patients using it in context and
collected observations and feedback.
B. In Doug Dietz's brainstorming sessions in a day care
setting, he asked children, parents, and practitioners to try
different scenarios by acting it out and playing games. He
was able to collect the necessary feedback to move
forward with his designs.
C. When Doug Dietz went back to the drawing board, he
designed a pirate adventure themed room. The children
were told they would be boarding a ship and if they laid
completely still, the fish would start to jump over them.
Doug Dietz returned to the hospital to see the room in use
and heard a child turn to his parents and ask, "Can we
come back again tomorrow?" This feedback validated his
assumptions and proved he had successfully designed an
MRI experience that was comfortable for children.
This scenario quiz covers all the content from the online module and readings.

 Grading: Scenario Quiz 1 consists of five (4) questions for a total of five (4) marks on the
quiz.
 Time Available: On average, most students will complete this quiz within ten (20)
minutes.
 Number of Attempts: You have one (1) attempt to complete the quiz. Once you begin the
quiz, you must complete it in entirety.

Read this scenario and answer the questions below:

At an intersection near a large automotive plant, vehicle-
pedestrian collisions were a problem - a number of
pedestrians had died trying to cross the road. A team of traffic
engineers were deployed to try to determine the cause of
these tragic accidents. They immediately focused on things
like the traffic flow, the signage near the intersection, the
lights at the intersection, to determine what could be the
cause. Could extra signage for drivers make the intersection
safer for pedestrians? Is the heavy traffic flow the issue? Are
people running red lights? Could a traffic camera solve the
problem? Or was it high rates of jaywalking? Could pedestrian
signage curb the issue? Or perhaps a pedestrian crossing?
While they were doing their calculations and analysis of the
traffic patterns and thinking of ways that some kind of traffic
intervention could solve this issue, a person who worked on
the plant floor came forward to a manager and notified them
that the reason people were crossing the road, and getting
hit, was because there was a newspaper box on the other
side. They said that on their break, plant workers wanted to
read the newspaper, so they would cross the street to get one
at the newspaper box opposite the plant. The individual
proposed moving the newspaper box to the same side of the
street as the plant, to negate the need for workers to cross
the street. How would you apply design thinking to solve this
issue, if you were one of the plant managers trying to address
this issue from the beginning?
Consider this scenario and how design thinking could have
been employed to more quickly understand how to solve this
problem.
Question 1 (1 point)
How might the plant managers gain a better appreciation for
the user experience of crossing the street at this intersection?
Question 1 options:
A. Deploying a survey to all employees at the plant
B. Deploying a team of traffic engineers to analyze possible traffic-
related causes
C. Observing the road crossing behaviour over the course of one
day

Question 2 (1 point)
What is an example of a properly scoped problem statement
for this issue?
Question 2 options:
Question 2 options:
A. The traffic lights timed properly at this intersection, leading
people to run red lights and hit pedestrians.
B. Drivers need more signage to prevent pedestrian vehicle
collisions at this intersection.
C. Plant workers need a safer way of getting newspapers on their
break.

Question 3 (1 point)
How might the plant generate solutions to this problem in a
design thinking fashion?
Question 3 options:
Question 3 options:
A. Management should dictate a solution based on the traffic
engineers conclusions.
B. A team of people with a variety of different positions should have
a brainstorming session to generate solutions.
C. A survey should be deployed to the whole plant.
Question 4 (1 point)
How could the plant prototype their solution of moving the
newspaper box?
Question 4 options:
A. Purchase a newspaper subscription for the plant so that
newspapers are in all break rooms.,
B. Install a temporary pedestrian crossing sign for one week to see if
this makes it safer for pedestrians to cross the street.
C. Have a person stand on the same side of the street at the plant,
and have them hand out newspapers on break.
Design Thinking Final
Quiz
The final quiz covers all the content from the online module
and readings.

 Grading: Quiz 1 consists of fifteen (15) questions for a

total of fifteen (15) marks on the quiz.
 Time Available: On average, most students will complete
this quiz within thirty (45) minutes.
 Number of Attempts: You have one (1) attempt to
complete the quiz. Once you begin the quiz, you must
complete it in entirety.

Question 1 (1 point)
Design Thinking starts with _______.
Question 1 options:
A. Empathy and an understanding of human needs
B. Identifying solutions to a proposed problem
C. Sketching or prototyping your idea

Question 2 (1 point)
You can learn to empathize with customers in design thinking
through all of these options EXCEPT which?
Question 2 options:
A. Running focus groups
B. Asking open-ended questions
C. Making assumptions

Question 3 (1 point)
Innovation occurs in the centre of the IDEO Venn Diagram.
What 3 spheres intersect here?
Question 3 options:
Question 3 options:
A. Human values, visual thinking, and design for sustainability
B. Creativity, technology, adaptability
C. Social desirability, technical feasibility, financial viability

Question 4 (1 point)
The technique and mindset of "yes, and" is used when
brainstorming to:
Question 4 options:
Question 4 options:
A. Discourage wild ideas
B. Build on the ideas of others
C. Politely defer someone's idea

Question 5 (1 point)
Which of the following is NOT an example of a prototype?
Question 5 options:
Question 5 options:
A. Storyboard
B. Boxed product
C. Wireframes

Question 6 (1 point)
Design thinkers create low-fidelity prototypes to:
Question 6 options:
A. Test concepts quickly and cheaply with feedback from users
B. Build products that are ready for market
C. Estimate the price and value of the product

Question 7 (1 point)
Design Thinking is sometimes visualized as a linear process,
but it is actually:
Question 7 options:
Question 7 options:
A. Standardized
B. Iterative
C. Longitudinal

Question 8 (1 point)
Why is design thinking important?
Question 8 options:
Question 8 options:
A. Design thinking uncovers unexpected innovation that leads to
the development of a new category that does not yet exist in the
industry
B. Companies that promote design thinking as part of their process
are able to value their product and/or service higher than
competitors
C. We need to understand the needs of our users to develop insight
and create a better solution
Question 9 (1 point)
Who or what is at the centre of the design thinking model?
Question 9 options:
A. The customer
B. The concept of innovation
C. The solution

Question 10 (1 point)
While you are at the grocery store you observe a friend
putting a traditional, chemical-rich cleaner in their cart. This is
the same friend who says they prefer a natural, eco-friendly
brand of cleaner over other brands. As you approach the shelf,
you see that this cleaner is on sale for $5 off. This is an
example of why it is important to:
Question 10 options:
A. Be skeptical of what people say their intentions are
B. Watch what people do and not always rely on what they say
C. Use observation as the main method for identifying a problem

Question 11 (1 point)
Through some secondary research you learn that plastic
straws are bad for the environment. To get a better
understanding of the problem, you talk to some local
restaurants and learn that they are throwing out almost 1 full
bag of plastic straws at the end of each business day. You
observe some servers in a few restaurants and notice that
they automatically put a straw in every drink they sell. You
also observe a few customers take the straw out of their drink
and set it on the table before drinking.
Insight: The process of ordering a drink at a restaurant
results in a lot of wasted straws.
Based on the information and insight provided above, please
select an appropriate problem statement that is the most
fitting.
Question 11 options:
Question 11 options:
A. The process of ordering a drink at a restaurant needs to be
reassessed
B. Customers who order drinks need to be presented with a choice
about whether or not to receive a straw
C. Restaurants need to stop purchasing plastics straws and replace
them with a better non-plastic alternative

Question 12 (1 point)
What is deficient or lacking in the following how might we
statement? "How might we reduce transportation-related
greenhouse gas emissions in Kingston?"
Question 12 options:
Question 12 options:
A. Too broad
B. Too narrow
C. Doesn't include user

Question 13 (1 point)
Which of the following would be an example of design
thinking?
Question 13 options:
A. You find that you miss out on a lot of interesting events at your
college or university, so you develop a platform to solve this
problem
B. Through reading peer-reviewed papers, you and your team have
observed a common trend that vaping is a problem among youth
C. While walking to the store, you observe an individual with
mobility limitations, you ask them about this experience and
develop insights, and using an empathetic approach you
brainstorm solutions to help them

Question 14 (1 point)
In order to gain a better understanding of the pain points of
potential users, it is helpful to use tools of empathy and set
aside our assumptions to prevent our biases from shifting our
understanding of the users needs. In the 360 hotspot exercise
you got to observe the homes of three potential users, but
what could you do to understand their situation more fully?
Question 14 options:
A. Interact with the home-owners and immerse yourselves into
their shoes by shadowing them during a typical day at home
B. Ask the home-owners yes or no questions about their living
situation to get answers to some confusing observations
C. Talk through what you observed with a third party who can help
validate any assumptions you've made

Question 15 (1 point)
You are part of a team that is looking to design a new line of
drinking water fountains. What approach might you take to
empathize with your users to better understand their pain
points?
Question 15 options:

Question 15 options:

A. Ask friends what they would want from a water fountain

B. Design a water fountain that you think is visually
appealing and convenient
C. Observe users interacting with several different water
fountains and watch how they use it