Introduction:
Design Thinking is a design methodology that provides a solution-based approach to
solving problems.
It’s extremely useful in tackling complex problems that are ill-defined or unknown, by
understanding the human needs involved, by re-framing the problem in human-centric
ways, by creating many ideas in brainstorming sessions, and by adopting a hands-on
approach in prototyping and testing.
Understanding the five stages of Design Thinking will empower anyone to apply the
Design Thinking methods in order to solve complex problems that occur around us —
in our companies, in our countries, and even on the scale of our planet.
Design Thinking Process:
The five-stage Design Thinking model proposed by the Hasso-Plattner Institute
of Design at Stanford ([Link]). [Link] is the leading university when it
comes to teaching Design Thinking.
The five stages of Design Thinking, according to [Link], are as follows:
Empathize, Analyze(Define the problem), Ideate, Prototype, and Test.
Empathize:
The first stage of the Design Thinking process is to gain an empathic understanding
of the problem you are trying to solve.
This involves consulting experts to find out more about the area of concern through
observing, engaging and empathizing with people to understand their experiences and
motivations, as well as immersing yourself in the physical environment so you can
gain a deeper personal understanding of the issues involved.
Empathy is crucial to a human-centered design process such as Design Thinking, and
empathy allows design thinkers to set their own assumptions about the world in order
to gain insight into users and their needs
Empathize:
Depending on time constraints, a substantial amount of information is gathered at
this stage to use during the next stage and to develop the best possible understanding of
the users, their needs, and the problems that underline the development of that
particular product.
Analyze:
During the Analyze stage, you put together the information you have created and
gathered during the Empathise stage. This is where you will analyse your observations
and synthesise them in order to define the core problems that you and your team
have identified up to this point. You should seek to define the problem as a problem
statement in a human-centred manner.
To illustrate, instead of defining the problem as your own wish or a need of the
company such as, “We need to increase our food-product market share among young
teenage girls by 5%,” a much better way to define the problem would be, “Teenage
girls need to eat nutritious food in order to thrive, be healthy and grow.”
Analyze:
The Define stage will help the designers in your team gather great ideas to establish
features, functions, and any other elements that will allow them to solve the problems
or, at the very least, allow users to resolve issues themselves with the minimum of
difficulty.
IDEATE:
During the third stage of the Design Thinking process, designers are ready to start
generating ideas. You’ve grown to understand your users and their needs in the
Empathise stage, and you’ve analysed and synthesised your observations in the
Analyze stage.
IDEATE:
During the third stage of the Design Thinking process, designers are ready to start
generating ideas. There are hundreds of Ideation techniques such as Brainstorm,
Brainwrite, Worst Possible Idea, and SCAMPER. Brainstorm and Worst Possible Idea
sessions are typically used to stimulate free thinking and to expand the problem space.
It is important to get as many ideas or problem solutions as possible at the beginning of
the Ideation phase.
We should pick best Ideation technique by the end of the Ideation phase to help us
investigate and test your ideas so that we can find the best way to either solve a
problem.
PROTOTYPE:
“Prototype phase" is the fourth stage where teams create a physical representation of
their chosen solution, essentially a working model or sample version of the product,
which can be tested with users to gather feedback and validate the concept before fully
developing it
The design team will produce a number of inexpensive, scaled down versions of the
product. Prototypes may be shared and tested within the team itself, in other
departments, or on a small group of people outside the design team. This is an
experimental phase, and the aim is to identify the best possible solution for each of the
problems identified during the first three stages.
PROTOTYPE:
The solutions are implemented within the prototypes, and, one by one, they are
investigated and either accepted, improved and re-examined, or rejected on the basis
of the users’ experiences. By the end of this stage, the design team will have a better
idea of the constraints inherent to the product and the problems that are present,
and have a clearer view of how real users would behave, think, and feel when
interacting with the end product.
TEST:
Designers or evaluators rigorously test the complete product using the best
solutions during the prototyping phase. Through iterative process, the results
generated in this phase are used to redefine one or more problems and inform
understanding of the users, the conditions of use, how people think, behave, and feel.
TEST:
during this phase, alterations and refinements are made in order to rule out
problem solutions and derive as deep an understanding of the product and its users.