Design Thinking

BY
DR PRASHANT G.K.
What is Design Thinking

 • Design Thinking is an iterative process in which we seek to

 understand the user
 challenge assumptions
 redefine problems
 In an attempt to
 Identify alternative strategies and solutions that might not be instantly
apparent with our initial level of understanding
 At the same time
 Design Thinking provides a solution-based approach to solving
problems.
 It is a way of thinking and working as well as a collection of hands-on
 What is Design Thinking
 The more I pondered the nature of design and reflected on my recent encounters with engineers,
business people and others who blindly solved the problems they thought they were facing
without question or further study, I realized that these people could benefit from a good dose of
design thinking.
 Most important of all, is that the process is iterative and expansive.
 Designers resist the temptation to jump immediately to a solution to the stated problem.
 Instead, they first spend time determining what the basic, fundamental (root) issue is that needs to be
addressed.
 They don't try to search for a solution until they have determined the real problem, and even then,
instead of solving that problem, they stop to consider a wide range of potential solutions.
 Only then will they finally converge upon their proposal. This process is called "Design Thinking.
(Don Norman)
 Un
de
Implement r sta
(Put the vision into effect) nd Empathize
(Conduct research to develop an
understanding of your users)

liz e
e r ia
M at
Define
Test (Combine all your research and
(Return to your users for observe where your users
feedback) problems exist)

Ideate
Prototype (Generate a range of crazy,
(Build real, tactile creative ideas)
representations for a
range of your ideas)
Explore
Some authors are less optimistic when considering the amount of
iteration required
Empathize
 “Deepunderstanding of the problems and realities of
the people you are designing for”
3 steps
 Observe, how users interact with their environment.
 Capture quotes, behaviors and other notes that reflect
their experience.
 Notice what they think, feel, need
Empathize
 Engage
 Interviews scheduled or ad-hoc
 Learn how to ask the right questions
 Immerse
 Find ways “to get into the user’s shoes”
 Best way to understand the users’ needs
 Empathize Tools

•Assume a beginner’s • Use photo and video user-based

mindset studies
• Ask What-How-Why • Use personal photo and video
journals
• Ask the 5 whys
•
• Engage with extreme users
Empathy map
•
• Story share-and-capture
Conduct interviews with
empathy • Bodystorm
•Build empathy with • Create journey maps
analogies
Empathize - Beginner’s Mindset

 • Forget your assumptions and personal beliefs

 • Misconceptions or stereotypes limit the amount of real
empathy you can build
 • A beginner’s mindset allows you
 • to put aside biases and approach
 • Design with fresh eyes
Empathize - Beginner’s Mindset

 What you should do

 • Don’t judge
 • Question everything
 • Be truly curious
 • Find patterns
 • Listen without thinking how you’re going to respond
Empathize – Ask What – How -
Why
 • Tool to help you better observe
 • Especially good for analysing photos
 • What you should do for a specific observation
 • Divide a sheet into 3 parts – What / How / Why
 • What = write what you observe the user is doing without making
assumptions
 • How = understand what the user is doing. Is it positive or
negative, does it require effort? Use plenty of adjectives
 • Why = now you have to interpret; guess motivations and
emotions, make assumptions that you have to test with users later
Empathize – Ask the 5 whys

Repeating the Why question 5 times to identify the root cause of a problem
 • Some useful rules
 • Write down the problem and make sure that all people understand it.
 • Distinguish causes from symptoms.
 • Pay attention to the logic of cause-and-effect relationship.
 • Assess the process, not people.
 • Never leave "human error", "worker's inattention", "blame John" etc., as
the root cause.
 • When you form the answer for question "Why" - it should happen from
the customer's point of view.
Empathize – Empathy map

Repeating the Why question 5 times to identify the root cause

of a problem
 • Some useful rules
 • Write down the problem and make sure that all people
understand it.
 • Distinguish causes from symptoms.
 • Pay attention to the logic of cause-and-effect relationship.
 • Assess the process, not people.
 • Never leave "human error", "worker's inattention", "blame
John" etc., as the root cause.
 • When you form the answer for question "Why" - it should
Empathize – Empathy map

 Says
 • quotes from what users say during interview
 Thinks
 • What users seem to think when experiencing the product
 Does
 • Actions that the user takes during the experiment
 Feels
 • The user’s emotional state (adjective + context) like
 Impatient: pages load too slowly
Empathize – Conduct interviews with
empathy
 • Ask why.
 • Never say “usually” when asking a question.
 • Encourage stories
 • Look for inconsistencies.
 • Pay attention to nonverbal cues.
 • Don’t be afraid of silence.
 • Ask questions neutrally and don’t suggest answers.
Empathize - Build empathy with
analogies
 • Use analogies to gain a fresh way of looking at an
environment, and in instances where direct
observation is hard to achieve.
 • analogies allow us to express our ideas or to explain
complex matters in an understandable and motivating
way.
 • Start by identifying the aspects of a situation that
are most important, interesting, or problematic.
 • Find other experiences that contain some of these
aspects — it will help you gain a better understanding
of your users’ problems, and it will also spark new
ideas to improve their experiences.
Empathize - Use photo and video user-
based studies
• Use video recordings of users performing
their regular activities
• Try to make the study as casual as possible
so that the user doesn’t feel any pressure
• Use different techniques like how-what-why
to examine the videos or photos or frames
taken from the videos
Empathize - Engage with extreme
users
 • Determine who’s extreme.
 [Link]
 • Engage.
 Observe and interview extreme users just like other folks.
Look for workarounds (or other extreme behaviors) to
spark inspiration and uncover insights.
 • Look at the extreme in all of us.
 Look to extreme users to spur wild ideas. Then narrow in
on what resonates with the primary users that you’re
designing for.
Empathize - Bodystorm
 • Bodystorming is a unique method that spans empathy
work, ideation, and prototyping.
 • technique of physically experiencing a situation to derive
new ideas.
 • requires setting up an experience - complete with
necessary artifacts and people - and physically “testing” it.
 • can include physically changing your space during ideation.
 • you're focused on here is the way you interact with your
environment and the choices you make while in it.
 • Example: when thinking about a product for blind people try
to actually experiment not using your eyes during an
experiment and try to see what you can achieve and what are
Empathize - Create journey maps
 • Visual representation of the process a customer or prospect
goes through to achieve a goal with your company/products
 • Identity the customer’s needs and pain points
 • Steps:
 Set clear objectives for the map.
 Profile your personas and define their goals.
 List out all the touchpoints (places in the app/site where you can
interact with the customer)
 Identify the elements you want your map to show.
 Take the customer journey yourself.
 Make necessary changes.
Define
 • Synthesize your observations about your users from the Empathize stage
 • Definition of a meaningful and actionable problem statement, which the design thinker will
focus on solving
 • A great definition of your problem statement => kick start the ideation process (third stage)
in the right direction.
 • Unpack your empathy findings into needs and insights and scope a meaningful challenge
 • Define your Point of View – meaningful and actionable problem statement
 • Preserves emotion and the individual you’re designing for.
 • Includes strong language.
 • Uses sensical wording.
 • Includes a strong insight.
 • Generates lots of possibilities
Define tools

 • Point of view
 • How Might We
 • Why-How Ladder
 • Powers of Ten
Define - Point of View

 • You articulate a POV by combining these three elements – user,

need, and insight.
 • Insert your information about your user, the needs and your
insights in the following sentence:
 • [User . . . (descriptive)] needs [need . . . (verb)] because
[insight. . .(compelling)]
 Define - How might we?
 Short questions that launch brainstorms
 • Seeds for ideation
 • Come out form the point of view statement

Example:
 • Challenge: Redesign the ground experience at the local international airport
 • POV: Harried mother of three, rushing through the airport only to wait hours at the
gate, needs to entertain her playful children because “annoying little brats” only
irritate already frustrated fellow passengers.
([Link]
[Link])
Define - How might we
 • Amp up the good: HMW use the kids’ energy to entertain fellow passenger?
 • Remove the bad: HMW separate the kids from fellow passengers?
 • Explore the opposite: HMW make the wait the most exciting part of the trip?
 • Question an assumption: HMW entirely remove the wait time at the airport?
 • Go after adjectives: HMW we make the rush refreshing instead of harrying?
 • ID unexpected resources: HMW leverage free time of fellow passengers to
share the load?
 • Create an analogy from need or context: HMW make the airport like a spa?
Like a playground?
 • Play against the challenge: HMW make the airport a place that kids want to go?
 • Change a status quo: HMW make playful, loud kids less annoying?
 • Break POV into pieces: HMW entertain kids? HMW slow a mom down? HMW
mollify delayed passengers?
Define - Why How Ladder
 • Used to find user needs and ways to possibly solve them
 • Step 1: Identify a few meaningful user needs and write them at the bottom
of a piece of paper.
 • Step 2 Ladder up from that need, asking “why?”
 • For example, why would a user “need to see a link between a product and
the process that creates it?” because the user, “needs confidence that it won’t
harm their health by understanding its origin.”
 • Step 3 Ask why again, and continue to ladder from that same need.
 • At a certain point, you’ll reach a very common, abstract need such as, “the
need to be healthy.” This is the top of the ladder.
 • Step 4 Climb back down the ladder asking “how?”
 • This will give you ideas for how to address the needs