Problems are an integral part of our lives. We face problems every day, trying to find a solution and prevent their occurrence in the future. However, they arise again and again, complicating our life to one degree or another. But is it possible to find a way that will help solve them efficiently, quickly and interestingly? There is such a way, and it is called design thinking. Let’s understand what this term means, what is the essence of design thinking and where it can be applied.
Design and design thinking are the same thing?
For starters, let’s get it straight: design as “the aesthetic transformation of industrial objects” has little to no relation to design thinking, except a very distant one. Why then did design thinking get its name? If you look at the translation of the word design, then among the list of meanings you can see the following: “conceive”, “conceive”, “develop”. It is these values that are decisive on the path to understanding what design thinking is.
The term “design thinking”, or rather design thinking, came to Russia relatively recently, although its idea was born back in 1969. Herbert Simon, an American sociologist, politician, and economist, first used the concept of design thinking in his book The Sciences of the Artificial. Later, this idea was promoted by scientists from Stanford University, then they founded the Stanford Institute of Design, actively supporting the concept of design thinking.
Today, this technique is used all over the world, successfully used in business, psychology, engineering and various areas of life, including, in fact, design (these two concepts are in contact here).
So, let’s get down to the essence of design thinking.
Principles and stages of design thinking
Design thinking is a way of solving problems, focused on improving the quality of human life with the help of available technologies. From the definition, you can see that design thinking operates on several key principles, including:
- Anthropocentrism (the logic of design thinking involves improving the quality of life, first of all, of a person).
- Thinking outside the box (we think outside the box, literally – “outside the box”, we find people who can hardly be called mediocre).
- Intuitive approach (unstructured designer experience, the essence is intuition, carries a certain value).
Design thinking includes the following steps:
Empathy
The term “empathy” is associated by many, first of all, with empathy, sympathy, which is also true in this context. At the stage of empathy, we are trying to understand the problem that brings discomfort to a person, a group of people, society, etc. As many speakers and coaches define it, this is the stage when we try to “get into other people’s shoes”, feel the hardships and inconveniences caused by the problem.
Analysis and synthesis
After collecting information about emerging problems, design thinking proposes to systematize and analyze the entire volume received, classify this information, find possible contradictions, and remove unnecessary material. After such filtering of information, we collect the most important, focus on the main thing, synthesize, that is, summarize the essential points in a thesis form.
Idea Generation
So, it’s time for ideas! We offer a wide variety of solutions to the identified problem, and here both simple and the most extraordinary ideas are welcome. This step involves the creation of many options for solving the problem, which is possible only by considering the problem from different angles. Therefore, it is desirable that people from various professional fields work in the design thinking team. This is where you have to “think outside the box” and not be afraid to be creative, even eccentric, because sometimes the most non-standard ideas are the most useful. But don’t forget about their viability as well.
If you want to learn how to find many original solutions to problems, we recommend taking our TRIZ in Practice online program. In this 4-week program, you will master the use of creative and inventive algorithms that will help you solve problems in various areas of your life.
Prototyping
This step can also be called modeling. Here we create a real model, a prototype, a template of what we have chosen as a solution to the problem. And this does not require large financial, human, time costs – it is enough to have simple tools at hand that can test your idea in the simplest form. It can be a regular sheet of paper, scissors, a designer, small figures, etc. This step will allow you to visualize the work of your prototype, identify its shortcomings, make improvements or refute its viability and value (in this case, return to the previous stage and choose another idea). In any case, get down to business and create!
Testing
When you have created a prototype and are confident in its effectiveness and ability to solve the task, start trying it directly on the audience that is most interested in this, that is, on the respondents at the empathy stage. Testing will give you an answer to the question: has the task been solved? Were we able to create a model that eliminates the problem that was discovered at the initial stages? If yes, consider that you have almost completed the design thinking process of creating a new, somewhat innovative product with high efficiency and move on to the next final stage.
Storytelling
After the idea is implemented, it is important to correctly design it, pack it, give it a relevant and profitable image. It is necessary to make a story so that the product is of interest to the so-called stakeholders (that is, people who are directly interested in this product). In this scenario, you will increase the likelihood of commercial success.
The six steps presented are the essence of design thinking, which, as you can see, is an interesting non-standard technology that brings a solution at low cost. Of course, the fundamentally important stage is the generation of ideas, and the more options you offer, subjecting them to critical analysis, the more ways to solve the problem await you.
Design Thinking Examples
As noted above, design thinking is applied in many areas of human life, while the greatest commercial benefit is achieved, of course, in the business area. By the way, an excellent book on this topic can be the book of the famous Tim Brown, CEO and President of IDEO, who collaborated with such international corporations as Microsoft, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Steelcas, created the Oral-B children’s toothbrush, a computer mouse for Apple and much more. The book is called Design Thinking in Business.
Tim Brown points out in his book that the concept of design thinking is designed not only to solve problems in the field of management, administration, but also more global problems, that is, in a sense, it is a universal concept capable of producing any useful product , improving the quality of human life in its general sense.
Of the companies that have used design thinking in their activities, we can note such corporations as:
- Sberbank, which developed self-service operations at ATMs using this technique (deposit-withdrawal, balance request, transfers to other clients, etc.)
- CIAN, which has developed a separate site for new buildings in Moscow and the possibility of placing paid ads on social networks.
- X5 Retail Group, which implements the Accessible Environment project, helping people with disabilities make purchases at Pyaterochka and Perekrestok retail chains without any problems.
- Consulting company McKinsey & Company, which analyzed the busiest interchange hub of the capital in Vykhino, recommended taking the widest range of consumer travel maps, covering all possible path scenarios.
Of course, these are not the only examples of the use of design thinking in the business environment. You can see even more examples of using this method in this article.
Also, do not forget that within the framework of classical approaches, when studying any issue, we usually operate with the methodology of critical thinking. Recall that in the practice of critical thinking, we usually investigate the issue in the most detail, analyze it, turn to sources, synthesize some idea. However, the main task of design thinking as an alternative methodology does not come down to research as such, but to the development of a new product that can improve the environment, that is, the material result.
If you’re interested in the concept of Design Thinking, we recommend taking our free Design Thinking course, where you will find a lot of additional fascinating information, as well as learn more about the technique of each stage.
You can also listen to a succinctly and interestingly presented mini-lecture from Oksana Moroz, a young candidate of cultural studies at the Russian State Humanitarian University:
Instead of a conclusion
People have always sought to find a way that serves as a panacea for problems, some kind of universal technique that would eliminate or resolve any of the difficulties that have arisen. However, someone will say that this is impossible, given the diversity that surrounds us in life, taking into account the characteristics of individuals, their professional areas, interests and preferences. Well, someone will say that such a universal method is design thinking, which consistently, step by step suggests solving any problem based on intuition and brainstorming. Well, it’s up to you to apply design thinking or not. But we still recommend trying it.
We wish you success!
