Definition and Origins of Design Thinking
The term “Design Thinking” is not new. The combination of those words has been used since the 1960s in the context of designers’ (graphic designers, packaging designers, or corporate brand designers) work and design approach. However, only in the 21st century, Design Thinking emerged as a formalized problem-solving methodology.
Nowadays, we perceive Design Thinking as an approach to creating innovative services and products. The starting point is a deep understanding of the user’s needs. The following steps involve diagnosing the situation, formulating the problem well, generating innovative solutions, prototyping, and testing. An integral part of the process is the continuous verification of assumptions and testing of various proposals. Design Thinking enables decision-making based on customers’ wants and needs rather than relying solely on historical data or risky instinct-driven bets without evidence.
This approach has gained popularity in recent decades owing to its success in high-profile global organizations like IDEO, IBM, SAP, Samsung, and Raiffeisen. Design Thinking is also a subject of study at leading universities such as Stanford University in the USA and the Hasso Plattner Institute in Germany.
I delved into the world of Design Thinking in 2021. While familiar with some of its aspects, I craved a deeper understanding of the entire process. Fueled by this desire to gain a deeper understanding of the specific techniques involved, I participated in a five-day intensive workshop for Design Thinking moderators offered by the Design Thinking Institute, which follows the d.school methodology. I was thrilled by this realization. Not only could I start incorporating Design Thinking elements into my training offerings, but it also helped me empathize with future participants in my training. I’ve added a pre-training welcome pack mailed to participants’ homes to enhance their training journey, including leaflets, handouts, and books for trainings in Polish.
Design Thinking as a Formal Approach
Research on Design Thinking, pioneered at Stanford University in collaboration with the Hasso Plattner Institute, led to the establishment of the “d.school.” David Kelley, co-founder of IDEO, was instrumental in its development. The aim was to understand designers’ creative processes and the factors contributing to successful product outcomes. Design education emphasizes practical problem-solving skills alongside technical proficiency, focusing on user-centric approaches tailored to specific demographics, such as middle-aged women or children.
The d.school’s research extended the method’s applicability beyond design to fields like healthcare and service planning, yielding practical techniques adopted by businesses and universities globally. It emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration and user-focused innovation.
Today, Design Thinking, characterized by its outside-the-box approach, is taught at Stanford and other leading universities and schools, and it is encouraged at every level of business. Design Thinking is even introduced in elementary schools as a separate subject, alongside mathematics or geography. More and more companies are working with these methods, with some, such as SAP, having Design Thinking enshrined as a core pillar of their development strategy.
Applications of Design Thinking Across Fields
Design Thinking has driven the creation of user-centric products in diverse fields and industries, from healthcare to technology. Today, more and more startups, nonprofits, and large corporations are stepping into the real world to understand their users’ needs better. Let’s review examples from various industries to see how Design Thinking can improve not only business clients’ experiences but also the lives of individuals – as citizens or patients.
Intuitive and Accessible Voting System
Los Angeles County hired IDEO to design a new, adaptable voting system to replace the outdated one from the 1960s. The system was created in 2009 and was meant to be accessible to all voters, including those with disabilities, unfamiliar with technology, or speaking languages other than English. The result is a voting experience that supports equal access, meets the needs of today’s voters, and can be adaptable over time.
Better Life Quality for Elderly People
In 2007, Denmark’s Holstebro Municipality sought to improve the quality of life for its elderly citizens by revamping its meal service. The initial perception was that the food service just needed a better menu. However, ethnographic research revealed that the kitchen staff and the seniors who received the meals felt a sense of disconnection and low morale. The research team made the following key findings:
- Kitchen workers felt their skills were underutilized and bored due to repetitive menus.
- Seniors felt a loss of control over their food choices and disliked eating alone.
The project won design awards and served as a model for how to improve social services through user-centered design because meal orders increased by 500% in the first week, and the number of customers grew by 7%.
Addressing the High Mortality Rate of Premature and Low-Birth-Weight Babies
Each year, 20 million premature babies are born, with around four million dying within their first month. Most of these deaths occur in LMICs due to limited access to infant incubators. These life-saving devices cost a staggering $25,000, putting them far beyond reach for many healthcare facilities.
Linus Liang of Embrace Global and his team at Stanford’s d.school decided to tackle this challenge and create a $250 incubator. However, their research revealed a surprising truth: the bigger problem wasn’t the cost of incubators but their limitations. Traditional incubators are bulky, require electricity, and are impractical for rural births. This critical insight led them to a new approach. Instead of a conventional incubator, they designed an ultra-low-cost, portable infant warmer. This innovative device resembles a sleeping bag with a removable heating pad. Remarkably, it can maintain a baby’s ideal temperature for over four hours without electricity, all for under $25.
The Design Thinking Process Explained
Design Thinking is a process that involves five essential phases: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test. These stages are iterative and non-linear, which means you can repeat them, carry them out in parallel, or go back to a previous stage at any point in the process.
Empathize (For whom?)
Understanding and empathizing with users is crucial for human-centered design. The challenges you are trying to address usually belong to a specific group of users, and it’s important to build empathy for them. You can design solutions that meet their requirements by comprehending their needs, values, and emotions.
Here are effective ways to empathize:
- Observe how users interact with their environment—capture quotes, behaviors, and other notes that reflect their experience. Watching users gives clues about what they think and feel—what they need.
- Engage users directly—interact with and interview them. Engaging users reveals more profound insights into their beliefs and values.
- Immerse yourself in your users’ experience. Find (or create, if necessary) ways to immerse yourself in specific environments to understand firsthand who you’re designing for.
Empathizing is a crucial step in Design Thinking, and we may invest as much as 40-50% of our time in this step.
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