UNIT-1

INRODUCTION OF DESIGN THINKING

INRODUCTION OF DESIGN THINKING

Design thinking is a mindset and approach to problem-solving and innovation anchored

around human-centered design. While it can be traced back centuries—and perhaps even
longer—it gained traction in the modern business world after Tim Brown, CEO and president
of design company IDEO, published an article about it in the Harvard Business Review.

Meaning of Design Thinking Design thinking is not just the property of designers—all the
great inventors of engineering, science, literature, art, music, and business have used it.
Design thinking supports developing, teaching, learning, and applying strategies to solve
complications in a creative manner in the projects and processes of the business.

Definition of Design Thinking Design thinking is a term used to denote a set of strategic,
conceptual, and practical processes in which design concepts are developed (product
proposals, structures, equipment, communications, etc.). Many key concepts and aspects of
design thinking have been identified through studies, across all different design fields, design
concepts and design work in both laboratory and environmental contexts.

Design Thinkers in the Organizations Any individual who has the following traits can be a
design thinker in the organizations, namely:

1. Individual who has the concern for the individuals and who know the working
challenges in the workplace.
2. Knowledge of multi-functionality of the organization.
3. Vision for developing the right process in the organization.
4. Capability to understand the problems on the job and ability to work on the problems
related to the jobs of the organization.

Features of Design Thinking The features of design thinking are as under:

1. Design thinking understands from the perspective of the customers and provides a
solution for improving the product and service quality in the organization.
2. The role of design thinking is to collect feedback from the customers and employees
by iteration of prototyping.
3. Expanding the range of solutions to the problems identified in the organization and
employee better customer and employee satisfaction.
4. Enable the design thinkers to develop new products, features, or services to customer
and process satisfaction.
5. Providing an eco-system through the interaction with the employees, technical
capabilities, and customers.

Principles of Design Thinking At this point, it seems to the reader that design thinking is
about how to think and act as it is about the process. The process is obviously important, and
there are certain tested tools that need to be considered within each mode, each with its own
set of inputs, outputs, and well-
defined functions. Aside from the process, design thinking is also about thinking, where the
concept can be thought of as an integrated set of beliefs and attitudes.

Human Focused Design Thinking: The process that understands from the perspective of the
human including the employees and customers. While doing so, design thinkers need to
consider the individuals, beliefs, values, and attitudes. Diversity to work in a team: Design
thinking needs to consider individuals from different backgrounds and train to work in a
team. While group membership should be balanced throughout the project, it may be wise to
occasionally include outside-organization participants — such as clients, suppliers, and other
topic professionals — in specific modes or activities. Comprehensive: Although details are
important, design experts are also able to identify and consider relationships, collaborations,
and communication between seemingly different ideas. Flexibility and unconventional
comfort: Design thinking is best suited to deal with problems and opportunities described in
an incomprehensible way, and requires great flexibility in terms of both content and
methodology (e.g., with the required repetition of modes and categories). Communication
Skills: Willingness to communicate and work in a variety of ways, including speaking, visual,
and touch. Design experts design and build prototypes, without the perceived lack of skill or
competence.

Stages of Design Thinking We will focus on the five-phase Design Thinking model proposed
by the Hasso-Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford (d.school). D.school is a leading
university when it comes to teaching Design Thinking. The five stages of design thinking,
according to d.school, are as follows: Empathy, Explain (problem), Ideate, Prototype, and
assessment. Let's take a look at five different categories of Design Thinking:

1. Empathy The first step in the design process is to gain a critical understanding of the
problem you are trying to solve. This involves consulting with experts to find out
more about the area of concern, to consult and empathize with people to understand
their experiences and motives, and to immerse themselves in a visible environment to
gain a deeper personal understanding of the issues involved. Sensitivity is very
important in a person-centered design process like Design Thinking, and sensitivity
allows designers to set aside their ideas about the world in order to gain an
understanding of users and their needs. Depending on the time limit, a large amount
of in

For example, instead of describing a problem as your wish or business need, such as, “We
need to increase our market share of food products among young girls by 5%,” the best way
to describe the problem would be, “Young girls need nutritious food to thrive, be healthy and
grow.” Define Forum will help designers in your team come up with great ideas for creating
features, functions, or any other features that will allow them to solve problems or, at the very
least, allow users to solve problems themselves with minimal difficulty. In the Definition
section, you will begin to move on to the third phase, Ideate, by asking questions that can
help you seek ideas for solutions by asking: "How can we... a food product or company
service?"

2. Ideate During the third phase of the design thinking process, designers are ready to
begin producing ideas. You have grown to understand your users and their needs in
the Sensory section and have analyzed and summarized what you saw in the Define
section and ended up with a problem-focused problem statement. With this solid
domain, you and your team members can start "thinking outside the box" to see new
 solutions to the problem statement you created, and you can start looking at other
ways to look at the problem. Ideas at the end of the Ideation section help you
investigate and evaluate your ideas to find the best way to solve a problem or provide
the necessary features to avoid it.
3. Prototype The team of designers will now produce less expensive, discounted
versions of the product or specific features found within the product in order to be
able to investigate solutions to problems developed in the previous section. Prototypes
may be shared and tested within the team itself, in other departments, or in a small
group of people outside the design team. This is the testing phase, and the aim is to
identify the best solution for each problem identified during the first three phases.
Solutions are applied to prototypes.

Need for Design Thinking Workshop

1. Design Thinking into your process will help you to quickly come up with viable, user-
centric solutions which result in improved customer satisfaction and greater cost
savings to the organization.
2. Design Thinking workshops enable building a better organization culture with a focus
on creativity and support the growth of the organization.
3. Supports in developing the skills of the employees by providing training in the
domain of problem-solving and providing better solutions to the challenges on the
job.
4. Test Designers or testers firmly test the complete product using the best solutions
identified during the simulation phase. This is the final stage of a 5-phase model, but
with a recurring process, the results produced during the

Stage 1: Empathize—Research Your Users' Needs Users' Needs

Empathize: the first phase of design thinking, where you gain real insight into users and their
needs.

The first stage of the design thinking process focuses on user-centric research. You want to
gain an empathic understanding of the problem you are trying to solve. Consult experts to
find out more about the area of concern and conduct observations to engage and empathize
with your users. You may also want to immerse yourself in your users’ physical environment
to gain a deeper, personal understanding of the issues involved—as well as their experiences
and motivations. Empathy is crucial to problem solving and a human-centered design
process as it allows design thinkers to set aside their own assumptions about the world and
gain real insight into users and their needs.

Depending on time constraints, you will gather a substantial amount of information to use
during the next stage. The main aim of the Empathize stage is to develop the best possible
understanding of your users, their needs and the problems that underlie the development of
the product or service you want to create.
Stage 2: Define—State Your Users' Needs and Problems

Define: the second phase of design thinking, where you define the problem statement in a
human-centered manner.

In the Define stage, you will organize the information you have gathered during the
Empathize stage. You’ll analyze your observations to define the core problems you and your
team have identified up to this point. Defining the problem and problem statement must be
done in a human-centered manner.

For example, you should not define the problem as your own wish or need of the company:
“We need to increase our food-product market share among young teenage girls by 5%.”

You should pitch the problem statement from your perception of the users’ needs: “Teenage
girls need to eat nutritious food in order to thrive, be healthy and grow.”

Stage 3: Ideate—Challenge Assumptions and Create Ideas

Ideate: the third phase of design thinking, where you identify innovative solutions to the
problem statement you’ve created.

There are hundreds of ideation techniques you can use—such as

Brainstorm, Brainwrite, Worst Possible Idea and SCAMPER. Brainstorm and Worst Possible
Idea techniques are typically used at the start of the ideation stage to stimulate free thinking
and expand the problem space. This allows you to generate as many ideas as possible at the
start of ideation. You should pick other ideation techniques towards the end of this stage to
help you investigate and test your ideas, and choose the best ones to move forward with—
either because they seem to solve the problem or provide the elements required to circumvent
it.

Stage 4: Prototype—Start to Create Solutions

Prototype: the fourth phase of design thinking, where you identify the best possible solution..

The design team will now produce a number of inexpensive, scaled down versions of the
product (or specific features found within the product) to investigate the key solutions
generated in the ideation phase. These prototypes can 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. The solutions are implemented
within the prototypes and, one by one, they are investigated and then accepted, improved or
rejected based on the users’ experiences.

By the end of the Prototype stage, the design team will have a better idea of the product’s
limitations and the problems it faces. They’ll also have a clearer view of how real users
would behave, think and feel when they interact with the end product.

Stage 5: Test—Try Your Solutions Out

Test: the fifth and final phase of the design thinking process, where you test solutions to
derive a deep understanding of the product and its users.

Designers or evaluators rigorously test the complete product using the best solutions
identified in the Prototype stage. This is the final stage of the five-stage model; however, in
an iterative process such as design thinking, the results generated are often used to redefine
one or more further problems. This increased level of understanding may help you investigate
the conditions of use and how people think, behave and feel towards the product, and even
lead you to loop back to a previous stage in the design thinking process. You can then
proceed with further iterations and make alterations and refinements to rule out alternative
solutions. The ultimate goal is to get as deep an understanding of the product and its
users as possible.

The 7 Steps of the Engineering Design thinking Process- Define, Ask, Imagine, Plan, Prototype, Test,
Improve

The Engineering Design Thinking Process is a systematic approach to solving problems and
creating innovative solutions. It consists of the following seven steps:

1. Define: Clearly identify the problem or challenge that needs to be addressed. This
step involves understanding the needs, constraints, and objectives of the project.
2. Ask: Gather information by asking questions, conducting research, and understanding
the needs of the users or stakeholders. This step is critical for identifying the
requirements and limitations of the project.
3. Imagine: Brainstorm and generate a wide range of potential solutions. This step
encourages creativity and open-mindedness, allowing for the exploration of various
ideas without immediate judgment.
4. Plan: Select the most promising idea(s) from the brainstorming session and develop a
detailed plan for how to implement the solution. This step includes creating diagrams,
schedules, and identifying the resources required.
5. Prototype: Build a prototype or model of the solution. This step involves creating a
tangible or digital version of the idea, which can be tested and refined.
 6. Test: Evaluate the prototype by testing it in real-world conditions or simulations. This
step is essential for identifying any flaws, weaknesses, or areas for improvement in
the design.
7. Improve: Based on the feedback and data gathered during the testing phase, make
necessary adjustments to the design. This iterative process may involve multiple
cycles of prototyping, testing, and refining until the best possible solution is achieved.

This process is iterative, meaning that it often loops back to earlier steps as new information
and insights are gained

Did You Know Design Thinking is a Non-Linear Process?

We’ve outlined a direct and linear design thinking process here, in which one stage
seemingly leads to the next with a logical conclusion at user testing. However, in practice,
the process is carried out in a more flexible and non-linear fashion. For example,
different groups within the design team may conduct more than one stage concurrently, or
designers may collect information and prototype throughout each stage of the project to bring
their ideas to life and visualize the problem solutions as they go. What’s more, results from
the Test stage may reveal new insights about users which lead to another brainstorming
session (Ideate) or the development of new prototypes (Prototype).

It is important to note the five stages of design thinking are not always sequential. They do
not have to follow a specific order, and they can often occur in parallel or be repeated
iteratively. The stages should be understood as different modes which contribute to the entire
design project, rather than sequential steps.

The design thinking process should not be seen as a concrete and inflexible approach to
design; the component stages identified should serve as a guide to the activities you carry out.
The stages might be switched, conducted concurrently or repeated several times to gain the
most informative insights about your users, expand the solution space and hone in on
innovative solutions.

What is Innovation?
Innovation refers to the process of creating new ideas, products, services, processes, or
methods that result in significant improvements, advancements, or disruptions in various
fields. It involves transforming creative concepts or inventions into practical solutions that
address unmet needs, solve problems, or capitalize on opportunities. Innovation often
begins with creative thinking or the generation of novel ideas. This involves exploring new
perspectives, challenging assumptions, and thinking outside the box to generate
breakthrough concepts.

PHASES OF INNOVATION

 Innovation aims to address existing challenges, inefficiencies, or limitations by

developing innovative solutions that offer tangible benefits or improvements.
 Innovation requires more than just ideation; it involves implementing and executing
new ideas or solutions to bring them to fruition.
 Successful innovation creates value for stakeholders, whether it’s by improving
efficiency, reducing costs, enhancing performance, increasing productivity, or
delivering superior user experiences.

Types of Innovation
Innovation implicates different dimensions, from the state of the art to step-function-like
breakthroughs. Here are some common types of innovation,
1. Product Innovation: Product innovation consists of developing new products with
superior characteristics, adding new features to the existing ones, or improving the quality
and functionalities of the existing products. These innovations usually incorporate research
and development to introduce brand new and appealing technological systems, designs, or
materials more often.
2. Process Innovation: The constant improvement of methods, technologies, or
workflows for producing goods or providing services is a part of process innovation. A
good supply chain management, production process, or service delivery system can result
in a variety of benefits like costs savings, increased efficiency, as well as quality
improvement.
3. Business Model Innovation: The innovation of the business model implies the
recreation of the fundamentals of the business systems related to how the business does its
work, gets revenue, creates value to its customers. Such endeavor may coincide with
designing corresponding pricing schemes, distribution channels, revenue streams, or
partnerships that can challenge the current order that reigns in the market and discover
new market gems.
4. Marketing Innovation: Innovation in marketing is about new and dynamic tactics for
attracting customers, building the brand and sending to their attention the goods or
services at one’s offer. Some examples could be creative marketing tools and fresh
approaches to social media visibility, experiential techniques, and customer-centered
strategies, to help brand differentiate in the market.
5. Technological Innovation: Technological innovation is a very broad concept that
defines how companies get a production of a new product or service by means of some
technologies that have never been utilized before or only recently used up to the
innovating moment. These, of course, can range from breakthroughs in areas of AI,
biotechnology, renewable energy, nanotechnology, IT or communication, which in turn
form a basis for the industries of the future and become drivers of economic growth.
6. Incremental Innovation: Creeping innovation encompasses repeated minor upgrading
of products, processes and services that occur over time. The incremental approach is a
consistent and continuous strategy, and combined with other approaches, it is one of the
most viable strategies for businesses. However, these advancements may not be earth-
shattering at the moment, but, they give organizations a generative edge in the long run in
the sense that they keep on enhancing the performance, reliability, or affordability of the
various products.
7. Open Innovation: Open innovation means the external partners’ collaboration and
transfer of knowledge, which may be customers, suppliers, universities, or research
institutions with their own ideas and resources. This could be through the form of open-
source projects, crowdsourcing, or strategic partnerships to utilize the out-of-box and
streamline innovation action plans.
Phases of Innovation
Innovation typically progresses through several distinct phases as ideas are developed,
refined, and ultimately brought to market. Here are the common phases of innovation,
1. Discovery: The first process is to pick out really good ideas or possibilities. The
procedure could be any kind of brainstorming, product research, trade analysis, or
customer feedback stimulated by ideas for potential innovations.
2. Definition: After the idea generation, the next step is to refine the ideas and examine
their feasibility and the viability in terms of the current market situation. This stage
includes conducting market research, feasibility analysis, and a preliminary business
development plan to establish the worth and effect of those ideas.
3. Design: It is now the time to turn the originally generated idea into either a conceptual
prototype or a concrete plan. Through collaborations among designers, developers, and
engineers, we are able to create prototypes that we will use for testing purposes in order to
find out if the technology is feasible and it actually works the way we want it to.
4. Development: The next stage is product innovation design by the developers into a
marketable form ready for business. Doing this implies that designing, engineering,
manufacturing, or generally any process needed to turn the conception into reality is
involved.
5. Testing: The tested invention then enters the phase of examination aimed at checking
its functionality, ergonomics, reliability, etc. Testing may include testing with alpha and
beta users which is aimed at early adopters of the product. Quality assurance tests also aim
at identifying and resolving any defects found within the system.
6. Launch: The launching of the innovation entails expressing it at the market to cater for
the needs of customers. This is where you plan activities
like marketing exercises, promotion, and distribution strategies aimed at creating visibility,
building customer base, and achieving critical mass in the market.
7. Growth: Following the launch, the task of scaling will eventually give way to the
growth and expansion plan. This part is a continuous cycle of adding new functionalities,
features or services aligned with feedback from customers, expanding product availability
for different markets and customers, and refining business processes with an aim of
sustaining market growth.
8. Maturity: The innovation progresses and winds up at a point of maturity beyond which
the growth is more or less stable and the market becomes more saturated. At that stage, the
goal is no longer gaining market share and escalating profit margins but successful
sustenance of the share, continuous profitability, and possible diversification, including the
creation of new opportunities for innovation.
Barriers to Innovation
1. Resistance to Change: Workers, shareholders, or staff might operate slowly in the
formulation and implementation of novel ideas and approaches out of the fear of the
unknown, what is or what they cannot foresee. Perhaps they are so reluctant to let the
present go, and give a way to something that is not known.
2. Lack of Resources: Insufficient funding, time, competence, or connectivity accessing
the required technology and infrastructure are some of the significant challenges
associated with innovation enterprises. Without these necessary funds, organizations can’t
try out, experiment, or implement new ways of solving a problem.
3. Risk Aversion: A lack of self-confidence, unidentified source, or the realization of the
consequences of innovation may create a barrier for an organization to try out something
else or to be reluctant to actually be exploring new ideas.
4. Bureaucracy and Organizational Hurdles: The traditional complex organizational
hierarchies, rigid decision-making processes, and ineffective bureaucratic regulations may
hinder innovation as they stifle creativity, disturb teamwork, and cause new initiatives to
be fruitless.
5. Short-Term Focus: The failure to propound short-term outcome or an ensuing laser
focus on immediate organizational targets may become a hindrance to raise awareness and
initiate innovation-centered programs. Enterprises with an eye only on the quick buck are
likely to focus on optimization and little operational improvement, rather than the riskier,
longer-term innovative work.
Benefits of Innovation
1. Competitive Advantage: Introducing new and innovative products, services, or
processes can be an effective way to differentiate an enterprise from competitors in a
specific market and allow a company continue dominating the market.
2. Increased Efficiency: Innovation is one of the key factors of success promotion, since
it usually brings about process changes and makes everything work in a more streamlined
manner, with those costs being reduced and productivity rising.
3. Revenue Growth: Many innovative products that are successful can ensure the revenue
growth of an enterprise by tapping new markets, drawing new customers, and raising the
consequent sales of existing items or services.
4. Enhanced Customer Satisfaction: Sharp solutions determine the customer
requirements precisely, meaning customers will be even more satisfied, loyal and have a
good brand image.
5. Improved Productivity: Technology holds the potential to automate some functions,
improve processes, and also empower workers with the necessary tools and technologies
used to improve productivity on the team.
6. Attracting Talent and Investment: The innovative firms, who have the talent as well
as investors under their belt, adore institutions with innovation and invoke a lot of
inspiration into their businesses.
7. Social Impact: Innovation is able to eliminate societal problems, enhance quality of
life, and achieve sustainable development, which is achieved through leadership in the
creation of solutions that benefit communities, the environment, and future generations.
Risks of Innovation
1. Financial Risk: Innovation usually implies a great deal of financial injection into the
research and development department, including experiments that have no guarantees of
success. Unsuccessful innovations may lead to financial losses, the utilization of resources
with low or even negative efficacy, and losses of reputation.
2. Market Uncertainty: Development involves treading the path that nobody has ever
walked before, that is full of risky phases when it comes to market demand, competition,
and regulation.
3. Technological Risks: The introduction of new technologies or inventing the solutions
by wide purposes could bring along technical challenges like mismatching, compatibility
problems, and cybersecurity threats.
4. Resource Constraints: Innovation means that we will spend some time on developing
and research, and accumulating the requisite personnel and infrastructure, which could be
tighter either in terms of resources or permeating focus on others’ priorities.
5. Resistance to Change: Implementation entrepreneurship thinking can be hindered by
employees, stakeholders, and organizational culture in form of resistance to new ideas. In
this case such creation may bring more harm to the success of innovation programs than
benefit.
6. Regulatory Compliance: Regulatory agencies and bodies may apply a regulatory
straitjacket, requiring conformity to compliance procedures and legal requirements.
Governance frameworks and a policy governing compliance strategies are necessary for
thorough risk assessment and compliance management.
7. Reputation and Brand Risk: The after-effects of not living up to innovation
expectations (or even failure), not to mention weak execution, let go plenty of bad vibes
about the returning company, In addition, both the customer trustworthiness and market
confidence are badly damaged.

Empathy is a crucial element of design thinking, driving deep understanding and practical
solutions. Here’s how you can incorporate empathy into your design thinking process to
achieve practical ingenuity:

Empathy in Design Thinking Process

1. Understand the Users:

o Observation: Spend time observing users in their environment. Note their
behaviors, challenges, and interactions.
o Engagement: Conduct interviews and have conversations with users to gain
insights into their experiences and feelings.
o Immersion: Put yourself in the users' shoes by experiencing their challenges
firsthand.

2. Define the Problem:

o Synthesize Findings: Analyze the information gathered to identify patterns
and core issues.
o Empathy Maps: Create empathy maps to visualize users’ experiences,
thoughts, and emotions.
o User Personas: Develop personas that represent the different user types and
their needs.

3. Ideation:
o Brainstorming: Encourage diverse and abundant ideas, focusing on quantity
over quality initially.
o User Stories: Frame ideas in the form of user stories to ensure they address
real needs.
o Collaboration: Foster a collaborative environment where different
perspectives can contribute to innovative solutions.

4. Prototyping:
o Low-Fidelity Prototypes: Start with simple, cost-effective prototypes (e.g.,
sketches, paper models) to quickly test ideas.
o Iterative Development: Refine prototypes based on user feedback, iterating
multiple times to improve the design.
o User Testing: Involve users in testing prototypes to validate ideas and gather
insights.

5. Testing:
o Feedback Loops: Create continuous feedback loops with users to ensure the
solution meets their needs.
o Real-World Scenarios: Test solutions in real-world scenarios to observe their
effectiveness and practicality.
 o Refinement: Use the feedback to make necessary adjustments and
improvements.

Making sense of observations and insights

Making sense of observations and insights is a critical step in the design thinking process,
bridging the gap between understanding user experiences and creating actionable solutions.
Here’s how you can effectively make sense of your observations and insights:

Organize and Synthesize Data

1. Data Collection:
o Gather all observations, interviews, notes, photos, and any other relevant data.
o Use tools like notebooks, digital documents, or software to compile the data
systematically.

2. Affinity Mapping:
o Write down key observations and insights on individual sticky notes or cards.
o Group similar notes together to identify patterns and themes.
o Label each group to define emerging categories or concepts.

3. Empathy Maps:
o Create empathy maps to visualize what users say, think, feel, and do.
o Use these maps to understand the emotional and experiential aspects of the
user journey.

4. User Personas:
o Develop personas based on the synthesized data to represent different user
types.
o Include details like demographics, behaviors, needs, and pain points.

Define the Problem

1. Point-of-View (POV) Statements:

o Craft POV statements to articulate the user needs and the insights derived
from the data.
o A good POV statement includes the user (who), the need (what), and the
insight (why).

2. Problem Statements:
o Formulate clear problem statements that capture the essence of the issues users
face.
o Ensure the problem statements are user-centered and focus on addressing their
core needs.

3. How Might We (HMW) Questions:

o Transform problem statements into “How Might We” questions to frame the
ideation phase.
o HMW questions should be open-ended and encourage creative thinking.
Iterative Refinement

1. Continuous Feedback:
o Seek ongoing feedback from users and stakeholders throughout the process to
validate insights and refine understanding.
o Use iterative cycles to revisit and adjust insights based on new data and
perspectives.

2. Prototyping and Testing:

o Build low-fidelity prototypes to test and validate insights in real-world
scenarios.
o Use the testing phase to gather additional insights and iterate on solutions.

By systematically organizing, synthesizing, and analyzing your observations and insights,

you can develop a deep understanding of user needs and challenges, paving the way for
innovative and impactful solutions in the design thinking process.