DES211
Creativity and Concept in
Design
Lecture 3
Vikash Kumar
Department of Design
Creativity, and Concept in Design
Basic Schema of Design verb
Design is the activity of conceptualising the world of artificial that satisfies human
needs, wants and desires.
Basic Schema of Design verb
Internal Processes External Processes
Not directly Observable Can be Observed
Cognitive Activities Physical Activities
Analysis Analysis
Synthesis Synthesis
Evaluation Evaluation
Design Thinking
It is a human-centered, iterative problem-solving approach that focuses on
understanding users, challenging assumptions, and creating innovative solutions
through prototyping and testing.
It combines creativity, logic, and empathy to solve complex problems in various
fields, including business, healthcare, education, and technology.
Design Thinking Process
Source: Redrawn from http://designthinking.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/UCD-process.jpg
Problem User Solution
Empathy Define Ideate Prototype Test
Understand Create Deliver
Understanding ends in Insight Creation ends in Delivery ends in Reality
Idea/Concepts
Representation of Design Thinking
https://media.springernature.com/lw685/springer-static/image/chp%3A10.1007%2F978-3-030-78063-0_10/MediaObjects/978-3-030-78063-0_10_Fig1_HTML.png
Representation of Design Thinking
https://www.ideou.com/cdn/shop/articles/DTProcess_Images_v4-07_2501x.png?v=1662065016
Representation of Design Thinking
https://public-images.interaction-design.org/tags/td-design-thinking-non-linear-process.png
Representation of Design Thinking
https://images.ctfassets.net/54dnxp2417nl/1RGKCILTVnlDOYVY77ri0t/69a70cb81f8dfa1f24447a8be9638fe8/Phases-
Diamond.png?w=3720&h=3030&q=50&fm=png
Representation of Design Thinking
https://malat-webspace.royalroads.ca/rru0055/wp-content/uploads/sites/97/2019/01/Design-Thinking-600x340.png
Representation of Design Thinking
https://www.d-thinking.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/5-Step-Process--768x543.jpg
1
Empathy
Empathy Phase
The Empathy Phase is where designers deeply understand users, their needs,
emotions, and challenges. This phase ensures that solutions are human-centered
rather than based on assumptions.
Empathy Phase
The Empathy Phase is where designers deeply understand users, their needs,
emotions, and challenges. This phase ensures that solutions are human-centered
rather than based on assumptions.
This phase focuses on uncovering deep and meaningful needs (wants and
desires) and problems of the users and reflect on what they do and what they say
they do.
Key Objectives:
• Understand Users – Identify their pain points, desires, and behaviors.
• Observe & Engage – See how users interact with products or services.
• Gain Emotional Insights – Go beyond what users say and uncover what they
truly feel.
Empathy Phase – Case Study
Airbnb – Understanding Travelers & Hosts
Problem: In its early days, Airbnb struggled to attract customers because listings
lacked high-quality images.
Empathy Approach: The founders stayed with hosts and interviewed travelers to
understand their pain points.
They realized poor photos made listings unappealing and untrustworthy.
Solution: They hired professional photographers to take quality images for hosts.
This increased bookings significantly and helped Airbnb grow into a global platform.
Key Takeaway: Observing users firsthand revealed an issue that data alone wouldn’t
have highlighted.
Empathy
Know your Users
Observe Users and Context
Analyse Existing Solution
Know your Users
Normally more than one category of users will use your product but initially it is
recommended to focus on 1-2 user category.
https://iconstore.co/assets/img/set/thumb/wow-users-thumn.png
Try to understand what common patters makes someone your user.
List down their preferences, likes, dislikes, behaviours, problems, motivations,
goals, etc.
Stakeholder (user) Maps
• Stakeholder mapping is generally used in Management (often by managers) for
stakeholder engagement.
In Design, Stakeholders ≡ Users (people in general and society at large)
• Users are at the centre of designing, and every design decision should keep users
concerns in mind.
https://www.jisc.ac.uk/sites/default/files/styles/710px-wide/public/illustrated-people.jpg?itok=hGGOkYFk
How to Create User Maps
1 Identifying: Gather a cross-functional group of participants and brainstorm the
list of possible users.
Analysing: Explore how those group of users interact (directly or indirectly) with
2
the design (product, system, or service) and rate involvements on a Likert scale.
Users Interaction time Criteria 2 Criteria n Priority
User 1 Low – xyz reason low low 3
User 2 Low High Very high 1
User n Very high Medium Medium 2
3 Prioritize: Based on the analysis prioritise the user groups.
Mapping: Visually map the high priority user categories on different parameters
4 like relationship, importance, influence etc.
Activity
Pick a product and identify its users and create a user map
End of Lecture 3
Meeting: D036F (Tuesday 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm)
