What is Design Thinking? Why is it important?
Definition:Design Thinking is a human-centered, creative, and iterative problem-solving
approach. It focuses on understanding users deeply, challenging assumptions, and
generating innovative solutions that balance user needs with what is technically and
economically feasible.
Importance:
Helps uncover real, unmet user needs
Encourages creative, non-obvious ideas
Reduces risk by testing ideas early and often
Promotes team collaboration and faster innovation
. What are the Five Stages of Design Thinking?
Empathize – Learn about the user through observation, interviews, and immersion.
Define – Use the research to identify and clearly articulate the user’s core problem.
Ideate – Brainstorm a wide range of possible solutions, without judgment.
Prototype – Build rough, low-cost models or representations of ideas to explore possible
solutions.
Test – Try prototypes with users, gather feedback, and refine the design based on their
responses.
3. What are the Benefits of Design Thinking at Work?
Encourages creative and user-centered thinking in teams
Identifies real problems instead of surface-level symptoms
Helps reduce the risk of product failure by early testing
Fosters better collaboration and communication between departments
Leads to more useful and successful products or services
Drives business innovation and gives companies a competitive edge
4. What is Research as a Tool in the Empathize Phase?
Research helps designers deeply understand users—their needs, goals, and pain points.
It includes tools like interviews, observation, surveys, shadowing, etc.
Focus is on qualitative insights—what users actually do and feel, not just what they say.
This insight becomes the foundation for defining a meaningful problem.
5. Tools Used in the Empathize Phase
User Interviews – Face-to-face conversations to understand user needs, opinions, and
behaviors.
Focus Groups – Group discussions (5–10 users) that reveal common experiences or
attitudes.
Card Sorting – Users organize content to show how they naturally group or understand it.
Ethnography – Observing users in their real environment to understand natural behavior.
Contextual Inquiry – Watching and asking questions while the user performs real tasks.
Shadowing – Quietly observing a user to understand their task flow and difficulties.
Surveys – Structured questionnaires for collecting opinions from larger audiences.
6. What Happens in the Define Stage? Tools and Deliverables
Purpose:
To analyze insights from the Empathize phase and turn them into a clear, actionable
problem statement.
Tools:
Personas – Fictional representations of user types based on real data (goals, frustrations,
etc.)
Scenarios – Short stories describing how a persona would interact with the product
Empathy Maps – Shows what users say, think, feel, and do
Journey Maps – Visual timelines of how users experience a product/service across steps
Deliverables:
POV Statement – Combines user + need + insight into a clear statement
“How Might We” (HMW) Questions – Reframe problems into opportunities for ideation
7. What is Ideation? Mention and Explain Any Four Tools
Meaning:
Ideation is the third stage of Design Thinking, where teams generate many creative ideas to
solve the defined problem. It promotes free thinking, experimentation, and open
collaboration.
Tools:
Brainstorming – Group activity that encourages wild and rapid idea generation.
SCAMPER – A structured checklist to improve existing ideas:
Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to other use, Eliminate, Reverse.
Worst Possible Idea – Think of ridiculous ideas to break mental blocks and reach innovation.
Sketching – Drawing ideas to communicate and explore design visually and quickly.
8. What Are Contextual Interviews? What Do You Learn from Them?
Definition:
Contextual interviews are done in the user’s actual environment (e.g., home, office), while
they perform real tasks. The designer observes and asks questions in context.
What You Learn:
What the user does and how they do it
Tools/systems they use and their environment setup
Pain points and workarounds
Unspoken needs, habits, and preferences
9. What is Lean and Agile in Design?
Lean Design:
Focuses on reducing waste and maximizing learning
Encourages testing ideas early with simple prototypes (MVPs)
Relies on feedback loops (Build–Measure–Learn)
Decisions are delayed until the last responsible moment to stay flexible
Agile Design:
Work is done in short, repeatable cycles (called sprints)
Highly responsive to change; focuses on collaboration and speed
Frequent user testing and iterative improvement
Works well with cross-functional teams and fast-paced environments
Together:
Lean and Agile help make design processes more adaptive, user-focused, and efficient.
10. What Are Gestalt Principles? Explain Any 3
Definition:
Gestalt Principles explain how humans naturally perceive visual elements as organized
groups or patterns, not in isolation. These principles guide layout and design to make
information clearer.
Examples:
Proximity – Items placed close together are seen as related.
E.g., Menu buttons grouped together show they belong to the same category.
Similarity – Elements with similar shapes, colors, or sizes are grouped in the mind.
E.g., Identical blue buttons across screens signal the same function.
Closure – The brain fills in missing parts to perceive a complete shape.
E.g., A circle drawn with gaps is still seen as a full circle.
📝 2. Contextual Inquiry
Definition:
Contextual Inquiry is a user research method where the designer observes and interviews a
user while they perform real tasks in their natural environment, to understand workflows,
challenges, and reasoning.
🔹 4 Key Points:
Combines observation and questioning — you watch the user and ask "why" during the task.
Focuses on specific tasks and how users interact with tools or systems.
Conducted in the user’s actual work setting (e.g. office, home).
Helps uncover hidden steps, pain points, and decision-making patterns.
Absolutely!
3. Shadowing
Definition:
Shadowing is a research method where the designer follows and silently observes a user
throughout their day or while they perform specific tasks — without interfering — to
understand natural behavior and context.
🔹 4 Key Points:
Researcher stays quiet and simply watches the user in action.
Captures unfiltered, real-time behavior in natural surroundings.
Useful for identifying workflow patterns and challenges the user may not mention.
Helps build empathy by showing the full context of user interactions and decisions.
1. Personas – 4 Points
Represent fictional but research-based user types.
Include user demographics, goals, behaviors, and frustrations.
Help design teams empathize and focus on real needs.
Guide decision-making throughout the design process.
2. Scenarios – 4 Points
Narratives describing how a persona interacts with a product/service.
Focus on specific tasks or problems the user needs to solve.
Based on real user behavior and context.
Help visualize use cases and potential design challenges.
3. Empathy Mapping – 4 Points
Divides user insight into four areas: Says, Thinks, Does, and Feels.
Captures emotional and behavioral data from research.
Helps identify pain points and motivations.
Supports deeper understanding of the user’s mindset.
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4. Journey / Experience Mapping – 4 Points
Shows step-by-step interaction between user and product/service.
Includes emotions, goals, touchpoints, and pain points.
Highlights gaps between expectations and actual experience.
Identifies opportunities for improving the overall journey.
IDEATION STAGE
This is the creative phase where the goal is to generate a wide range of ideas to solve the
user’s problem — based on the insights defined in the previous stage.
1. Brainstorming – 4 Points
A group activity to rapidly generate as many ideas as possible.
Focus is on quantity over quality — no judging or filtering.
Encourages wild, creative, and unconventional thinking.
Builds a shared pool of potential solutions.
2. Brainwriting – 4 Points
Similar to brainstorming, but ideas are written individually first.
Reduces pressure, especially for introverted team members.
Allows everyone to contribute without interruption.
Ideas are later shared and built upon collectively.
3. SCAMPER Technique – 4 Points
A checklist method to think of ways to improve existing ideas/products.
Stands for: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, Rearrange.
Encourages structured creativity using simple prompts.
Helps trigger new directions when you’re stuck.
4. “How Might We” Questions – 4 Points
Reframe the problem into open-ended, optimistic questions.
Start with “How might we…” to spark ideas.
Keeps ideation focused on user needs.
Transforms problems into design opportunities.
Research as a Tool – Empathize Phase (4 Points)
Helps designers understand users deeply — their needs, emotions, and environment.
Involves interviews, observations, shadowing, and contextual enquiry.
Focuses on gathering qualitative insights rather than just data.
Forms the foundation for defining the real user problem in the next stage.
Law of Figure-Ground (Gestalt Principle)
Definition:
This principle explains how we automatically separate a visual image into two parts:
the figure, which is the object we focus on
the ground, which is the background behind it
Our brain naturally gives more importance to the figure, helping us focus on the main content
and ignore the background unless needed.
Example:
When you see black text on a white page, the text is the figure and the white background is
the ground. You read the text easily because your brain separates it clearly from the
background.
Common Uses:
Logos like FedEx or Rubin’s Vase (where figure and ground can switch depending on focus)
Web and UI Design, where designers use contrast (like light background + dark text) to
improve readability
Posters and Advertisements to draw attention to the main image or message
1. Law of Proximity
Definition:
Objects that are close to each other are perceived as part of the same group.
Example:
In a navigation bar, if menu items are spaced closely together, users will naturally see them
as related options (like “Home | About | Contact”).
2. Law of Similarity
Definition:
Elements that look similar (in shape, color, size, or font) are perceived as belonging to the
same group.
Example:
If all buttons on a website are green and rounded, users will understand they serve a
common function — like submission or next steps.
3. Law of Closure
Definition:
Our brain tends to fill in missing parts of a shape or image to perceive it as a complete form.
Example:
Even if a circle is drawn with gaps, we still recognize it as a circle.
4. Law of Continuity
Definition:
We prefer continuous, smooth lines or patterns over disjointed or abrupt ones.
Example:
On a website, a horizontal line of elements is viewed as connected, even if there’s a curve or
spacing between them.
5. Law of Figure-Ground
Definition:
We instinctively separate a visual field into the figure (main object) and the background
(ground).
Example:
In a logo with black and white shapes, we may see either a vase or two faces depending on
what we perceive as the figure.
6. Law of Common Fate
Definition:
Elements that move in the same direction are perceived as part of the same group.
Example:
In an animation, arrows moving upward together are seen as related, even if they’re spaced
apart.
7. Law of Common Region
Definition:
Objects located within the same boundary or region are grouped together by the mind.
Example:
Items placed inside a box or a shaded area on a form are perceived as one group, even if
they’re not close together.
8. Law of Symmetry
Definition:
The mind tends to perceive symmetrical elements as part of a unified group or shape.
Example:
A layout with mirrored icons on both sides of a central line looks balanced and organized —
users perceive it as one cohesive design.
