In today’s age, it is the innovation which is the ultimate key to business success as well as growth. You might have come across the term design thinking. Or there might be the possibility that you have heard the design thinking term from your senior team manager as he or she is emphasizing what is required to be utilized at a greater level. Or maybe you have witnessed it on the resume of any of the prospective employees.
Do you have a question in mind what are design thinking and innovation? As far as innovation is concerned, it is actually considered as a product, process, or business model that features two of the most critical of the characteristics: novel as well as useful. Yet there is no utilization in crafting something new when the individuals won’t be utilizing the same. Design thinking is a non-linear process that provides the innovation & upgrade that is required for inspiring meaningful as well as impactful solutions.
In this blog post, let’s find out what is design thinking, how it is beneficial for working professionals, and what are the five stages in the design thinking process:
What is Design Thinking?
Now the next question in your mind is what is design thinking, and whether it is a linear process or not? Design thinking is a methodology that relies upon the solution-based approach in order to solve the problems. So it is an extremely useful concept in order to tackle complex problems that are ill-defined/ unknown. It is owing to the reason that it is serves for understanding the human needs being involved, reframing the issues in human-centric ways, as well as creating ideas at the time of the brainstorming sessions. Also, it enables the adoption of the hands-on approach for prototyping as well as testing.
So, design thinking acts as a non-linear and iterative procedure and can have anywhere from a minimum of 3 to 7 stages. The essence of design thinking is centric as well as user-specific. It is all about the individual who is behind the problem, and solution as well as the need to ask questions. For example,” Who will be utilizing the product? & how the solution presented is going to impact the end user? So, the first and arguably the most crucial among the thinking process steps is inculcating empathy with the users.
On top of empathy, design thinking is centered on the observation of the product interaction, drawing upon the conclusions based on research, as well as making sure that the user remains the focus of the final implementation.
Importance of design thinking & innovation process
The main value of the design thinking process lies in the fact that it provides a properly designed process for innovation. Although trial and error is a good tactic for testing and experimenting what can work and what cannot work. However, something that is time-consuming, costly, and ultimately may turn out to be ineffective.
On the other hand, by following the critical five phases of design thinking, you will be able to create new and innovative solutions. On top of that, clear and defined procedures that facilitate strategic innovation, as well as design thinking, will have positive outcomes for anyone’s career, both in terms of advancement as well as salary.
Characteristics of Design Thinking Process
There are some of the key elements which can be considered as the characteristics of the design thinking process. When such elements are combined together, they will be helpful in the creation of the tangible products that the customers really intend for in a position to simply design the item without having a clear goal in mind. In this blog post, there are five of the main characteristics of the design thinking process are listed below:
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Human centricity
The main idea of understanding the customer as well as considering feedback while creating the product is human centricity. Developing empathy for really understanding what exactly the consumers are looking for is actually the key to driving innovation.
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Collaboration characteristic
The design thinking and innovation process is actually encourages co-creation through the promotion of collaboration across multidisciplinary team members who may not be working together otherwise. So it will be bringing diverse perspectives together for the creation of the most tangible user-centric solutions.
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Creative ideation characteristic
Since design thinking is actually the solution-based approach, & thus, core focus is on generating the most creative ideas, evaluating everything from different perspectives, while at the same time considering various solutions for resolving the problem statement.
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Iteration element
The iteration element will involve reframing the challenges, altering prototypes as well as reworking solutions until it is better aligned with the customer feedback. The key is to carry out conducting of the early rounds of testing as well as incorporate the feedback for delivering the items that customers really look for.
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Prototype-driven design thinking element
The design thinking process is action-oriented and this is the reason why tangible prototypes as well as testing with the real user play a crucial role. This will facilitate you for collecting feedback as well as making improvements, whenever and wherever it is important.
Goal of design thinking process
Before we learn about the design thinking process steps, let’s try to find out what is the goal of it. It is important to understand that the main goal of the design framework is to create products/ services keeping in mind the end consumer. Once this extremely useful design thinking process becomes an important part of the organizational culture, it will automatically start to foster better collaboration, teamwork, creativity as well as innovation. Are you looking forward to building your career in product development and innovation? If yes, then it is very important for you to learn and take up the product
Strategy and design thinking process
5 phases of design thinking process
According to the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, there are five phases of the design thinking process. However, in some of the models, there is an additional stage of implementation. Let’s have a look at five phases of the design thinking process:
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Empathize design thinking process stage
You must empathize with the target audience while understanding what their unique requirements are while accurately addressing the challenges at hand. This design thinking phase will encourage you to observe, as well as engage with the customers, learn the expectations as well as identify the underlying challenges. Also, there will be conduction of surveys as well as qualitative interviews serving as a tactic for starting to empathize with the consumers.
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Define- Another stage of design thinking process
This is the second out of the five phases of the design thinking process. It encompasses the collection as well as analysis of the information from the empathizing stage for clearly defining the core problem statement. A good problem statement will be treated less just like the business goal and is more human-centric. This will also be outlining the real problem before proceeding to the next ideation stage.
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Prototyping
The prototyping is an experimental phase that aims to find the most appropriate solution for each and every of identified problem. This can actually be done through the utilization of the scale-down version of the concept, and prototypes, being tested by the users. Based on the rendered feedback, you will be able to make the changes as well as create the product that best meets the needs of the customers.
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Testing stage
This is another among the five phases of the design thinking process. After making the prototype ready, the next stage will be putting everything to the test through the observation of the manner in which the target audience will be interacting with the product & and what exactly the feedback is all about. This is still a nascent interactive phase, where you will be going back, making all the improvements for ensuring that the end solution will remain in alignment with the overall user feedback.
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Additional Implementation design process phase
This is the next implementation stage, which is considered as the sixth and final stage in some of the models. This is where the execution of the visualized output is done. It is actually the culmination of the preceding phases, which is coming in combination with the post-development for implementing the final solution.
Conclusion: Is design thinking process right for you
There are several of ways to approach problem-solving as well as innovation. And the design thinking process steps are just one of the many. While it is quite beneficial for learning how others are approaching the issues, and if you have similar tools at your disposal. This is something that can be more crucial for charting the course for delivering what the users and consumers are truly looking for. Design thinking is the iterative and nonlinear procedure that focuses on the collaboration between many different teams of designers as well as users. if you are finding team of designer then, hire dedicated UI/UX designers from our company
So, it will be bringing upon an innovative solution for life based on the manner in which the real users are thinking, feeling as well as behaving. This is actually the human-centric design process comprising of five of the core phases:
Empathize, defining, ideation, prototyping as well as testing. It is very crucial for you to know that the five steps are acting as a guide. It is actually the iterative as well as the non-linear nature of the design thinking process means that you and the designing team will be conducting all the stages simultaneously, repeating everything and even the circle back to the previous stages during any point in the design thinking process.
Frequently Asked Questions(FAQs)
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How does design thinking and innovation process differ from UX designing?
Design thinking, Innovation, and user experience designing are actually aiming for the creation of the most effective as well as innovative products, and services which are meeting the unique needs of the users. The design thinking process will provide the framework as well as the mindset for understanding the unique needs of the users and providing creative solutions. While at the same time, UX designing will focus on the specific of techniques as well as the methodologies for the creation of user-centric solutions.
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What are benefits of design thinking process?
The design thinking process encourages creativity along with the out of the box thinking. It encourages the teams to generate an array of ideas, and solutions rather than quickly evaluating and discarding everything. And this is going to result in the more creative as well as innovative solutions.
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What are 5 design thinking process steps?
The 5 design thinking process steps typically involve the phase of empathizing, defining, ideation, prototyping as well as testing. This procedure is iterative and this implies there are several of repeated steps as and when required. So, the ultimate goal is to actually come up with the design process solution which is meeting the unique needs of the users with feasibility for implementation.
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What are some of the real world and practical examples of design thinking process?
The design thinking process has already been applied in many different fields for the creation of innovative and effective solutions. Some of the real-world examples of design thinking include the designing of the first personal computer, the Apple Macintosh. Another application is the creation of the Toyota production system utilizing design thinking and revolutionizing the automotive industry. The next is the creation of the Nest thermostat, the London Underground map, and much more.
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How design thinking process is different from project-based learning?
Now you know about the design thinking process steps, let’s have a look at how it is different from project-based learning. The project-based learning does not necessarily revolve around designing a specific of item. In many of cases, it is based upon the passion/ a single project or scenario. While the models will quite often overlap, you will be able to conveniently integrate the design thinking to the project-based learning as of frameworks will have distinct focus and differentiable frameworks.
