Do you know what’s behind the success of every great innovation we see today? It’s design thinking! Design thinking is a common term among designers and developers, and almost every technological product has gone through this process to become innovative and usable.
Design thinking is a human-centric method of solving problems, and it can be time-consuming and tedious. Still, it’s worth it, as it’s the key to creating innovative and user-friendly products. As UX and product designers, we have the power to make a real difference by adopting this powerful method in our work.
What is Design Thinking?
“Design is all bout problem solving; if it’s not solving a problem, it’s not a design..” – Kishor Fogla, Founder of YellowSlice.
Design thinking is a non-linear process, an iterative process of identifying challenges, proposing and testing data-based solutions, and constantly editing solutions to meet human needs. It means that it doesn’t follow a straight path from problem to solution. It can start with identifying an innovative idea before defining a problem. The key is that the five processes—empathy, definition, ideation, prototype, and testing—are always available when designing a solution.
It is an iterative process because human wants and needs are insatiable, so a solution to a problem cannot be static; it has to keep evolving to meet the users’ needs.
“Human wants are unlimited” — Lionel Robbins, an economics scholar.
The insatiable desire of man sparks innovation, but how do we ensure that these innovations tally with what our users need? How do we use our designs to satisfy the ever-evolving demands of the users? Well, let’s find out!
Core Principles of Design Thinking
When you and your team are going through the design thinking process, it is essential to keep a few guiding principles in mind. These will help you stay on track and meet your design goals. If you ever feel like you’re straying from those goals, remember these principles to help you get back on track.
a graphic showing the principles
- Iteration: Design thinking should thrive on iteration, which means continuous refinement of ideas via testing and feedback loops. As designers and business owners, we are to learn from each cycle, adapt our solutions, and iterate until we get the best results for users.
- Human Centricity: Every design step should focus on human needs, motivation, behaviour, and interaction with digital products. Solutions should not be driven by technology or trends but by a strong empathy for the people we are designing for, ensuring their needs are met at all stages.
- Tangibility: It means that the design thinking process is supposed to create a concrete representation of ideas. The Prototypes, mockups, and physical models should allow for user testing and provide tangible touchpoints for feedback. This ensures that the solution is not just a figment of our imagination but a real, tangible solution that serves the users.
- Bias towards action: Designers should always do something to bring ideas out of their heads. This principle demands that every stage, process, or step be documented in writing, visual representation, or product building. Design thinking should challenge you to always take action at every point.
- Collaboration: Design thinking is not a one-man Job; it is the Job of a team dedicated to building solutions that align with the business vision and benefit users.
Benefits of Design Thinking
Design thinking can be constructive for creating practical, user-friendly solutions that align with your business goals. So, whether you’re working on UX Design or any other project, the benefits to your business or design outweigh the time and energy spent during the process.
UX DESIGN
- Increase Empathy: Design thinking increases the empathy level of designers after intensive research, ideating and designing for users; it naturally comes to them.
- Alignment with business goals: Collaboration between the design team and other business teams helps to bring the business goals to consciousness so they can design with the business goals and users’ needs in mind.
- Increased Creativity: Design thinking enhances designer creativity through user research, which breaks down rigid thought patterns and allows for unconventional solutions. Quick testing and iteration build an experimental culture and push creative boundaries.
BUSINESS
- A better understanding of the customer: Empathy provides an in-depth understanding of customer needs, motivations, and pain points. It allows a business to offer services or build products to meet its users’ needs, build loyalty, and drive business success.
- Maximisation of resources: Solutions created with a thorough understanding of user requirements result in less rework and more efficient resource allocation.
- Increased productivity: Design thinking promotes a collaborative and creative environment in which different points of view are valued. It results in innovative solutions that effectively address user needs, increasing productivity and enabling a more agile approach to problem-solving.
Here is one of the many case studies of how we utilised design thinking to achieve results for our customers. There is also a method of thinking that can increase productivity— The six-thinking Hat.
Things to keep in mind before Design Thinking
So, If you’re thinking of implementing design thinking in your business, it’s important to assess your strengths and weaknesses first. This will help you understand where you’re currently and what you can expect from the process. You can use the 4W1H method—which stands for Why, What, Who, Where, and How—to guide your team through this discussion and plan your resources, time, and workforce accordingly.
- Design Vision: Your design vision answers the question of Why you are building the product. You get to imagine your ideal future. What drives your long-term vision? Why would a prestigious magazine feature your work? This vision sets the pace for your journey.
- Business Goals: It answers how you intend to achieve the vision and How you will turn your aspirations into reality. They involve the design and business methods and techniques you’ll use to bring your vision to life.
- Stakeholders: Who are the key players affected by your design? You must identify your stakeholders and understand their needs and perspectives to foster their buy-in and collaboration.
- Activities: What actions are essential to creating an exceptional user experience? This question helps you identify a series of ideas that come together to form a full-fledged solution. It involves mapping out the steps that contribute to a positive outcome.
- Experience: Where are the biggest challenges within your current experience? Which area or step can be a potential setback? Identifying these areas allows you to prioritize problem-solving and focus your design-thinking efforts effectively.
The Stages of the Design Thinking Process
The design Thinking Process consists of five (5) stages, a model developed by the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, Stanford University. Many UX designers have become familiar with this model because it focuses on users and creates innovative solutions to their problems. After all, users are the whole reason behind UX Design, so it makes sense to use a method that puts their needs at the centre of the process.
The five stages are Empathizing, Defining, Ideating, Prototyping, and Testing, and each has its meaningful purpose and activities that are key to making the whole process successful.
1. Empathize: Get to know where it hurts.
Empathy is understanding other people’s feelings as if they were our own. It gives us a perspective on what someone feels, whether negative or positive and helps us design solutions that meet their needs.
In the context of design thinking, This step aims to identify and understand the needs, motivations, expectations and challenges of the users we are designing for. The process involves building user empathy by conducting surveys, interviews, and observation sessions to engage with and observe your target audience.
Empathy and UX Design work hand in hand. As a designer, one of the core soft skills you need to develop is the ability to immerse yourself in your users’ position to know and understand how they feel, behave and interact with a digital product. This helps you become a good advocate for their needs with your design.
2. Define the problem
There is a phrase that says knowing a problem opens up the portal for many solutions; the real issue is not being able to define the problem. A problem is the difference between the expected outcome and what exists. Based on the information from the empathy stage, such as observing a common theme and identifying patterns and recurrent issues across several users.
Defining a problem means establishing and justifying a need to balance an expected outcome and reality. The problem statement outlines the particular issue you plan to tackle. It will serve as a roadmap for the design process. It will provide you with a clear objective to work toward and assist in keeping the users in your consciousness.
The next step would be documenting the problem statement; writing a document and getting possible solutions is better than just taking a mental note and waiting for the ideation or brainstorming stage. When framing your problem statement, you’ll focus on the users’ needs rather than the business. Defining the problem in design involves:
- Knowing the users
- Understanding their needs (Empathy)
- Dividing the needs into primary and secondary
- Assessing reality to understand how wide the gap
- Documentation
Moreover, you can define the problems by drawing up a user persona and an empathy map to represent the problem visually.
3. Ideate: Finding ideas and innovations
The ideation phase of design thinking involves a lot of mental energy because so many factors are involved, and it is more than just looking for a possible solution. Ideation, the third stage in UX Design Thinking, is where the magic happens. It is where the UX Designer puts his creativity into use.
With a clear problem statement, you’ll generate as many ideas and potential solutions as possible. Here, we shift from problem definition to generating many potential solutions that stem directly from user data, not just random ideas.
The How Might We method is the most viable option for ideating; it allows you to pose open-ended questions based on the problem statement and the user’s needs rather than jumping into solutions.
For example, you come up with as many ideas as possible.
Here is a list of things you should remember while writing an HMW for brainstorming.
- Start with the problem you’ve discovered and turn it into questions.
- Avoid suggesting, use insights to generate HMW
- Use active words that spark the mind to explore
- Make sure your HMW is positive rather than negative
- Test your HMW with the team and users
- Give room for continuous improvement during the design phase.
4. Prototype: Possible solutions for the problem
At this stage, you have many ideas to satisfy your users and build an epic product that attracts investors, but not every solution will be worth it. Moreover, you can’t make a product from every idea, as it will waste time and resources. You will have to narrow your ideas to a select few and turn them into prototypes of the product or concept you want to test.
The prototyping stage gives you something tangible that can be tested on real users. It helps you know if you are on the right track and discover new ideas that could work perfectly while maintaining a user-centric approach.
Prototypes can take various forms depending on what you’re testing—from basic paper models to interactive digital prototypes or even physical prototypes. However, it is advisable to make a digital prototype to save costs. Whichever prototype you create, the main thing is to have a clear goal: know what you want your prototype to represent and test it.
5. Try the solution with the user.
Testing your prototypes on actual or representative people is the fifth phase in the design thinking process. You determine where your prototype needs refinement and where it functions effectively before investing time and resources in creating and executing your solution; you can make adjustments and enhancements based on customer input or even a fresh idea.
There are many types of user testing in UX Design, but the most common ones are Usability testing, Card Sorting, and A/B Testing. They are standard metrics that will help you achieve your testing goals.
Tools for Design Thinking
- Miro: A flexible online whiteboard toolkit that offers an extensive range of tools for mind mapping, user flows, brainstorming, and visual collaboration. Its large template library and real-time collaboration features make it perfect for different stages of the design thinking process.
- Figjam: This is one of the popular tools among designers. FigJam, created by Figma, provides a smooth interface with the Figma design platform. It allows for collaborative ideation, brainstorming, and prototyping, enabling teams to quickly move from concepts to images.
- Mural: Mural is a digital workspace designed with design thinking and visual collaboration in mind. It is ideal for workshops, brainstorming sessions, and user journey creation because of its emphasis on visual thinking tools and user-friendly interface. It has an extensive template library that is geared for design thinking exercises.
FAQs
1. How much should design prioritise beauty over functionality?
A visually appealing design can be attractive but shouldn’t compromise user experience. Functionality should always come before considering aesthetics and visual elements that can improve user interface.
2. Can I use Design Thinking for small designs?
Design thinking isn’t limited to big designs; it can also solve small design problems. It could involve revamping a website, merging an app, or redesigning a user flow. Design thinking can help you approach your design with creativity and user-friendly solutions.
3. Isn’t Design Thinking too time-consuming?
Design thinking is iterative and requires time for research, testing, and refinement, but it saves time in the long run. You focus on user needs upfront and avoid building solutions that are out of context. The process helps identify potential problems early on, reduce revisions, and create a more productive development cycle.
After all is said and done.
Design thinking is crucial in creating usable and technologically feasible solutions that align with business goals. However, it can be challenging and requires a team effort. That’s why it’s a great idea to have professional expertise, such as in-house designers or a design agency, to help you out. At YellowSlice, we offer top-notch design services to help businesses achieve their digital solutions’ goals while meeting users’ needs. We’d love to chat with you and see how we can assist you. Reach out to us now, and let’s start creating something amazing together!
