Design Thinking

Design thinking is a human-centered and solution-based approach to problem solving that begins with developing empathy for those facing a particular challenge. Due to the focus on people's needs, design thinking is a great framework for dealing with complex, real-world problems that are strongly connected with human behaviour, emotions, and habits. By adopting a hands-on, creative, and user-centric mindset to problem solving, students develop essential competencies such as empathetic listening and observational skills, critical thinking, reflective learning, effective collaboration, adaptability, and systems-thinking skills.


The Design Thinking Process

The design thinking process is a structured framework that helps to define problems through empathising with others, identifying challenges, gathering information, generating potential solutions, and refining the potential solutions through multiple iterations until a viable solution is formed. There are many variations as to how the design thinking framework can be integrated into course activities. The following are its core principles:

Design thinking process and framework

The first stage seeks to understand users at a deep and personal level. 

Mindset
At this stage, students should be patient and non-judgemental as they gather and document the information gathered from their observations and engagement with users.

The define stage is all about focus and clarity as students, typically working in groups, start to define the scope of the problem based on what they've learned about the users and their challenges.

Mindset
It is critical for students to collaborate with users and encourage their active participation, in order for the students to gain a deeper understanding of the issues so that suitable, user-centric, and practical solution can be developed.

The ideate phase is where students use a range of techniques to interpret the research and insights gathered from the earlier stages into creative ideas and potential solutions.

Mindset
Group members should refrain from making judgments in the early stages of ideation, where generating ideas and proposals are the main priorities. In the later ideation stages, where the ideas and proposals are more refined, it is important for members to positively reinforce and build on each other’s ideas.

The prototype stage is where students bring their ideas to life, and develop experimental models that test or validate their proposed solution.

Mindset
As prototyping is an iterative process, asking questions such as, “What do I hope to test with the user?” and “What sorts of behaviours do I expect?” may help to reveal new potential problems and solutions, or whether the current design is suitable or can be further improved.

In the test phase, user feedback is gathered. This creates another opportunity to gain additional insights into the user or the challenge they are facing.  

Mindset
This stage is not the end of the process; ultimately, testing is a generative process for redesign as it reveals opportunities for improvement. Thus, students should avoid feeling too attached to the proposed solution and need to be willing to improve or sometimes radically change the concept based on the feedback gathered. It is crucial for students to be able to listen to criticism attentively, and without prejudice.

Assessment

In Design Thinking, students are primarily assessed based on their approach towards defining and solving the problem as well as their prototypes. Students may be asked to work a project, engage in discussions, present proposals, critique and reflect on their solutions, as well as to engage in self and peer evaluations. Often, the target users are involved in the assessment of the prototypes.

 

Enabling Technologies

Design Thinking requires collaborative platforms to support learners as they exchange ideas through each phase of the design thinking process. In the online learning environment, asynchronous tools such as discussion boards and Wikis, or synchronous tools such as Zoom and MS Teams, are examples of such technologies.

For a list of other technologies, please refer to this page.


Professional Development

To find out more, please contact [email protected].

Razzouk, R., & Shute, V. (2012). What is design thinking and why is it important? Review of educational research, 82(3), 330-348.

Stevens, E. (2019). What Is Design Thinking? A Comprehensive Beginner's Guide. Blog, CareerFoundry May, 16. Retrieved May 12, 2021, from https://careerfoundry.com/en/blog/ux-design/what-is-design-thinking-everything-you-need-to-know-to-get-started

IDEO.org. (2015). The Field Guide to Human-Centered Design (Community Engagement Manual). Retrieved from https://www.designkit.org

Riverdale Country School & IDEO.org. (2019). Design Thinking for Educators Toolkit (2nd Edition). Retrieved from https://designthinkingforeducators.com

Hasso-Plattner Institute of Design (d.school) at Stanford, “Design Thinking Mix Tapes,” 2018. https://dschool.stanford.edu/resources/chart-a-new-course-put-design-thinking-to-work