Value and Necessity of Design Thinking

Design thinking applies the designer’s sensibility to match the need for people, using technologically possible and business strategy to reach the goal of increasing customer value and market opportunity.

Design thinking is using the design method to solve the problem and achieve the aim of customer value and further opportunities.

However, when you think about it, why is there the need to apply the design thinking method to solve problems?

What is the major difference Design thinking rather than traditional/creative thinking? Design thinkers have higher willingness to learn from mistake rather than a regular thinker.

This is both a positive and a negative. Whether using design thinking to rethink an entire organization or a hairbrush, the design{er/thinker} is always conscious of the many variables at play in a single experience or product.

Truthfully, Design thinking is a profoundly human outlook on life; it is a conscious effort to place the human being at the centre of our lives and experiences.

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And design thinking has been immensely helpful and successful in making businesses, products and services more empathetic and human-centred.

The problem is that I, as a human being, am infinitely more complex than any objective system, be it an organization or service could ever be. It is incredibly difficult to pinpoint the deep issues in one’s life because of the many strategies we all have in place to avoid and ignore our own fears and dysfunctions. So while a designer can observe people’s behaviours and ‘thoughtless’ acts (all those little things we do to make things work for us, like the folded paper napkin under the wobbly table).

Design thinking is fast and fun and surprising that it leads to great ideas and effortless collaboration with complete strangers.

User experience

User experience nowadays presents itself as a vital role in the creative industry. User experience design is the connection between three areas, which is business, technology, and the most relevant design. What user experience designer does is to find the user’s need and link those aims and solve the problems proper communication with the customers with the sectors of design, business and technology. That is, user experience is applying these three sectors to satisfy user’s need.

My Team and I have done a report on occupying an empty place in the Cafeteria in the Organisation.

There are multiple food stalls that occupy a place in the cafeteria. How can we apply Design Thinking here? The answer is simple -

“Have your favourite food at your favourite time”

“Eating is not just a process it’s an experience”

“We never satisfy our customers, we delight them instead”

We needed to get together and brainstorm ideas, problem solving, and idea pitching in a limited time.

Communication Factor:

Communication is no longer only relies on one-way communication (traditional communication), and has been replaced by two-way communication or multi-communication.

We need to apply design thinking in such a way that we offer Food that people prefer, Food that will make them to forget the work stress and Food that have a hearty delightful feeling.

We applied design thinking by thinking and gathering information with different age groups and collated ideas from the direct observations, ethnographic interview, journey mapping.

For instance, some of the specific concerns noticed were that most Users had a different tolerance for spice. In another instance, veg Users demanded that there were not enough veg options, and similar was the case for Non veg users. Users expect a peaceful, healthy meal with varies from the everyday menu at an affordable price.

With the help of word-of-mouth marketing communication, the markets are easier to deliver the messages to their target audiences and the potential customers to influence their behaviours.

Design Thinking Solutions:

We used Combitorial play and connected the dots. Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.

We then used forced connections concepts development method to narrow down on the ideas.

When designing lesson plans or curriculum I created a formula based on the Design Thinking model to guide this process:

Empathize: understand your customer, research, collect and gather opinions/criticism from current User Experience

Define: objectives

Ideate: brainstorm ideas

Prototype: develop Samples and present your ideas and understand if user satisfaction is achieved

Test: Perform dry runs with your ideas and gather feedback and improve upon it

“Prototype as if you know you’re right, but test as if you know you’re wrong.” I really connected with this phrase because you need to be confident in your design but know that failing is learning. Be ready for users to critique your creation. Then listen to what needs to be changed or know when you need to start over.

We invited a diverse group of employees which included people who eat frequently at the cafeteria and the ones who prefer home food because of hygiene, taste and quality concerns. We presented the rough prototypes created and let the employees and got the appropriate feedback on our new ideas. The concepts that were presented were attractive ambience with clean and hygienic food, quick service and 24/7 service.

We used co-creation sessions and arrived at the below brief:

1. Stimulus: The people from the category who did not eat at the cafeteria were ecstatic when we explained about how we are going to ensure clean and hygienic environment in the eatery and our ways of maintaining it.
2. Observation: The employees got thrilled about our new idea and by word of mouth spread about our eatery to other employees.
3. Feelings: They signalled the feeling that it’s going to be the same as every other eatery in the cafeteria after few days.
4. Needs: A change and diverse experience from the everyday food at affordable price.
5. Implications: One among them is that we must make sure that this eatery stands out and provides different varieties of foods 24/7 with quick turnaround time in a hygienic environment.

Conclusion

Using Design Thinking basically covers all aspects of Users Experience and needs and it only gets better with every experience.

I learnt how to gain the value of products//services, to think differently and to apply the design thinking techniques, user experience to solve the problems effectively.

Also, I learned how to promote products/services through Design thinking and marketing communication and how to build up emotional connection between the customers and the product/service itself.

Overall, I strongly believe the Design Thinking model can be applied to any creative process around a service/product. A product could be a business plan, mobile app, presentation, or lesson plan. Design Thinking has been inspirational and I feel confident about what I can do with my new-found Design Thinking skills!

References

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• Kocek, C. (2014). The Difference Between a Business and a Brand. [online] Entrepreneur. Available at: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/231292 [Accessed 26 Apr. 2014].
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