DESIGN THINKING

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

To impart knowledge on design thinking process for understanding

complex designs.
To provide design skills to analyze design thinking issues and apply the
tools and techniques of design.
To inculcate attitude to solve societal problems using design thinking
tools.
 UNIT-I
DESIGN THINKING TOOLS
 Design thinking is the process of finding and solving
problems.
 Design thinking is the process of deducing the essence of
problems based on their own limitations.
 Design thinking is an extreme user-centered process.
 Design thinking is a process of integrating different things
into a system.
Design thinking isn’t just a session where everyone gets
together in a room and thinks really hard about
design solutions.
It’s actually an iterative process made up of five
phases: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and
test.
With each phase comes important tools and apps to
help you succeed.
 Design Thinking Tools
broken up by phases

Sl.No PHASE TOOLS

1 Empathize Empathy Map
2 Define Point of View (POV)
How Might We? HMW
Why – How Laddering?
3 Ideate Brainstorming
Mind map
4 Prototype Paper prototype,
Model
Sketches
Role play
Pop by Marvel (software tool)
5 Test User testing
By providing prototype and getting
feedback (Iterate the process)
 EMPATHY MAP
Empathy map is a collaborative visualization used to articulate
what we know about a particular type of user.
 It externalizes knowledge about users in order to
1) create a shared understanding of user needs
 2) aid in decision making.
Empathy map can be used to
Capture who a user or persona is
Communicate a user or persona
to others
 Collect data directly from user
EMPATHY MAP EXAMPLE
 How to build EMPATHY MAP?

Define scope and goals

Gather materials
Collect research
 Individually generate sticky notes for each quadrant
Converge to cluster and synthesize
Polish and plan
 EMPATHISE METHODS
Assume a beginner’s mindset
Ask What-How-Why
Ask the 5 whys
Conduct interviews with empathy
Build empathy with analogies
Use photo and video user-based studies
Use personal photo and video journals
Engage with extreme users
Story share-and-capture
Create journey maps
 DEFINE PHASE
Point-of-View(POV)
 Used to define problem statement

 Captures your design vision by defining the RIGHT challenge to

address in the ideation sessions
 You articulate a POV by combining these three elements – user,
need, and insight
 [User . . . (descriptive)] needs [need . . . (verb)] because
[insight. . . (compelling)]

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 DEFINE PHASE
How Might We?(HMW)
 Start using your POV by asking a specific question starting with:
“How Might We” or “in what ways might we”.
 HMW questions are questions that have the potential to spark
ideation sessions such as brainstorms.
 They should be broad enough for a wide range of solutions, but
narrow enough that specific solutions can be created for them

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 DEFINE PHASE
How Might We?(HMW-Example)
 For eg. you have observed that youths tend not to watch TV
programs on the TV at home, some questions which can guide and
spark your ideation session could be:
 How might we make TV more social, so youths feel more
engaged?
 How might we enable TV programs to be watched anywhere,
at anytime?
 How might we make watching TV at home more exciting?

 The HMW questions open up to Ideation sessions where you

explore ideas, which can help you solve your design challenge in
an innovative way.

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 DEFINE PHASE
Why-How Laddering?
 ‘Why’ yields more abstract statements and asking ‘How’ yields
specific statements.
 During the Define stage designers seek to define the problem,
and will generally ask why.
 Designers will use why to progress to the top of the so-
called Why-How Ladder where the ultimate aim is to find
out how you can solve one or more problems.
 How Might We questions will help you move from the Define
stage and into the next stage in Design Thinking, the Ideation
stage.
 Why-How Laddering starts with asking Why to work
out How they can solve the specific problem or design challenge.
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 IDEATE PHASE
Brainstorming
Rules for Brainstorming
Only one conversation is allowed at a time. No other person must
intervene when an idea is being given.
Focus must be on the quantity and not on quality.
Wild ideas must be encouraged even if they invoke plain humor or seem
impossible.
The group leader must defer judgment. The fellow thinkers also need to
suspend judgment. Judgmental attitude leads to an obstruction for the
thinkers.
Visualization is important. The design thinkers must create a visual
picture of the problem statement and then try to see a visual image of
their ideas as well.
Build on each other’s ideas. Support other ideas and build on them
through group discussions and healthy debates.
 IDEATE PHASE
Mind Maps

Mind map is a diagram that helps to observe and study

information in a visual manner.
Mind map is created around a single problem statement and
all the ideas to solve the problem are written around it.
The ideas can be represented as text, images, trees, and
even smaller mind maps.
The entire map looks like a top view of a tree with the
problem statement as the trunk and the solutions as branches.
 It is also known by the name of spider diagram.
 IDEATE PHASE
Guidelines to Create Mind Maps
Begin with the problem statement at the center of a blank white
page.
Use images, different colors, symbols, abbreviations and codes
to depict your ideas. Text can be boring, but different depictions can
add an altogether different charm to your mind map.
Keywords must replace long statements. The mind map must give a
hint to the design thinker about an idea quickly. Reading a long
statement is waste of time.
Each and every word written in the mind map must be connected to
the central hub by some or other line or set of lines.
Use multiple colors for visual stimulation.
Use radial hierarchy and make use of emphasis, italics, and
underlines to stress on a point.
 IDEATE PHASE
Mind Map Example
 PROTOTYPE PHASE

Prototyping offers designers the opportunity to bring their ideas to

life, test the practicability of the current design, and to potentially
investigate how a sample of users think and feel about a product.
Prototypes are often used in the final, testing phase in a Design
Thinking process in order to determine how users behave with the
prototype, to reveal new solutions to problems, or to find out
whether or not the implemented solutions have been successful.
“They slow us down to speed us up. By taking the time to
prototype our ideas, we avoid costly mistakes such as
becoming too complex too early and sticking with a weak
idea for too long.”
– Tim Brown
 Model
Sketches
PROTOTYPE PHASE
Role play
Pop by Marvel (software tool)
Prototype Tools

Paper prototype
Model
Sketches
Role play
Pop by Marvel (software tool)
 PROTOTYPE PHASE
Prototype Example

Sketching for MobileApp

 TESTING PHASE

Testing can be undertaken throughout the progress of a

Design Thinking project, although it is most commonly
undertaken concurrently with the Prototyping stage.
Conducting a User Test
When conducting a user test on your prototype, it is ideal
to utilise a natural setting
The key is to get users to be using the prototype as they
would in real life, as much as possible.
 TESTING PHASE

Testing considerations to achieve the best learning results from

each test.
The prototype
Context and scenario
How you interact with the user
How you observe and capture feedback
 TESTING PHASE
Guidelines when planning a Test
Let your users compare alternatives
Show, don’t tell: let your users experience the prototype
Ask users to talk through their experience
Observe
Ask follow up questions
Negative Feedback is Your Way to Learn and Improve