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Khandesh College Education Society's

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND MANAGEMENT, JALGAON

Affiliated to Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Technological University,

Maharashtra

FINAL YEAR B. TECH

COMPUTER ENGINEERING

DESIGN THINKINH

Code: BTCOE504
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UNIT 1: Overview of Design Thinking Process

Design Thinking Process: Business context of innovation for applying design thinking

Two models of design thinking

Phases of design thinking

Correlation with other philosophies.

Introduction to design thinking: Definition

Origin of design thinking

Importance of design thinking

Design vs. Design thinking

Problem solving

Understanding design thinking and its process model

Design thinking tools.

Human-Centered Design (HCD) process - Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test and Iterate or
Empathize, Analyze, Solve and Test.

Design Thinking Process:

Business context of innovation for applying design thinking:

What is Design Thinking?

Design thinking is a non-linear, iterative process that teams use to understand users, challenge
assumptions, redefine problems and create innovative solutions to prototype and test. Involving five
phases—Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test—it is most useful to tackle problems that are ill-
defined or unknown.
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Why Is Design Thinking so Important?

In user experience (UX) design, it’s crucial to develop and refine skills to understand and address rapid
changes in users’ environments and behaviors. The world has become increasingly interconnected and
complex since cognitive scientist and Nobel Prize laureate Herbert A. Simon first mentioned design
thinking in his 1969 book, The Sciences of the Artificial, and then contributed many ideas to its principles.
Professionals from a variety of fields, including architecture and engineering, subsequently advanced this
highly creative process to address human needs in the modern age. Twenty-first-century organizations
from a wide range of industries find design thinking a valuable means to problem-solve for the users of
their products and services. Design teams use design thinking to tackle ill-defined/unknown problems
(aka wicked problems) because they can reframe these in human-centric ways and focus on what’s
most important for users. Of all design processes, design thinking is almost certainly the best for
“thinking outside the box”. With it, teams can do better UX research, prototyping and usability testing to
uncover new ways to meet users’ needs.

Design thinking’s value as a world-improving, driving force in business (global heavyweights such as
Google, Apple and Airbnb have wielded it to notable effect) matches its status as a popular subject at
leading international universities. With design thinking, teams have the freedom to generate ground-
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breaking solutions. Using it, your team can get behind hard-to-access insights and apply a collection of
hands-on methods to help find innovative answers.

The Five Stages of Design Thinking

Stage 1: Empathize—Research Your Users' Needs

Here, you should gain an empathetic understanding of the problem you’re trying to solve, typically
through user research. Empathy is crucial to a human-centered design process such as design thinking
because it allows you to set aside your own assumptions about the world and gain real insight into users
and their needs.

Stage 2: Define—State Your Users' Needs and Problems

It’s time to accumulate the information gathered during the Empathize stage. You then analyze your
observations and synthesize them to define the core problems you and your team have identified. These
definitions are called problem statements. You can create personas to help keep your efforts human-
centered before proceeding to ideation.

Stage 3: Ideate—Challenge Assumptions and Create Ideas

Now, you’re ready to generate ideas. The solid background of knowledge from the first two phases means
you can start to “think outside the box”, look for alternative ways to view the problem and identify
innovative solutions to the problem statement you’ve created. Brainstorming is particularly useful here..

Stage 4: Prototype—Start to Create Solutions

This is an experimental phase. The aim is to identify the best possible solution for each problem found.
Your team should produce some inexpensive, scaled-down versions of the product (or specific features
found within the product) to investigate the ideas you’ve generated. This could involve simply paper
prototyping.

Stage 5: Test—Try Your Solutions Out

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Evaluators rigorously test the prototypes. Although this is the final phase, design thinking is
iterative: Teams often use the results to redefine one or more further problems. So, you can return to
previous stages to make further iterations, alterations and refinements – to find or rule out alternative
solutions.

Design Thinking as a Strategy for Business Innovation

The business world of today is fast and relentless. Blink, and you’ll miss the latest wave of technology.
Rest, and you’ll fall behind your competitors from all over the world.

The line between the physical and digital experience has blurred and customers now demand the most
convenient touch points across all channels.

For businesses to succeed, innovation is key. And when people think of innovation, they think of design.
As Nigel Cross from the Design Research Society says, “Everything we have around us has been
designed. Design ability is, in fact, one of the three fundamental dimensions of human intelligence”.

When people think of design, they usually think of the end product or result. But design has evolved to
become an organisational ideology.

The importance of design thinking for businesses has never been greater. By adopting design thinking,
leaders are able to gain a much deeper understanding of industry trends and consumer behaviours and
create solutions that lead to a competitive edge and more business growth.

What are the basic principles of design thinking?

The four principles of design thinking as established by Meinel and Leifer of the Hasso-Plattner-Institute
of Design at Stanford University are:

The human rule – All design activity is inherently social. Projects are becoming increasingly
collaborative which has seen the rise of the designer’s development mentality.

The ambiguity rule – Problems are inevitably ambiguous. Designers should resist removing ambiguity
through oversimplification as it limits creativity.

The redesign rule – All design is redesign. We are always looking for new variations to solve old
problems.

The tangibility rule – Making ideas tangible through prototyping helps designers to communicate their
ideas more effectively.
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Beyond these four principles, our experts revealed other key ingredients for successful design thinking in
areas like UX customer design.

According to Moodie at A Cloud Guru, good design is all about simplicity. “Don’t make me think – Steve
Krug said web design should be obvious and self-explanatory. If people can’t work out what you’re trying
to say or what they need to do, they’re not going to stick around long. Good web design lets people
accomplish their intended tasks as easily and directly as possible.”

As content grows and becomes more complex, it becomes harder to keep things organised and easy to
navigate. “We’ve recently found ourselves in such a position at A Cloud Guru and are in the process of
addressing this” says Moodie.

“Understanding your site and how customers are using it is an important part of content organisation. If
you know how people are using your site you can identify opportunities to structure the navigation in a
way that helps customers to use your site more efficiently.”

In the face of a volatile, uncertain and time-strained world, Lennon believes that design thinking demands
“the courage and determination necessary to adopt an adventurer’s mindset.”

He outlines the principles adopted at Cognizant: “We use our human-centred design thinking approach to
help clients step out of the ‘complacent rationality’ we are normally so comfortable with.”

“Anchored in a deep understanding of the customer’s rational, emotional and physical needs and wants,
we move through a strategic/creative process, combining logic and dialogue, and shifting gear from
divergent to convergent thinking.”

Applying design thinking principles in business

When it comes to applying design thinking principles, Misiurny says, “The number one thing about
design thinking is the aspect of always balancing human centred approaches with business viability and
feasibility.”

“Many people think it’s about the ideas.. but it’s about making ideas happen. An idea is not good if it
doesn’t actually meet the needs of customers. An idea is not good if it doesn’t fit your business strategy.
An idea is not good if it will take you 10 years to implement.”

For Lennon, design thinking principles has done wonders for opening up new breakthroughs and
opportunities. One example he gives is how a government transport agency was able to re-imagine the
customer experience by providing a more personalised experience.
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“Sharing information on delays with customers would be a good start, but what if customers could share
their own personal information with the agency, including whether, for example, the passenger had
specific needs or travels in a wheelchair?”

Design thinking ultimately helped the transport agency recognise that they didn’t have to be the provider
of all services “in-house” but could be a curator of experiences instead.

How do you measure the success of design thinking processes?

One way to evaluate the success of design thinking is through KPIs.

“Design thinking should be directly tied to your organisation’s strategic KPIs” says Misiurny.

“The process is successful if the solution you propose is proven to affect the KPI tied to the problem you
were trying to solve. And if it’s invalidated, then you count the learnings and try again.”

Lennon expands on the design thinking process with specific KPIs that he uses on his projects:

Customer – includes Customer Satisfaction, Net Promoter Score, Customer Loyalty, Share of Wallet

Product – includes Time to Market, Rate of Adoption, Average products per Customer

Employees – includes Employee Engagement, Team Collaboration

Innovation – includes Number of Qualified Innovation Ideas, Employee Participation Rate, Rate of
Success in Product Realisation

He adds: “Ultimately, bottom line profitability should be boosted also. However, it is important for
everyone to recognise this is a consequence of successful implementation of design thinking disciplines,
not the primary purpose of doing so.”

The American artist/designer Kelli Anderson captures the attitude of design thinking by calling for us to
“reject the normal order of things, mess them up and rearrange the pieces”.

In order to gain a competitive advantage and flourish in this brave new digital world, businesses must be
ready to answer this call.

EXAMPLES OF DESIGN THINKING

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What does a properly executed design thinking process look like? Examining real-world examples is an
effective way to answer that question. Here are five examples of well-known brands that have leveraged
design thinking to solve business problems.

1. GE Healthcare

GE Healthcare is an example of a company that focused on user-centricity to improve a product that

seemingly had no problems.

Diagnostic imaging has revolutionized healthcare, yet GE Healthcare saw a problem in how pediatric
patients reacted to procedures. Many children were observed crying during long procedures in cold, dark
rooms with flickering fluorescent lights. Considering this, GE Healthcare’s team observed children in
various environments, spoke to experts, and interviewed hospital staff to gain more insight into their
experiences.

After extensive user research, hospital pilots, and reiteration, GE Healthcare launched the “Adventure
Series.” This redesign initiative focused on making magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines more
child-friendly.

For example, the “Pirate Adventure” transforms MRI machines from dark, black holes to pirate ships with
scenery of beaches, sandcastles, and the ocean. By empathizing with children’s pain points, GE
Healthcare was able to craft a creative solution that was not only fun but increased patient satisfaction
scores by 90 percent. This also yielded unexpected successes, including improved scan quality of
pediatric patients, and ultimately saved customers time and resources.

2. Oral B

Design thinking not only succeeds at finding effective solutions for companies but also at putting
initiatives to the test before implementation.

When Oral B wanted to upgrade its electric toothbrush, it enlisted designers Kim Colin and Sam Hecht to
help. The company’s request was to add more functions for electric toothbrush users, such as tracking
brushing frequency, observing gum sensitivity, and playing music.
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While clarifying the problem, however, Colin and Hecht pointed out that brushing teeth was a neurotic act
for many people. Users didn’t want additional functionality and, in many cases, thought it could
potentially cause more stress. Instead, they recommended two solutions that could improve user
experience without adding gimmicks.

Their first recommendation was to make the toothbrush easier to charge, especially while users were on
the road. Another was making it more convenient for users to order replacement heads by allowing
toothbrushes to connect to phones and send reminder notifications. Both proposals were successful
because they focused on what users wanted rather than what the company wanted to roll out.

3. Netflix

Although many companies have successfully used design thinking, Netflix has repeatedly leveraged it to
become an industry giant. During the company’s inception, its main competitor, Blockbuster, required
customers to drive to brick-and-mortar stores to rent DVDs. The process was the same for returns, which
was a major pain point for many. Netflix eliminated that inconvenience by delivering DVDs directly to
customers’ homes with a subscription model.

While this revolutionized the movie industry, Netflix’s real success has been in its innovation over the
years. For example, when the company realized DVDs were becoming outdated, it created an on-demand
streaming service to stay ahead of the curve. This also inadvertently eliminated the inconvenience of
having to wait for DVDs.

Subsequently, in 2011, Netflix took its design thinking one step further and responded to customers’ need
for original, provocative content that wasn’t airing on traditional networks. Later, in 2016, it improved its
user experience by adding short trailers to its interface. Each of Netflix’s major updates was in response
to customers’ needs and driven by an effective design thinking process.

4. Airbnb

Another household name, Airbnb, started by only making around $200 a week. After some observation,
its founders recognized that the advertising pictures hosts were posting online weren’t of a high enough
quality, which often deterred customers from renting rooms.
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To empathize with customers, the founders spent time traveling to each location, imagining what users
look for in a temporary place to stay. Their solution? Invest in a high-quality camera and take pictures of
what customers want to see, based on their travel observations. For example, showing every room rather
than a select few, listing special features like a hot tub or pool in the description, and highlighting the
neighborhood or areas in close proximity to the residence. The result? A week later, Airbnb’s revenue
doubled.

Instead of focusing on reaching a bigger audience, Airbnb’s founders used design thinking to determine
why their existing audience wasn’t utilizing their services. They realized that rather than focusing on
traditional business values, like scalability, they needed to simply put themselves in users’ shoes to solve
business problems.

5. UberEats

The go-to food delivery service app UberEats attributes its success to its ability to reiterate quickly and
empathize with customers.

A prime example of this is UberEats’s Walkabout Program, where designers observe cities in which the
company operates. Some elements they inspect are food culture, cuisine, infrastructure, delivery
processes, and transportation. One of the innovations that came from their immersive research is the
driver app, which focuses on delivery partners’ pain points around parking in highly populated urban
areas. To address this, the driver app provides step-by-step directions from restaurant to customer to
ensure smoother delivery processes.

Understanding that pain points vary between geographic locations helps UberEats implement effective
upgrades to its service that solve problems in specific locations.

Two models of design thinking

Design Thinking - Divergent

Design thinking involves two types of thinking, viz. convergent thinking and divergent thinking. One
needs to think of many solutions to a common problem statement and then arrive at the correct and the
best solution.
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Divergent thinking is the process of devising more than one solution for a problem statement. It refers to
the thought process of generating creative solutions. The main features of divergent thinking are −

 It is a free flowing chain of ideas.

 It happens in a non-linear manner, i.e. it does not follow any particular sequence of thinking.
Moreover, multiple ideas can emerge at the same time, rather than one idea coming up only after
the other has occurred.
 Non-linearity also means that multiple solutions are thought of and explored at the same time.
This happens in a very short amount of time and unexpected connections are developed between
the ideas.

A stimulus is provided to the design thinker and that prompts creative elaboration of ideas by the thinker.

Divergent thinking is supposed to enhance creativity of thinkers. The term ‘Divergent Thinking’ was first
coined by J. P. Guilford in 1956. The Free Association Theory of Creativity says that concepts are
connected inside our brains as semantic networks. Psychologists have claimed that the difference in
creativity levels of people is dependent on the type of semantic networks of concepts inside the human
mind. Following are the two types of connections −

 Flat
 Steep

The design thinkers with flat networks are those with numerous loose conceptual connections. They are
more creative. The people with steep networks are more logical, because of the linear associations
between the nodes. Because divergent thinking proceeds in a non-linear fashion, a person with flat
associative network will be more successful in divergent thinking.

Before getting into the exercise of design thinking, a person has to find out what type of thinker the
person is. If a person can think of diverse solutions, without any pre-determined set of solutions, then the
person is a divergent thinker. Let’s take a look at an exercise on divergent thinking.

Case Study

Problem Statement − The process of knowledge transfer is a huge problem for the organization. Let’s
call our organization ‘DT’. DT wants to eliminate the overhead of shelling out extra money and investing
time for transferring knowledge to its new employees. The problem statement at hand is “Knowledge
transfer adds to the cost of the company”. Let’s think of ways to eliminate or at least, reduce the cost to
the company.

Solution − Following can be some of the possible and even not-so-possible solutions.
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 DT can eliminate the process of knowledge transfer.

 DT can conduct classroom sessions for knowledge transfer, where a large number of new
employees can be seated and just one instructor can deliver sessions to many employees at once.
This will reduce the cost as the number of paid instructors required will be less.
 DT can come up with a document for knowledge transfer and can mail it to every new employee.
The employees can go through the document and hence, can selfhelp for knowledge transfer.
 DT can ask the employees to search for material online to gain knowledge of new tools and
processes, which are currently in use in the industry.
 DT can hire only those employees who have adequate knowhow of tools and techniques that DT
works on. This will eliminate the need of knowledge transfer.

There may be many other solutions that may come to your mind. Write them down on a sheet of paper.
Here, we won’t focus on whether a solution is possible, feasible or viable. We just need to bring ideas to
the table, no matter how absurd they may sound. This is called the process of divergent thinking, where a
thinker is free to move or flow in any direction.

Design Thinking - Convergent

Convergent thinking is exactly opposite of what divergent thinking is. The term ‘Convergent Thinking’
was coined by Joy Paul Guilford in 1956. The concept of convergent thinking requires the design
thinker to go through all the possible solutions thought during divergent thinking and come up with a
correct solution. This convergence on a single solution or a mix of limited number of solutions is the
essence of convergence thinking.

Convergent thinking is the type of thinking in which a thinker is generally supposed to come up with a
single well-established best-possible solution to a problem. This step delivers the best and a concrete
solution to a problem statement, taking into account all the factors and requirements specified in the
problem statement.

Convergent thinking requires speed, accuracy, efficiency, logical reasoning, and techniques. A thinker is
supposed to recognize the patterns, reapply a few techniques, and accumulate and organize the stored
information.

Aspects of Convergent Thinking

The principle aspect of convergent thinking is that it should help us arrive at a singlebest answer
without any room for ambiguity. The ideas thought of in the process of divergent thinking are either
considered to be possible or impossible in convergent thinking phase.
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Another important aspect of convergent thinking is that judgment is an important part of this process.
Divergent thinking requires thinkers to suspend judgment. Convergent thinking encourages thinkers to
apply the power of judgment.

Let’s look at the exercise of divergent thinking and start applying convergent thinking on it

We got the following ideas in the divergent thinking exercise.

 Elimination of knowledge transfer program.

 Having a single instructor for knowledge transfer program in a classroom session.
 Preparing a document for knowledge transfer program.
 Making it mandatory for employees to search for knowledge resources online.
 Hiring only those employees who are experienced enough and who don’t need knowledge
transfer.

Now, looking at the five ideas, it can be easily said that option 1 is not feasible. Every employee does not
have an idea of a company’s tools and techniques and hence, cannot be expected to survive without
knowledge transfer.

For the same reason, option 5 is also not acceptable. The best practices of a company are seldom known
to new employees and taking an assumption about an employee’s knowledge level is a huge mistake. It is
considered to be a good HR practice to have knowledge transfer session for new employees.

If we go by option 4, we are not assured of the pace at which learning will happen for the new employees.
Each employee can take variable amount of time to grasp the concepts. The time taken to search materials
online and read them is an overhead in itself and it cannot be monitored.

Hence, the two better options that remain are option 2 and option 3. However, one cannot correctly
estimate the effectiveness of a document for knowledge transfer. It is similar to reading materials online.
Hence, the best option available is to have an instructor teaching employees in a classroom program.

Although, the employees won’t get personal attention at times, yet by maintaining a fine balance between
the strength of the batch and the length of class, this can be the best option to reduce cost and overhead.
The reduction in the number of instructors will lead to less expenditure for DT and at the same time, the
effectiveness of a paid instructor will remain, making the process of knowledge transfer as effective as
before.

This is how convergent thinking comes into picture.

Phases of design thinking:

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Design thinking is a methodology which provides a solution-based approach to solving problems. It’s
extremely useful when used to tackle complex problems that are ill-defined or unknown—because it
serves to understand the human needs involved, reframe the problem in human-centric ways, create
numerous ideas in brainstorming sessions and adopt a hands-on approach to prototyping and testing.
Learning about the five stages of design thinking will empower you and allow you to apply the
methodology to your work and solve complex problems that occur in our companies, our countries, and
across the world.

Design thinking is a non-linear, iterative process that can have anywhere from three to seven phases,
depending on whom you talk to. We focus on the five-stage design thinking model proposed by the Hasso
Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford (the d.school) because they are world-renowned for the way they
teach and apply design thinking.

What are the 5 Stages of the Design Thinking Process

The five stages of design thinking, according to the d.school, are:

 Empathize: research your users' needs.

 Define: state your users' needs and problems.
 Ideate: challenge assumptions and create ideas.
 Prototype: start to create solutions.
 Test: try your solutions out.
Let’s dive into each stage of the design thinking process.
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Stage 1: Empathize—Research Your Users' Needs

Empathize: the first phase of design thinking, where you gain real insight into users and their needs.

The first stage of the design thinking process focuses on user-centric research. You want to gain an
empathic understanding of the problem you are trying to solve. Consult experts to find out more about the
area of concern and conduct observations to engage and empathize with your users. You may also want to
immerse yourself in your users’ physical environment to gain a deeper, personal understanding of the
issues involved—as well as their experiences and motivations. Empathy is crucial to problem solving and
a human-centered design process as it allows design thinkers to set aside their own assumptions about the
world and gain real insight into users and their needs.

Depending on time constraints, you will gather a substantial amount of information to use during the next
stage. The main aim of the Empathize stage is to develop the best possible understanding of your users,
their needs and the problems that underlie the development of the product or service you want to create.
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Stage 2: Define—State Your Users' Needs and Problems

Define: the second phase of design thinking, where you define the problem statement in a human-centered
manner.

In the Define stage, you will organize the information you have gathered during the Empathize stage.
You’ll analyze your observations to define the core problems you and your team have identified up to this
point. Defining the problem and problem statement must be done in a human-centered manner.

For example, you should not define the problem as your own wish or need of the company: “We need to
increase our food-product market share among young teenage girls by 5%.”

You should pitch the problem statement from your perception of the users’ needs: “Teenage girls need to
eat nutritious food in order to thrive, be healthy and grow.”The Define stage will help the design team
collect great ideas to establish features, functions and other elements to solve the problem at hand—or, at
the very least, allow real users to resolve issues themselves with minimal difficulty. In this stage, you will
start to progress to the third stage, the ideation phase, where you ask questions to help you look for
solutions: “How might we encourage teenage girls to perform an action that benefits them and also
involves your company’s food-related product or service?” for instance
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Stage 3: Ideate—Challenge Assumptions and Create Ideas

Ideate: the third phase of design thinking, where you identify innovative solutions to the problem
statement you’ve created.

During the third stage of the design thinking process, designers are ready to generate ideas. You’ve grown
to understand your users and their needs in the Empathize stage, and you’ve analyzed your observations
in the Define stage to create a user centric problem statement. With this solid background, you and your
team members can start to look at the problem from different perspectives and ideate innovative
solutions to your problem statement.

There are hundreds of ideation techniques you can use—such as Brainstorm, Brainwrite, Worst Possible
Idea and SCAMPER. Brainstorm and Worst Possible Idea techniques are typically used at the start of the
ideation stage to stimulate free thinking and expand the problem space. This allows you to generate as
many ideas as possible at the start of ideation. You should pick other ideation techniques towards the end
of this stage to help you investigate and test your ideas, and choose the best ones to move forward with—
either because they seem to solve the problem or provide the elements required to circumvent it.
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Stage 4: Prototype—Start to Create Solutions

Prototype: the fourth phase of design thinking, where you identify the best possible solution.

The design team will now produce a number of inexpensive, scaled down versions of the product (or
specific features found within the product) to investigate the key solutions generated in the ideation phase.
These prototypes can be shared and tested within the team itself, in other departments or on a small group
of people outside the design team.

This is an experimental phase, and the aim is to identify the best possible solution for each of the
problems identified during the first three stages. The solutions are implemented within the prototypes
and, one by one, they are investigated and then accepted, improved or rejected based on the users’
experiences.

By the end of the Prototype stage, the design team will have a better idea of the product’s limitations and
the problems it faces. They’ll also have a clearer view of how real users would behave, think and feel
when they interact with the end product.
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Stage 5: Test—Try Your Solutions Out

Test: the fifth and final phase of the design thinking process, where you test solutions to derive a deep
understanding of the product and its users.

Designers or evaluators rigorously test the complete product using the best solutions identified in the
Prototype stage. This is the final stage of the five-stage model; however, in an iterative process such as
design thinking, the results generated are often used to redefine one or more further problems. This
increased level of understanding may help you investigate the conditions of use and how people think,
behave and feel towards the product, and even lead you to loop back to a previous stage in the design
thinking process. You can then proceed with further iterations and make alterations and refinements to
rule out alternative solutions. The ultimate goal is to get as deep an understanding of the product and
its users as possible.
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Correlation with other philosophies

The very youth of the philosophy of design suggests that a definition carved in granite would neither be
feasible nor indeed welcome. Like other youngsters, the field is probably better left to grow up of its own
accord, without being patronised by too many preconceptions about its future identity. But let’s not press
the metaphor; it does not answer the question for us anyway. One way of answering the question –
without carving granite – would be to say merely that the philosophy of design is whatever philosophers
of design do, or could reasonably do. That answer, I admit, may sound altogether too flippant for a serious
introduction. And yet it is all I shall offer right now, for it does suggest a good way of approaching the
subject. Why? Because if you are new to a subject, a handful of examples is what you need to form an
initial intuition about it, and in my experience such intuition (for many of us) is a prerequisite for
understanding. After the examples I shall attempt a more general, and I hope more satisfactory, answer to
the question of what the philosophy of design is about. First, however, a glance at the affiliations of the
authors whose work appears in the CEPHAD Bibliography will reveal that some but not all philosophers
of design are philosophers by profession. It is an essential characteristic of the philosophy of design that it
is cross-disciplinary. Authors who write about it have varied backgrounds; some are philosophers; others
come from research, practice, or teaching of design. Having a formal training in both philosophy and
design is the exception rather than the rule. So in a sense, in this field most of us are half amateurs. By
this I am not suggesting that philosophers of design are charlatans; only that presumably they have more
to learn from each other, and more to offer in return, than people in more homogeneous fields of research.
What is it that philosophers of design do, or could do, then? They try to come to grips with certain
fundamental and abstract questions about design; questions much more general than those that confront
designers in their everyday practice.

The following examples are not claimed to constitute a representative sample in any precise sense of the
word ‘representative’; but even so they will convey the flavour:

 What distinguishes design (architectural, engineering, software, etc.) from other intellectual
endeavours, such as science or technology?
 How are the concepts of design and artefact related? For example, are they definable in terms of
each other? Is it a necessary, a sufficient, or necessary and sufficient, condition for 3 something to
be an artefact that it was designed; can there be artefacts without design?
 Whatever the answer to the latter question may be, it seems clear that there is always design
without artefacts, for at the time a given artefact was designed, it had not yet been constructed.
Yet designers talk about what they design as if there were artefacts for them to talk about. How is
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that to be explained? Are statements of design discourse true, false, or even meaningful? If so,
what makes them so? If not, what purpose could design discourse possibly serve?
 What ontological and epistemological assumptions should be made to explain the apparent fact
that designers can know or predict the properties of an artefact, which is not there to have
properties?
 Taking universals to be whatever can be predicated of things, design might be viewed as the
selection (or creation?) of one or more universals to be predicated of some future artefact. Using
this approach to theorizing about design, it must be expected that the traditional distinction
between nominalist, conceptualist, and realist theories of universals carries over to theories of
design. What would design theories of the three types be like, and what would be their relative
strengths and weaknesses?
 What are the relations between philosophy of design and philosophy at large? For example,
considering the central problems of the philosophy of design (whatever they may be, apart
perhaps from defining ‘design’), are they special cases of familiar philosophical problems, or are
they new? No doubt the philosophy of design can draw on insights from other fields of
philosophy. Can it also offer them new insights?
 Can results from the philosophy of design be put to use in design practice – for example, by
leading us towards better artefacts, better design methods, better ways of utilizing computers in
design?

Introduction to design thinking: Definition

What is Design Thinking?

Design thinking is a non-linear, iterative process that teams use to understand users, challenge
assumptions, redefine problems and create innovative solutions to prototype and test. Involving five
phases—Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test—it is most useful to tackle problems that are ill-
defined or unknown.

The Origins of Design Thinking

Design thinking is created not only because Tim Brown coined the word that became a buzzword. There’s
a logical reason to it.
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Design thinking is created because big corporation lack the ability to be creative and on extreme cases,
aren’t able to create new products and services that meet unmet needs of their customers. Because of 20th
century education system that fostered dominant logic and disregard creativity, people grew up with an
overpowered mindset and skill-set of managing value. Hence, defines the corporations today that are run
by boomers and Gen X.

Because how they are bred, a majority of corporations operate with analytical thinking where they are
constantly being disrupted by changing trends and consumer values rendering their business obsolete.
Think of Kodak’s film camera business. This happens because organizations lack value creation
capability that would allow them to respond in time. To respond to external change is to innovate. To
innovate, businesses must have the capacity to design. To design they need to fuse design internally
within the organization to create a culture that fosters creative thinking and actions with design methods
and tools designers use.

Pioneers like Tim Brown and Roger Martin have spearheaded the shifting role of design in business from
noun to verb, where design can be used as a differentiator to respond to changing trends and consumer
behaviours, while gaining competitive advantage that ultimately impacts bottom-line and drives business
growth. Businesses are beginning to realize the necessity of design as a value creation capability to
complement its existing value management capability.

In its purest context, value creation typically comes from designers because they are naturally inclined in
creative thinking, trained in the methods and tools to produce new values. However, designers seem to be
able to produce new values in ambiguity where there was never a concrete set of predictable process. This
is a big problem for organizations because executives initially cannot comprehend the nature of creatives.

Designer’s creative process and mindset are too ambiguous, messy and unpredictable for businesses to
follow and embed as part of their organizational process. This is because businesses seek to replicate the
creative outcome from design process. Hence, the desire to synthesize design process into a step-by-step
process. Thus, design thinking as process is born. However, the risk of having a defined process that
become standardized may lead to a predictable and less creative outcome.

Design thinking is now known as a creative-problem solving approach designers use to create new values
that are different and create positive impact. In essence design thinking has gain popularity as the
approach to innovate. When design thinking is applied to business by making creativity logical, the
results are tremendous. Companies that have successfully implemented design thinking have seen their
bottom-line increases with a healthy growth rate.
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As design thinking gained global traction, so has the hype and illusion. People jump on the bandwagon
without really knowing what design thinking is, how it works, and why it’s needed in the first place. Even
worse, when they begin to call themselves “Design Thinkers” after learning about the standard methods
and tools of design thinking process. Many claim that they can implement design thinking in
organizations to achieve an outcome they do not truly understand or a misdirected outcome that
disappoints businesses. Thus, design thinking is treated as a step-by-step process trained by trainers or
strategists who cannot design, but advise companies on design merely because they have taken short
training courses trained by other trainers.

This is all too common especially in developing nations where many design thinking engagements are run
through one-off workshops which usually ends at prototyping with roleplay or pitching session, without
regards on following through to execute ideas created. Because of these illusion, misdirection and one-off
engagements the value of design becomes diluted, and ROI of design thinking can’t be realized. This may
lead to society at large perceiving design as a failure, which I address 13 reasons on why design thinking
will fail if these problems are not solved here. They will not understand because they do not realize that
with thinking, the act of designing is necessary too. The art of craftsmanship, idealism and perfectionism
are the traits that define such creatives. Guess who possess these traits that has brought his company to
cultish success? Steve Jobs and his Apple.
All in all, design thinking has become a buzzword with certain expectations and assumptions. If design
thinking is used as an organizational approach to creativity, it should not be different from logic — as
creativity is the ability to make sense of new logic.

Importance of design thinking

Why Is Design Thinking so Important?

In user experience (UX) design, it’s crucial to develop and refine skills to understand and address rapid
changes in users’ environments and behaviors. The world has become increasingly interconnected and
complex since cognitive scientist and Nobel Prize laureate Herbert A. Simon first mentioned design
thinking in his 1969 book, The Sciences of the Artificial, and then contributed many ideas to its principles.
Professionals from a variety of fields, including architecture and engineering, subsequently advanced this
highly creative process to address human needs in the modern age. Twenty-first-century organizations
from a wide range of industries find design thinking a valuable means to problem-solve for the users of
their products and services. Design teams use design thinking to tackle ill-defined/unknown problems
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(aka wicked problems) because they can reframe these in human-centric ways and focus on what’s most
important for users. Of all design processes, design thinking is almost certainly the best for “thinking
outside the box”. With it, teams can do better UX research, prototyping and usability testing to uncover
new ways to meet users’ needs.

Design thinking’s value as a world-improving, driving force in business (global heavyweights such as
Google, Apple and Airbnb have wielded it to notable effect) matches its status as a popular subject at
leading international universities. With design thinking, teams have the freedom to generate ground-
breaking solutions. Using it, your team can get behind hard-to-access insights and apply a collection of
hands-on methods to help find innovative answers.

Importance of Design Thinking

Because of the following reasons, Design Thinking is a significant method for problem-solving and
innovation:

User-Centered

Design Thinking centers the problem-solving process on the end-user, ensuring that solutions are
produced with the user’s requirements, wants, and motivations in mind. This user-centered
design approach contributes to the development of solutions that are both desirable and usable.

Creativity

Design Thinking develops creativity and helps produce unique ideas by encouraging a wide variety of
potential solutions and embracing experimentation. Design Thinking, through fostering creative thinking,
assists organizations and people in finding fresh and unusual solutions to complicated challenges.

Teamwork

Promotes collaboration and cross-functional teams by bringing individuals from many backgrounds and
disciplines together to work toward a shared objective. This diversified team dynamic contributes to a
broader range of ideas and problem-solving methodologies, resulting in more successful solutions.
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Problem-Solving

It is an organized and effective method of problem-solving, helping companies and people to solve
difficult challenges. The process aids in the clarification of the problem, the generation of alternative
solutions, and the validation of the solution through testing and iteration.

Iteration

Design Thinking is an iterative approach that allows for the refinement and improvement of ideas based
on user feedback and testing. This method enables rapid iteration and testing, which aids in identifying
the optimal answer more quickly and efficiently.

Business Value

Design Thinking may produce business value by creating solutions that satisfy the demands of users. This
increases consumer happiness and loyalty. Furthermore, by encouraging innovation and creativity, Design
Thinking may assist firms in staying ahead of the competition and achieving long-term success.

Design vs. Design thinking

Sara Diamond and I recently wrote an article entitled "There's no innovation agenda without design
thinking" which generated significant interest and discussion. One of the commenters wrote, in part,
"...functional and aesthetic design is important but the technological innovation and the ability to
implement the ideas are even more so. The kind of design the writers are speaking of acts as a
discriminator if there are competing products but without the existence of a new product, does not come
into play."

This comment confuses design with design thinking. This is a common confusion and one that those who
coined the later phrase are painfully aware of. The best way to explain the two terms is by reference to
skills and practices as illustrated by the concept of the T-shaped person. I've discussed this here in a
previous post. The vertical stroke of the T refers to deep specialized skills whereas the horizontal stroke
refers to the generalist cross-discipline skills.
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Design Thinking skills and practices, as illustrated above, should be thought of as being appropriate to all
disciplines including design. Design itself is a craft of deep specialized skills comprised of visual design,
interaction or user experience design, user research, and front-end development. Each of these design
specialties needs to know and practice their own specialized craft (the vertical stroke of the T) while also
knowing and practicing design thinking (the horizontal stroke of the T).

Of course, many other disciplines are needed on the team, business and engineering for example, and
each of these needs to contribute their specialized discipline specific skills while all needing the generalist
design thinking skills. The IBM version of design thinking, which we call IBM Design Thinking, has
further enhanced the set of cross-discipline skills and practices to optimize for cross-team collaboration,
alignment, and transparency.

It is the practice of design thinking by a team that leads to the opportunity for innovation and each
discipline's unique contribution, including design, that fleshes it out and realizes the potential.

Let's use an example to illustrate. Let's imagine a startup wanting to create a new product in the
increasingly important health space. In my experience, startups often approach this by simply having
smart engineers sitting around in a cool looking incubator space working all hours staring at their
MacBooks trying to dream up some innovation, building it (and perhaps also having a designer to "make
it pretty"), and then pivoting when it doesn't work.

The design thinking approach would start off by having user researchers understand the people the startup
wants to improve the life of (i.e., patients, nurses, etc.) using various ethnographic observation and
interview methods. Other disciplines on the team would help with this, gaining first hand knowledge of
the domain and deeply empathizing with the people they intend to serve. The team comes back and uses
methods like empathy mapping and as-is scenario mapping to capture what they learned, importantly
reflecting on a 360 degree view of the people they intend to serve, what they do, say, think, and feel. The
team members then individually, and afterwards as a group, determine which aspects of the current
experience are the most problematic and opportune to significantly improve. Based on this knowledge,
the team collectively articulates their intended objective using what we at IBM call Hills, statements that
communicate who is going to be able to do what with the new solution with what "wow" outcome for
them. Hills provide the clarity and focus for the team and are used throughout the project as well during
what we call Playbacks when all stakeholders review the evolving client experience. The team then
ideates on potential solutions, importantly getting input from all the team's individual specialized
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experience and skills. They decide which of the ideas they'd like to explore further and then create paper
mockups of the most promising ideas on which they then get feedback from a few representative target
users (which we call Sponsor Users). The team determines which ideas were best and iterates on them
based on the feedback received. That cycle of iteration continues as the product is further fleshed out in
higher fidelity prototypes and then production code. At all stages, team members are involved in and
using design thinking while also contributing their own deep specialized knowledge and skills. Design is
an important but only one of the important specialized skills on the team. It's important to point out that
the above can be done extremely quickly and efficiently while at the same time increasing the likelihood
of success. There is no prescribed order and teams have a wide selection of methods to use. Design
thinking, as the name suggests, is at its essence a new way of thinking about a problem or opportunity
space and how to address it collaboratively with a team of specialists.

I truly believe that using design thinking, particularly IBM's version, with teams that have all the requisite
talent and skills, including importantly design, will dramatically increase the likelihood of delivering
highly successful and innovative outcomes.

Problem solving

Problem-Solving and Two Schools of Thought

Design thinking is concerned with solving problems through design. The idea being that the future output
of the process will provide a better answer than the one already available or if nothing is available –
something entirely new.

It is an unconstrained methodology where it is possible that the designer (or design team) will work on
many possible solutions at once. It enables designers to consider the problem in many different ways and
speculate on both the past and future of the problem too.

This is in contrast to the scientific method of problem solving which requires a highly-defined problem
which focuses on delivering a single solution.
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This difference was first noted by Brian Lawson, a psychologist, in 1972. He conducted an experiment in
which scientists and architects were asked to build a structure from colored blocks. He provided some
basic rules for the project and observed how they approached it. The scientists looked to move through a
simple series of solutions based on the outcome and entire rule set. The architects, in contrast, simply
focused on the desired end-state and then tested to see if the solution they had found met the rules.

This led to the idea that scientists solve problems by a process of analysis, whilst designers solve
problems by synthesis. However, later evidence suggests that designers apply both forms of problem
solving to attain “design thinking”.

They do this via a process of divergent thinking. A designer will examine as many possible solutions at
the beginning of a process as they can think of – then they will apply the scientific side (convergent
thinking) to narrow these solutions down to the best output.

Human-Centered Design (HCD) process

What is human-centered design (HCD)?

Human-centered design, or HCD, is an approach for developing products or services with the needs of
real people in mind. The term is used concerning Design, but it becomes more and more accustomed
among diverse businesses.

The human-centered design suggests that companies will produce more valuable outcomes if they
consider the context of users' problems, their motivations, and requirements for goods or services.

The implementation of human-centered design is beneficial for both parties. While users get higher
quality goods and services, companies don’t rack their brains on how to create demand for what they’ve
produced.

Human-centered design principles

Human-centered design isn’t just about creating innovative or offbeat things. It’s more about how to make
production outcomes useful and, hence, marketable.

Below we listed 5 essential human-centered design principles:

Not being a “desk explorer”

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Know what your customers love and leave - get in touch with them via social media, see what content
they share and what attracts their attention, collect opinions with polls, create buyer persona profiles, and
so on.

Keeping an open mind

The human-centered design is against any clichés and prejudgements. Always start investigating the
problem with a clean slate and don’t be afraid to ask naive questions.

Considering different perspectives

Don't be hung up on your ideal customer profile - consider opinions regarding desirable product
characteristics from different users.

Designing the entire journey of the product

What will the user do with the product after the expiration date or in case it breaks? The human-centered
design places convenience at the heart of planning and development processes, so you should foresee
different use-cases regarding the product and make them as trouble-free as possible.

Creating prototypes and testing them in a real environment

The more you test your product on real users, the better the outcome will be. The human-centered design
approach supposes making trial runs, so you can’t do without drawings, mock-ups, and prototypes.

You can also learn about psychology in UX design to better understand how human behavior impacts user
experience and use this knowledge to develop more apt products.

How companies can achieve better business results with human-centered design

Business is much about the “Penny saved is a penny earned” saying. So, it may seem that spending extra
money on creative techniques, like ideation or one-on-one interviews with customers, isn’t worth the
hustle. But the truth is - human-centered design principles allow companies to accumulate unique deep
knowledge about their clients and create products that speak for themselves.

Any business challenge, like decreased conversions or market shares, can be analyzed from the human
perspective. Consequently, a company may come up with more effective solutions than if it was trying to
solve the problem, relying on its picture of the world.
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What is human-centered design?

Human-centered design, also known as HCD, is a problem-solving practice that places real people at the
focal point of the processes of design, development, and implementation of apps, products, and processes.
HCD is sometimes referred to as user-centered design. Though various organizations may give the phases
of HCD different names, there are primarily three main phases of human-centered design:

 Phase 1 – Inspiration: In this initial phase, the emphasis is placed on learning from your customer base.
This makes a shift from developing products based on assumptions and other preconceived ideas of what
your customers want to discovering what they actually need. Empathy — the ability to understand others’
feelings and experiences — is an essential part of the inspiration phase. Put yourself in your customers’
shoes and ask why they are using their current products, how they are using them, and what problems
they are trying to solve.

 Phase 2 – Ideation: In the second phase of human-centered design, designers use the information
gathered in phase one to brainstorm possible solutions. One approach is to open the floor to any ideas,
with the goal of generating a variety to choose from. Next, narrow down these ideas to the ones that are
the most viable and create a prototype — it can be a simple wireframe or a clickable prototype — that you
can share and validate with users. The objective here is to test your idea and get real-time feedback. You
can use it to adapt your prototype until you have a solid solution.

 Phase 3 – Implementation: After defining your target audience and creating a working proof of concept,
the final phase is where you introduce your solution to the marketplace. An abundance of work goes into
implementation, from refining concepts to continued testing, brand work, and other aspects of visual and
interactive design. When you launch your product and put your experience in your target audience’s
hands, asking for continual feedback is essential. This feedback and analysis loop should be ongoing so
you can continue to adapt future iterations of your product to meet your users’ needs.

Both customers and your business will benefit from adopting a human-centered design approach, a
reliable, repeatable method for increasing brand loyalty and boosting customer retention by virtue of
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creating great products. This article is a field guide to implementing a human-centered design process.
Entire books are written on the subject, but this is a great launching point for grasping the essentials and
understanding why HCD is so important.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Human-Centered Design

Below are a few benefits and drawbacks associated with HCD.

Advantages:

o By considering people's needs, including those with disabilities or other challenges,

human-centered design results in more accessible and inclusive products.

o Creating services with a human-centric approach increases the probability of their

adoption and usage, ultimately leading to higher success rates.

o Involving customers in the design helps identify and resolve potential issues and errors
before releasing the product. It reduces the risk of failure.

o HCD encourages experimentation and iteration, leading to innovative solutions for

complex problems. It also aligns well with modern technology and practices, such as AI.
The cloud and agile methodology allow for rapid prototyping.
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Disadvantages:

o Human-centered design can be time-consuming, requiring extensive research, testing, and

iteration. Similarly, it can be expensive, especially for smaller organizations with limited
resources.

o HCD can sometimes result in solutions that focus on meeting existing needs. It can
potentially limit opportunities for creativity.

o The advantages of human-centered design outweigh its disadvantages. Therefore, it is

worth trying to implement its principles, which partially overlap with the main points of
accessible design.

o Both approaches emphasize the importance of considering the needs and abilities of
diverse users. By implementing the principles of HCD, designers can also create products
that are more accessible and inclusive, benefiting a more comprehensive range of users.

Human-Centered Design (HCD) process - Empathize, Define,

Ideate, Prototype and Test and Iterate or Empathize:

1. Empathize:

The foundational principle of Human-Centered Design is that you should truly understand the people who
experience a problem before you design a solution to serve them. Empathy is about understanding the
problem by immersing yourself in the community that will be affected by your design. Designers spend
time talking directly with those who experience a problem, observing how their environments work, and
consulting experts on the issue to fully grasp all the challenges that need to be overcome in order to create
a solution. This stage, and the design process as a whole, is about asking questions instead of making
assumptions about why things are the way they are. Those who can adopt a “learner’s mindset” when
approaching problems that affect other people will have the greatest success in creating solutions that make
an impact.
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This is the most important part of the process, focusing on participatory action research — not just
documenting the user, but engaging them in the brainstorming, modeling, and prototyping as well.

2. Define:

This step helps set up the rest of the process. After learning as much as you can about the issue you’re
looking to solve, define the problem by focusing on the key action that you want to accomplish. Most often
people try to define problems as a mix of problem and solution. Some examples of the statements we’ve
heard are “We need more money.” “We need to pass a law.” “We need to build more jails.”

These statements are bad examples of how to define a problem. As a Human-Centered designer, you
should always be asking why. Why do we need more jails? What are we really trying to accomplish? The
answer might be something like, “We need a way to maintain public safety.” That’s the real problem you
want to focus on. The way you define the problem is important and should be phrased in a way that allows
for creativity in how it could be addressed.

With this statement, designers can come up with a variety of potential solutions. This statement will serve
as the thesis that the team can repeatedly check solutions against throughout the process to ensure that
they’re actually tackling all aspects of the problem.

3. Ideate

Now, having come to better understand the perspective of the person who experiences the problem from
your work in the empathy phase and having defined an actionable problem during the define stage, it’s
brainstorm time. Come up with as many solutions to the problem you defined as possible. This is best done
in teams where each team member writes down the ideas they have one at a time and place them on a
board for everyone to see. One key thing to keep in mind here is that this isn’t the time to judge whether
ideas are good or bad, practical or outlandish. The goal is to come up with as many ideas as possible. When
we judge ideas as they come out, it shuts down the creative process. Often an impractical idea scaled back
slightly can become exactly the type of novel solution that you’re looking for.

Additionally, don’t be afraid to include those who live with a problem in the brainstorming process. At DC
Design we embrace a concept known as co-design where we work right alongside those we are aiming to
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design for. By having them involved in the process, you’re likely to get more nuanced solutions that are
bottom-up, not top-down.

4. Prototype

Designers put ideas into action by creating low-cost experiments to test them. These experiments or
prototypes can be created for physical products, virtual interfaces, processes, or systems. In any of these
situations, the goal is to create something you can test with those who live with the problem in order to see
if it works. For physical and virtual products, this is often a model of the designs you have in mind. In the
case of services, build out a model with actionable steps and a workflow that can be simulated either in the
real world or through role-play. Given that it’s a prototype, it’s considered a work in progress, not a final
solution. A good practice is for designers and participants to have multiple prototypes and experiment to
see which one is best suited to meet the needs of the person they are designing for.

5. Test and Iterate:

Put the ideas and prototypes to test. This is where designers identify flaws, weaknesses, and gaps in the
design, improving it along the way. The person who lives with the problem is asked to test the model or the
prototype repeatedly and see if it addresses all aspects of a problem. It is particularly important when
testing that you are not trying to defend your solution. Your goal is to use your prototype as a way of
learning more about the people you are designing for. What do they like about it? What don’t they like
about it? Why is that? If you can look at this as an opportunity to learn more about what the best solution
would look like for those who need it, you’ll be able to produce a solution that has significantly more
uptake than one where you forced your ideas through.