What is Design Thinking

It is not what you think. According to the Interaction Design Foundation, design thinking is…

An iterative process to understand the users, challenge assumptions, and redefine the problem to create innovative solutions
~Design Interaction Foundation

Or simply

A methodology to solve problems with creativity

👉 The problem should be a meaningful problem, hard enough and rewarding to solve

👉 That is solved in a creative way, the solution deeply solves the root problem

👉Which is practical (can be applied right away), the solution can be used right now by the user

Design thinking is not only used by the design team but it’s also used in many different sectors such as art, business, engineering, and even literature.

Because this is a process that is intended to solve a problem but with a more creative solution and human-centered.

🔻 The 5 Phases in Design Thinking

The design thinking process consists of 5 steps that can be done in a consecutive order

1. 🥰 Empathize

We first need to understand our users

• Who are they?
• What are they struggling at?

Emphatize means a user-centered design in that we truly care about our user’s problems and understand everything about them.

Interviewing the target user is the first step to do because we want to dig into their shoes and put an understanding in their perspective so that we can get clarity about our users

2. 🎯 Define

After we interview and know a lot of their stories
We should have an overview of what they really need.

• Their need
• Their biggest problem

Defining a meaningful problem that addresses the need of the users.
Helping to solve the user’s needs after we empathize with their stories.

Define the problem statement in this stage

3. 💡 Ideate

Brainstorm all the idea that comes up focusing only on the problem statement.

• List all the possible ideas
• Sketch up the solution

Sketch up your best idea for the solution and get clearer on it to bring it to reality. You can do wireframing, diagramming, or sketching to get clarity on the solution you try to make.

4. 📲 Prototype

Connect the dots between your final idea and the solution that you have decided.

• Build a prototype that can function

A prototype that can be used functionally by the user to test it out later and check their response about our current solution

5. ♻ Test

Now we can test the prototype with the actual use case

• Learn what works and what not
• Collect feedback and new idea

Change the solution if it’s not working and adjust it according to the user’s feedback. Do a lot of iteration until it really solves the user’s need and is liked by them.

This is the design thinking process that I have learn from several sources.

I hope you can get benefit from this information
and have a great day 🙌