CRyder Design

Introduction

If you have ever dived into the world of design, chances are you have heard the phrase “design thinking.” In the most basic terms, design thinking is a fluid problem-solving method. Designer Tim Brown defines it as, “A methodology that imbues the full spectrum of innovation activities with a human-centered design ethos.” It consists of a series of steps to help identify and develop the strongest possible solution to the identified problem. Depending on where you get your information from, the number of steps tends to vary. However, the essential ideas tend to remain the same.

When I refer to design thinking, I am referring to these 5 phases

1. Empathize
2. Define
3. Ideate
4. Prototype
5. Test

Now I know what you may be thinking. “Okay, but what does this mean?” so I’ll dive into each step in a little more detail

Empathize

This step is exactly what it sounds like. You are aiming to empathize with your user, to find out as much as you can about their interaction with the product or service you are designing. Author Emily Stevens explains, “During this phase, the designer seeks to set aside their assumptions and gather real insight about the user.” To gain valuable insights, it is important for the designer to leave any existing judgments or assumptions out. As a designer, you are designing for the user, not yourself after all. Anything and everything you can learn about the user is valuable information that can be used throughout the design thinking process.

Define

In the define phase, the designer is seeking to define the problem or issue at hand. While this may seem like a simple task, it can prove to be one of the most challenging.  Designers will use the insights that they learned from the empathize phase and boil them down to identify the core problem. Author Graham Tuttle explains, “Think about the difficulties your consumers are brushing up against, what they repeatedly struggle with, and what you’ve gleaned from how they’re affected by the issue.” To define the problem is to synthesize all of the information that you’ve gathered and determine where the pain points lay so that you can provide a solution. 

Ideate

Now that the problem has been defined in the previous phase, it’s time to brainstorm for potential solutions. In the ideate phase, the goal is to get all of the ideas out on the table and narrow them down later. This phase begins with quantity and ends with quality. Emily Stevens explains, “Designers will hold ideation sessions in order to come up with as many new angles and ideas as possible…Toward the end of the ideation phase, you’ll narrow it down to a few ideas with which to move forward.” These ideas will be taken into the next phase, the prototype phase, and developed even further.

Prototype

Once your strongest ideas have been identified through the ideate phase, it is time to bring them to life. Prototypes do not necessarily have to be the highest of quality, they can be very low-fidelity, as long as they illustrate how your idea would serve as a solution to the problem. Graham Tuttle explains, “Prototypes are not meant to be perfect. The point of a prototype is to come out quickly with a concrete version of the idea to see how it is accepted by consumers.” Prototypes can give designers more insight into the effectiveness of the solutions they have developed before it is completely developed as they are tested in the following phase.

Test

In the testing phase, you present your prototyped idea to your user and collect feedback and insights as they interact with it. However, once you have completed this phase it does not mean you are through with the design thinking process. Emily Stevens explains, “ In reality, the results of the testing phase will often lead you back to a previous step, providing the insights you need to redefine the original problem statement or come up with new ideas you haven’t thought of before.” The feedback you will receive will likely require you to revisit a previous phase to make the necessary adjustments to improve the product as best as you can.

Conclusion

The design thinking process provides designers with a series of pre-defined steps to take toward resolving a problem. Each step contributes valuable information to assist with completing the following. Though there are only five steps, it is likely that you will circle back to previous phases with information you collected from later phases. Try your hand at design thinking the next time you have a problem to solve!