What Is Design Thinking & Why Is It Important?

Design thinking methodology is an innovative process that involves the use of creative problem-solving to empathize with human needs and improve user experience.

What Is Design Thinking?

Design thinking is an approach to problem-solving that encourages innovative solutions and empathy towards end users. It is an innovation process used for product development and user experience that focuses on human-centered design and understanding user needs to solve complex problems. Design thinking is an iterative process that involves user research, brainstorming potential solutions, creating prototypes, and implementing to receive feedback.

Why Is Design Thinking Important?

Design thinking is important because it gives people a structured problem-solving process for defining and understanding complex problems. It allows for creative solutions that meet user needs by focusing on empathy and iterative testing. This innovation process is important to the functionality of the user experience design, also referred to as UX design.

5 Core Principles of Design Thinking

Five principles make up the basis of design thinking and center around user-centric problem-solving.

1. Human-Centered

Design thinking involves understanding user needs to create a functional solution. This can be achieved by conducting user research to achieve a deeper understanding of the target users. Implementing user feedback to improve their product design results in solutions that meet human needs and improve the user experience.

2. Experimentation

Experimentation involves testing possible solutions. This principle of the design thinking approach allows for prototypes to be tested and further improved for functionality.

3. Innovation

Design thinking encourages using creativity during the ideation sessions to come up with innovative solutions. A cross-functional team collaborates to brainstorm potential solutions to the problem statement. They encourage thinking outside of the box to come up with creative and even unconventional solutions.

4. Iterative Process

The design thinking process is iterative, when prototypes are created and implemented, designers receive feedback that they can use to refine their solutions. It involves continuous testing and improvement to create the most effective version of the solution.

5. Collaboration

Design thinking involves problem-solving with a cross-functional team. Diverse perspectives can bring a unique point of view which is beneficial to solving complex problems and coming up with potential solutions to test out.

What's the Difference Between Solution-Based and Problem-Based Thinking?

Solution-based thinking is an approach to generating immediate solutions that address problems. It is a more linear process compared to design thinking, it involves coming up with practical solutions that can be implemented quickly to solve a problem.

This differs from the creativity that is encouraged in the ideation stage of design thinking where brainstorming is used without limits to come up with creative solutions.

The 5 Stages of Design Thinking

The stages of design thinking make up an iterative process that creates a human-centered design. It is non-linear and involves prototyping, testing, and refining.

1. Empathize

The first step of the design thinking process is empathy. During this step, designers empathize with the target audience by engaging and observing the challenges they face to gain insight. Gathering information can involve conducting interviews, creating user personas without biases, and developing empathy maps.

2. Define

During the define stage, design thinkers clearly highlight a problem based on the information they gathered during the first stage. They utilize user research and pain points to define a problem statement to focus their design thinking process.

3. Ideate

The ideation stage emphasizes brainstorming to come up with possible solutions. During the ideation phase, designers are encouraged to think outside the box and use creativity to come up with innovative ideas.

4. Prototype

When the prototype stage is reached, an idea from the ideate stage is formed into a tangible solution that can be used for testing.

5. Test

The last stage in this innovation process is testing to evaluate the solutions with user feedback. During this stage, design thinkers gain feedback from end users and are able to improve their solutions.

Practical Applications of Design Thinking

The practical application of design thinking methodology is used in various fields for solving real-world problems. Design teams use the phases of design thinking for product development. By observing real-world challenges, they can come up with possible solutions for new products.

Design thinking plays a role in the innovation of technology and the user experience. In business, companies can utilize design thinking to develop different strategies for improvement that align with user needs. The innovative solutions for UX design that the design thinking approach encourages help businesses stand out among stakeholders.

UX Design

IDEO, a design consultancy company led by Tim Brown, is a key player in the implementation of the design thinking process. They are known for leveraging creativity and experimentation to design groundbreaking products that help companies and organizations solve complex problems and stay ahead.

IBM utilizes design thinking methodology for creating a user-centered design. They focus on the combination of functionality and user-centric approaches to improve the user experience. IBM implements user research and iterative experimenting in their design process.