What is design thinking? In simple terms, it’s a way of approaching projects to get human-centered results. Click here for details on exactly how it works.
There is one simple process that can completely revolutionize your enterprise, with a new way of thinking alone.
That process is design thinking. The question “What is design thinking?” can be simply answered as creating new and innovative ideas, with a focus on problem-solving. Additionally, this process is human-centered, with empathy at its core. It is interested in human behavior, action, cognition, and understanding.
The benefits of using this way of thinking are immense, with the main one being that users can more easily use your product. Through this process, the designer can intimately understand their design from the user point of view, which can improve and optimize the product.
Design thinking is a scalable, sustainable method of thought, and helps businesses reach the root of their problems.
Read on below to learn more about design thinking and how to implement it for your enterprise.
What is Design Thinking?
To be more in-depth, design thinking is a term coined more recently for an age-old idea. It is a solution-based approach to
solving problems, by understanding the end user, challenging any assumptions, and redefining what the problems are.
Imagine design thinking as one massive “Why?”, as it seeks to question all points of the design process. Design thinking is perfect for remedying issues that are ill-defined or re-framing the problem in the first place.
Process of Design Thinking
There are a few main cognitive theories that relate to design thinking. One main one is the “Theory of Distributed Cognition”.
The theory of distributed cognition is that humans think with their environments, rather than with their minds alone. Imagine solving a long-division math problem in your head. Using our physical environment to think and understand comes naturally to us, which is why design thinking is so important.
There are five phases to design thinking. The first vital step is to empathize with your users. Put yourself in their shoes, and the types of things they may think about your product. After you empathize, it is equally important to define your user’s needs, problems, and insights. This, in turn, will help lead you a solution. Once this is established, begin challenging any assumptions that are being made in order to start the creative process for innovative ideas. The second to last part of the process is to prototypes the beginning of actually creating solutions. Then, the final step is to test the solution and prototype in order to see how people interact with it.
Additionally, this is a dynamic process and you can return to a previous step at any time, and adjust the order accordingly.
Final Thoughts
Implementing design thinking into everyday practices may seem daunting at first. This is probably because it is a completely different method to traditional routes. However, it is extremely beneficial and helps designers “think outside of the box” in terms of problem-solving.
Therefore, it is important to know the answer to the question “what is design thinking?” in order to be a successful design enterprise, especially with app design.
Contact us today to begin implementing design thinking for your startup or enterprise.
