Maybe someone you know has taken a design thinking certificate course, or perhaps you have heard this term around universally. You may think it to be a phenomenon that you will never understand tangibly. To put this simple words, design thinking is a well-known human-centric way to problem-solving in an innovative way. It has made too much noise around the Internet in recent years.
Though the design thinking buzz has been around in recent years, this concept has been there for some decades. And like it always happens, the more famous it becomes, the more it moves out of context as well as more confusion arises. So, to make things understandable, we have developed this beginner’s guide to Design Thinking. This guide will help you decide whether a design thinking certificate course is suitable for you.
An Introduction To Design Thinking
Design Thinking is used for creative and practical problem-solving. It’s heavily based on the processes and methods that designers use. However, it has evolved from many different fields – including engineering, business, and architecture. This concept can be implemented in any field as it does not need to be specific to the design.
It is a way of thinking while keeping users at the forefront of everything. Anyone can become a design thinker, other than product designers and graphic designers. In a nutshell, the design thinking process is understanding people as well as their requirements deeply, synthesizing what issues you are going to resolve, ideating around which concept to design, and prototyping and testing while getting actual user feedback.
Design Thinking Purpose
Now that we know what design thinking is let us find out why it matters. Design thinking has many benefits.
But, firstly, design thinking helps individuals be innovative and turn up with creative ideas. Mostly, people rely on what they already know and have done. Over time, they create certain patterns that help them find out ways to handle certain problems. Such patterns make it difficult for people to see things differently, which makes it difficult to solve issues.
Design thinking assists people in breaking such patterns and considering other methods to solve problems. A few people consider it to be a neutral, healthy way to solve issues as it uses science, analytical thinking, feelings, and intuition.
Another great Design thinking advantage is that it places humans first. By heavily focusing on empathy, design thinking encourages organizations and businesses to consider real people who utilize their services and products- which means they are more likely to hit the market while creating a meaningful user experience. For users, it means more useful, better products that enhance our lives. And for businesses, it means happy, satisfied clients.
Design Thinking Principles
Design Thinking has four principles. Let us discuss each of them:
The Human Rule – Regardless of the context, every design activity tends to be social. Any social creation can get us back to a “human-centric viewpoint.”
The Ambiguity Rule – As a fact, ambiguity is inevitable. It can’t be oversimplified or removed. Experimenting at the limit of your ability and knowledge is vital in being capable of considering things differently.
The Tangibility Rule –Tangibility of ideas as prototypes lets designers offer them more effectively.
The Redesign Rule – Every design is a redesign. While social and technological circumstances may evolve and change, basic human requirements remain unchanged. Essentially, we just redesign the ways of meeting those requirements or reaching needed outcomes.
The 5-Step of Design Thinking Process
Design thinking is a process and an ideology and a process. This procedure consists of 5 distinct steps that help in problem-solving and maintaining focus on the users.
Empathize: Empathizing with the users is the first step of the design thinking process. This looks like performing research to understand what the users do, think, feel, and say.
Define: After you develop a sense of the needs of your users, this stage lets you examine and evaluate them. Defining the needs of users sets the stage for addressing and solving those requirements.
Ideate: This stage includes finding solutions to your user’s needs. Often, it is an abstract, creative part of the procedure where it is helpful to play with exclusive solutions.
Prototype: After you have recognized potential solutions to the unmet needs of the users, it is time to narrow down the area to the most exciting, practical ideas.
Test: Prototypes need testing. Ask real users to test your designs and access data about their experience with your ideas.
Whether you are looking to establish a design thinking philosophy on a business-wide scale or trying to enhance your approach to users-centric designing, the Design Thinking concept will help you focus on the users, innovate, and design products that resolve real-world user problems. Enroll in Certificate Courses on Design Thinking to get a deep understanding of the concept.