When most people hear Design Thinking they think graphic design. They think sterile, minimalist offices full of smartly-dressed people; they think clean lines that follow a rigid set of rules; they think art galleries and elitism.
But it’s so much simpler than that. Design Thinking can be applied to almost anything in life.
Design thinking is “a methodology that imbues the full spectrum of innovation activities with a human centered design ethos”. It’s finding a way to solve a problem through a user-centered approach. According to the Hasso-Plattner Institute of Design, the design thinking process is a five-stage model: Empathizing with the user, defining the problem, ideation, prototyping, and testing.
Empathize: Empathy is crucial to a human-centered design process and allows design thinkers to gain insight into users and their needs. A substantial amount of information is gathered and observed at this stage. This is really the heart of design thinking, making sure that every solution is human-centered.
Define: Using all the information available, the next step is to define the problem. The problem should be defined as a problem statement (____ is a challenge for _____ because ______) that prioritizes the human aspect of the solution. It’s the difference between “we need to sell this product” and “this product would help these people”.
The Define stage will start to progress to the third stage by asking questions that prompt ideas for solutions by asking “How might we…”.
Ideate: This is the stage where designers are ready to start generating ideas. With the users’ needs understood and a human-centered problem statement written up, designers can begin to explore solutions to the problem. Various brainstorming techniques can be used to generate as many ideas and solutions as possible.
Prototype: Narrowing down the possible solutions, designers can now begin to experiment with inexpensive, scaled-down models, features, and ideas that can be shared and tested. Solutions should be investigated and either accepted, improved, or rejected based on the users’ experiences. By the end of this stage, the constraints and most present problems should be abundantly clear.
Test: Once the best solution is identified, it’s time to rigorously test the complete solution. Even though this is the final step, results generated during the testing process may lead designers back to reevaluate previous steps.
Although these steps follow an order of operations, the design thinking process is usually performed in a more flexible and non-linear manner. It is important to note that the five stages are not always sequential, they do not need to be followed in any order, and often they occur simultaneously and are repeated as many times as needed.
Some of the most innovative and successful businesses subscribe to design thinking. They focus not just on selling products and pushing consumerism but provide an experience, an emotional connection for the user.
For example, when Kim Colin and Sam Hecht were tasked with creating a smarter electric toothbrush for Oral-B, they focused on engaging the user. Oral-B suggested the toothbrush play music or track the user’s performance. Colin and Hecht had other ideas.
Oral B iO series via Industrial Facility
“A toothbrush is already loaded with guilt, that you’re not doing it properly or enough,” Colin says. “The companies weren’t thinking about the customers’ experience. They were thinking about the toothbrush the same way you would an athletic activity tracker, that it records and processes information.”
Hecht and Colin instead chose to center their design on key issues identified by users (ordering replacement brushes and charging) and made those features a priority.
This design shows how companies can go beyond simply proving features for the sake of novelty and seize the opportunity to improve by having empathy for their users. A toothbrush that tracks users’ performance is an interesting idea, but it’s not what consumers wanted. Focusing on core frustrations and offering a solution that improves the overall experience of the product.
via Nordstrom Innovation Lab
Another example is Nordstrom’s team developing an app to help customers shop cleaner and easier. Customers wanted the ability to virtually try on sunglasses, compare different styles of sunglasses, and be linked to the model number of the sunglasses.
Nordstrom applied design thinking and spent a full week building paper models of an app that they received immediate feedback on from customers passing through their stories. They took the feedback and continued to refine their model until they had a fully functioning app.
By listening to customers’ requests and feedback Nordstrom created a curated experience that provides users with the benefit of convenience and demonstrates their voices are being heard. Centering customer voices provides a human element to Nordstrom’s business model.
With so many products and services out there, it’s easy to lose track of objectives and get swallowed up by the sea of consumerism. Beyond products and services, it’s easy to try and find the quickest fix for any problem to keep up with today’s fast pace. Design thinking is a process that champions unique and creative problem solving to deliver human-centered results.
Photo by Daniele Franchi on Unsplash
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