25 Apr Design Thinking (Repost)

After the website relaunch. I am also reposting a selection of deprecated posts in the new format/website. The first blog entry to receive this treatment is a summary on my MOOC short course in “Design Thinking” from the Ecully Campus of my Alma-Mater (EC Lyon/EM Lyon).

IMHO, a useful definition of Design thinking is:

“Design Thinking is an iterative process in which we seek to understand the user, challenge assumptions, and redefine problems in an attempt to identify alternative strategies and solutions that might not be instantly apparent with our initial level of understanding. At the same time, Design Thinking provides a solution-based approach to solving problems. It is a way of thinking and working as well as a collection of hands-on methods.” – from https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/what-is-design-thinking-and-why-is-it-so-popular

In retrospect I believe that Design thinking is useful tool – amongst others – to come up with new solutions/innovations ideas, when classical techniques stall.

The holistic Design Thinking approach was popularized through the IDEO design practice stemming from Stanford University in the USA in teh 1970s and has since gained traction around the world and is being taught and practiced throughout the world, including the HPI Institute in Germany for example.

In practice the Design thinking process can be broken down in the following phases

Design thinking Phase 0

The first phase -phase 0 – in the IDEA /IDEO design thinking process consists in the interrogation of the original problem and considering the the situatioi in a new light and to see what can be learnt by looking at the question / problem from different. angles. The hypothesis being that the project is probably ill defined. Neither client nor company will necessarily know what the want in reality.

At this stay it is important to keep track of all the possible normal in case there is the need for further consultation at a later point in time

The underlying idea of this first analysis is to explore the different perspectives and go try and find the limitsonly by knowing the limits -benchmarking them – you can bypass them.
Exploring the theme in different lights without censoring own ideas for this it important to keep an open mind.

Exploring transforming the thematic in a structured manner. And searching crossover and opportunities for hybridisation

It is very important to explore the key ideas but to keep track of ideas to cartography the thoughts
These can be organised in lists or in matrixes.

Design thinking Phase 1: hypothesis proposals and selection

In phase 1 of design thinking consists in understanding the vast field explored in the previous phase and to identify the patterns and develop hypothesis from the available information. Narrowing down the hypothesis is the next step

Asking what if?

Design thinking Phase 2: ideation

Asking what wows?

Brainstorming: ideation = idea finding based on hypotheses

Design thinking Phase 3: finalisation and integration

The third phase  consists in experimentation and finalization of prototype options,

The objectives are prototyping from the precedent found solutions.
Definition of the use case and fabrication details :materials techniques etc

The finalisation has to respond to the objectives of

Important keys to the finalization :
Communicate the the project in the Form of
– general concept
– use case
– identity what Form it will have etc how it will be used
– stakeholder
– respect :desirabilty, feasibility, viable
– describe . Transmit the project

In sum : this phase amounts to  story telling

The viability lies at the intersection of emotional innovation and process innovation
The viability has to hold its ow  on a  economic and and a social context

What is the value proposition ?
To whom? there can be more than just one group

for the prototyping fables can become really useful:

All along the process integrate the stakeholders and identify them as early as possible
The stakeholder network is created throughout the project

This final phase is divergent from an initial phase. to illustrate/finalize the that the customer/user is at the center of each of each DT stage

deliverables are based on previous results:

• aspect ito. technique
• aspect ito. situation
• feasibility / deployment

For industrialization of the ideas chosen it is possible to apply the waterfall design principles from the software industry.