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In today's market, filled with a variety of digital products, designers play a key role. Competition is fierce, and standing out in this crowd can depend on our visual pages.
Nowadays, graphic designers face tremendous pressure, forced to work on more projects, which at the same time must be of higher quality, but also completed in less time. This kind of efficiency becomes possible when a company has certain standards in place, such as those contained in the Design System. They are the ones that provide the framework and guidelines that help create consistent and high-quality designs, increasing our chance to stand out from the competition.
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Design Thinking is an approach that focuses on creating innovative products and services through an in-depth understanding of user problems and needs.
Main tenets of Design Thinking:
The main goals of implementing Design Thinking into projects are solutions:
Design Thinking is a structured method in the innovation process. The first step is to create a team with diverse experience and knowledge, including specialists from different fields, such as engineers, technologists, marketers, designers, or sociologists.
This team then moves through the stages of the method, using a set of tools and techniques to find solutions that are suitable for implementation. Although the order of the stages is not rigid, and their progression can be flexible. For example, failure at the prototyping stage may require returning to idea generation or even redefining the problem and starting the process over again.
For a broad spectrum of institutions, from companies and corporations to foundations, schools and administrations, looking for innovative solutions based on the authentic needs of their audiences, rather than relying on copying existing solutions.
Design Thinking has versatile applications in the area of so-called "wicked problems," i.e. problems characterized by a lack of clear solutions or rigid structures. These complex issues require a holistic approach, combining skills from areas such as technology, psychology, design, ergonomics or business.
The main goal of this methodology is to generate and introduce innovative solutions, including new products, services, events, processes, educational programs or business models. Regardless of the field in which we operate - be it business, industry, education or administration - Design Thinking supports the development of innovation, guaranteeing an original approach to challenges.
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The Design Thinking process begins with an empathy step. In the first step, it focuses on a deep understanding of users' needs and problems. It is important to detect the problems and motives that influence people's choices and actions.
To achieve this, a variety of tools are used, such as empathy maps, ethnographic studies, observations of user behavior and surveys of user needs, in the context of functionality. It is important to note that traditional focus groups may not be sufficient here, as people tend to justify their opinions and avoid negative comments. Subtle behavioral observations or field investigations can show that users make some improvements on their own, which inspire new products.
In this stage, the team combines the information gathered from the Empathy stage to precisely define the right problem. This is the moment to break established thinking and habits that may limit one's view of the situation.
Re(z)defining a problem has the power to potentially change the direction of the solutions sought entirely. It's a step that is often challenging because most people focus immediately on working on a specific solution, rather than exploring various possible paths. Defining the problem too quickly can limit the full picture. As a result, the resources, time and effort invested may not result in solving the right problem. It's a step backwards.
When defining a problem, techniques such as changing perspectives in assessing the problem, asking a series of "why?" questions, or mapping the problem in terms of "how?" versus "why?" can be helpful.
In this stage, the team focuses on generating as many potential solutions as possible to an already defined problem. This requires not only deep subject matter expertise, but also the courage to create new and unusual solutions and to refrain from evaluating or criticizing the ideas of other team members. This phase ends with an evaluation and democratic selection of the best idea, on the basis of which a prototype will be created.
The central tool here is the brainstorming process, or Brainstorming. It is important to remember that brainstorming is not an end in itself, but only a starting point for determining the next courses of action. It is crucial to follow the basic principles of brainstorming: proposing even the craziest ideas, withholding judgment, developing the ideas of others, keeping a distance from one's own proposals, getting rid of one's ego, and avoiding focusing on limitations. The metaphorical "colored cards on the wall" are used to map out the thought process; they are temporary, can be freely moved and arranged in different configurations, emphasizing that the process requires flexibility and distance from one's own ideas.
In this phase, an actual prototype is created, although the goal is not to create a complex model with features similar to the final product. The most important thing is to present the idea visually to users and quickly gather feedback on it. It's better to understand quickly that our concepts don't meet real needs and correct our direction, rather than investing in costly designs that don't reflect reality. The success of the final product is never certain, but frequently improving prototypes, putting them in the hands of users and listening to their feedback reduces the risk of ultimate failure.
You can use cardboard, wood, Styrofoam - virtually anything - to create rapid prototypes. A prototype doesn't always have to be a physical object; for services, you can use a storyboard or a user path drawing. The important thing is to go beyond verbal descriptions and visualize our idea in any way we can.
At this stage, the selected solution is undergoing testing in a user environment, which requires defining clear parameters for success in order to have a clear test result. This involved stage requires technical, formal, administrative and legal support and the involvement of many parties.
It is crucial that testing takes place in the actual conditions in which the product will be used. Only after a positive test result can a product or service be considered ready for final implementation. Unfortunately, this stage is often skipped, resulting in the introduction of seemingly good ideas and solutions directly into everyday use, and then it turns out that they do not meet the expectations of users.
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Design Thinking was born and developed at Stanford University in California. It was there, in the beautiful corners of the campus, in the 1980s and 1990s, that the ideas of Design Thinking were cultivated and implemented. This method became a key tool to bring creative ideas and innovative ideas to the Silicon Valley business world.
David M. Kelley, one of the principal architects of this design thinking, was a professor at Stanford University and later co-founded the design firm IDEO. This company, using the Design Thinking method, creates new products and services for such giants as Apple, Shimano and GE.
Kelley mentions that IDEO was born out of a need to change the old model of customer-designer cooperation. Previously, technology companies would come with a finished product, expecting only an aesthetically pleasing case design. IDEO changed this dynamic by involving designers right from the product concept stage, allowing for more innovative solutions.
The company operates in many cities, including San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Boston, London, Munich, Shanghai, Singapore, Mumbai, Seoul and Tokyo. It employs more than 550 experts in a variety of fields spanning science, technology, society and business.
Since its founding in 1991, the company has not only focused on product design and design, but also offers strategic and business consulting, supporting companies in organization, change management, innovation, relationships, sales, marketing and communications. It is currently managed by Tim Brown.
The next step in the development and promotion of Design Thinking was the creation in 2004 of the Design Institute at Stanford University, known as d.school. It's an interdisciplinary design center that allows students from different fields to carry out projects based on Design Thinking for companies, foundations and communities.
In 2007, the HPI School of Design Thinking was established in Potsdam in cooperation with d.school to learn and promote the Design Thinking method in Europe.
Carrying out this process starts with assembling the right team of people. Design Thinking is like a collaborative team game. The more diverse and varied the team working on a solution, the better. People from different fields or industries can look at the problem from different perspectives and create effective solutions. An example? A marketing specialist will probably look at a new product in a completely different way than a manufacturing engineer or psychologist.
The team works together, going through the stages of the design process. It is important to note that although the stages are defined, sometimes it may be necessary to go back from the last stage to the first to revisit the problem or create a new concept. There are also times when the prototype doesn't meet expectations, and the whole process has to be started over again.
What about implementing the Design Thinking method? Design Thinking workshops at the Technical University of Lodz are a great way. But the most important thing is to change the way we think. If we really want to implement Design Thinking and bring real change, we need to look at the problem from the customer's perspective. It's not just recognizing his needs. It's also about listening to his opinion, not questioning it, and making improvements that can eliminate the problems or shortcomings reported.
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