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EST 200, Design Thinking
- The Holy Grail of “Innovation”
MEC

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Contents
• Introduction.
• Design Thinking Principles.
• The Wicked Problem.
• Ten Commandments.
• Design Thinking Process.
• Design Thinking Framework.
• Applications.
• Conclusion.

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“Some people think design means
how it looks. But of course, if you
dig deeper, it's really how it works."
– Steve Jobs, Apple.

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Ever thought of a
Lemon Juicer?
Philippe Starck’s ‘Juicy
salif’ lemon squeezer.
“The future has many names.
For the weak it is the unattainable.
For the fearful it is the unknown.
For the brave it is the chance.“
– Victor Hugo.

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Design Thinking
• Prof. John E. Arnold, Department of
Mechanical Engineering, Stanford
University - one of the first people to write
about design thinking.
• Prof. Arnold wrote the book “Creative
Engineering” in 1959.
• L. Bruce Archer’s book "Systematic
Method for Designers" (1965).
• Herbert A. Simon’s book “The Sciences of
the Artificial” (1969).

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Design Thinking
• Robert McKim’s “Experiences in Visual
Thinking” (1973) and Rolfe Faste’s work at
Stanford University.
• Nigel Cross article ‘Designerly Ways of
Knowing’ (1982).
• Bryan Lawson's book ‘How Designers
Think’ (1980) and Peter Rowe's book
‘Design Thinking’ (1987).
• David M. Kelley founded the design
consultancy IDEO in 1991.
• Richard Buchanan's article ‘Wicked
Problems in Design Thinking’ (1992).

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Design Thinking
• An ideology and a process that seeks to
solve complex problems in a user-centric
way.
• Focuses on achieving practical results and
solutions that are technically feasible,
economically viable and meets the real
human need, as desired by the user.
• Helps to solve highly complex, “wicked”
problems, that refuse to be solved using
standard methods and approaches.

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Design Thinking
• A set of cognitive, strategic and practical
processes to develop design concepts
(proposals for products, buildings,
machines, communications, etc.).
• An actionable approach which can be
used to tackle the world’s wickedest of
problems.
• Fosters user-centricity, creativity,
innovation, and out-of-the-box thinking.
• Uniqueness lies in the kinds of problems it
addresses.

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What’s a Wicked Problem?
• Design Thinking useful for solving “wicked
problems”.
• The term “wicked problem” coined by the
design theorist Horst Rittel in 1970’s.
• Highly ambiguous and tricky in nature.
• Many unknown factors, no definitive
solution.
• Solving one aspect reveals further
challenges.

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What’s a Wicked Problem?
• No stopping point, the nature of the
problem changes over time, so must the
solution.
• Solving wicked problems is an ongoing
process.
• Examples from our society today include
things like poverty, hunger and climate
change.

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Design Thinking
• A comprehensive customer-oriented
innovation approach.
• Aims to generate and develop creative
business ideas or entire business models.
• Attempts to project designers' approaches
and methods onto business processes.
• Approach applicable to products and
services.

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Design Thinking
• An integrative approach - process of
problem solving considered together with
its framework conditions.
• Four P’s of Design Thinking – people,
process, place and partnerships.
• Focus on early customer orientation –
starts with people.
• Making ideas tangible at an early stage –
building simple & meaningful prototypes.
• Empathy – stepping into the stakeholder
shoes.

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Design Thinking
• Iterative approach – fail fast to succeed
sooner!
• Multidisciplinary - diversity of participants
from various streams.
• Need for team work.
• Combines analytical phases (collecting,
organizing, evaluating information) and
synthetic phases (developing, testing,
improving solutions).
• Divergent, convergent phases alternate.

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Principles of Design Thinking
• User-centricity and empathy:
- finding solutions that respond to human
needs and user feedback.
- People, not technology, are the drivers
of innovation.
- empathy for the target stakeholders.

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Principles of Design Thinking
• Collaboration:
- pool a diverse variety of perspectives
and ideas.
- encourages collaboration between
heterogeneous, multidisciplinary teams.
- combines efforts of several teams.

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Principles of Design Thinking
• Ideation:
- solution-based framework.
- focus is on coming up with ideas and
potential solutions.
- judgment-free zone, participants
encouraged to focus on the quantity of
ideas, quality not now.

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Principles of Design Thinking
• Experimentation and iteration:
- not just about coming up with ideas.
- turning them into prototypes, testing
them and making changes based on
user feedback.
- iterative approach - repeat certain steps
in the process as one uncover flaws and
shortcomings.

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Principles of Design Thinking
• Bias towards action:
- hands-on approach to problem-solving.
- favors action over discussion.
- turn solutions into tangible prototypes
and test them in real world contexts.

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Ten Commandments of
Design Thinking

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Design Thinking Process
• Six process steps with iteration loops.
• Problem space (problem and its causes)
and solution space (what are the solutions,
how these can be implemented).
• Timeboxing - to define concrete time
budgets for the individual phases.

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Double-Diamond Model

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Phase 1 - Understand
(Understanding the Problem)
• Develop an understanding for the
challenge/the problem/the need or the
requirement.
• Clarify who has to be integrated into the
process.
• Identify the technical perspective (process
organisation) necessary.
• Clarify how the question can best be
formulated.
• Customer need/problem to be defined in
concrete terms.

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Phase 2 - Observe
• Detailed research & on-site observations
carried out on the customer's need/
problem.
• Use of interviews, written surveys,
observations with recordings through
photos or even videos.
• Results clarify the general conditions.
• Results point to the exact definition of the
target group and a comprehensive
understanding of the customer and his
needs and behaviour.

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Phase 3 - Point-of-View
(Define the Problem)
• Findings to be condensed to a single
prototypical user.
• User problem/need to be summarized in a
clearly defined question.

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Phase 4 – Ideate
(Finding and Selecting Ideas)
• Brainstorming and use of creativity
techniques.
• Ideas analysed in a customer-oriented
manner.
• Identifying weak points, selection decision
made on the basis of an idea evaluation.

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Phase 5 – Prototype
(Develop the Prototype)
• Ideas visualized quickly, made tangible,
sketched, designed, modelled/simulated,
etc.
• Rapid Prototyping: prototype development
applies not only to products, but also to
services.
• Other methods of prototyping may be
used.

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Phase 6 - Test
• Ideas further developed, tested through
further experiments and customer
feedback.
• Production and market issues to be
clarified.
• Actual implementation phase with the
development of the idea to a marketable
product/service follow afterwards.

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Design Thinking
• Carried out as a project that involves
representatives from all departments
(internal staff) as well as external
participants from different disciplines.
• Goals for the Design Thinking project to be
defined derived from the company/
innovation strategy.
• Expectations of all participants to be
clarified.
• Critically review whether the method is at
all suitable for the goals.

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Design Thinking Framework
• Three distinct phases - immersion,
ideation, and implementation.
• Further split into five actionable steps:
• Empathize.
• Define.
• Ideate.
• Prototype.
• Test.
• Iterative, not a strictly linear process.
• Answers the whats, whys and hows.

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Design Thinking Framework
Flexible and Fluid…
You’ll never be moving in a straight line…..

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Empathize
• What? - engage with and observe the
target audience.
• Why? - to paint a clear picture of who your
end users are, what challenges they face,
and what needs and expectations must be
met.
• How? - conduct surveys, interviews and
observation sessions, build empathy.

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Define
• What? - define a clear problem statement.
• Why? - Problem statement sets out
specific challenge, guides entire design
process, gives a fixed goal to focus on and
helps to keep the user in mind at all times.
• How? - Focus on user’s needs than
business, problem statement to be human-
centered, broad enough for creativity, and
specific to provide guidance and direction.

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Ideate
• What? - come up with ideas and potential
solutions.
• Why? - think outside the box, explore new
angles, focus on quantity of ideas than
quality, free your mind and stumble upon
innovation!
• How? - use of a range of different ideation
techniques - bodystorming, reverse
thinking, and even worst possible ideas.

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When Ideas go Wild !!!
• Feel Crazy ????
• Think of:
- A portable voice operated device that
projects cable television programmes
onto free space....
- A robot that climbs a mango tree and
plucks ripe mangoes without damage….
- A device that removes the skin and
slices the edible part of a pineapple…….
• There’s more room for imagination…..

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Wild Ideas are Welcome !
How can a robot
pluck ripe mangoes?
Think Later !!!!

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Divergent Thinking
• Alternation of divergent and convergent
thinking typical of ideation and design
thinking process.
• A diverse group of people involved in the
process of divergent thinking.
• Divergent thinking begins with a structured
brainstorming process of "thinking outside
the box."

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Convergent Thinking
• Aims at zooming and focusing on the
different proposals to select the best
choice.
• Permits continuation of design thinking
process to achieve final goals.
• The team goes through a process of
pattern finding and synthesis.
• Translates ideas into insights that can lead
to solutions or opportunities for change.

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Double Diamond
Divergence Convergence Divergence Convergence
Confirms
problem
definition
Creates
Solution

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Prototype
• What? - turn ideas into prototypes/scaled-
down versions of the product/concept you
want to test.
• Why? - prototyping gives you something
tangible that can be tested on real users,
maintain a user-centric approach.
• How? - prototypes in various forms - from
basic paper models to interactive digital
prototypes, have a clear goal in mind,
know what you want your prototype to
represent and test.

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Test
• What? - test the prototypes on real/
representative users.
• Why? - testing phase helps see where the
prototype works well, where to improve,
user feedback to help modify & improve
before spending time & money to develop
and/or implement the solution.
• How? - run user testing sessions, observe
target user – prototype interaction, gather
verbal feedback, learn from the testing
phase, make design changes, may come
up with a completely new idea altogether!

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Applications of Design Thinking
• In business:
- new product development.
- focus on aesthetics and functionality of
products.
- organisations realise the utility of
embedding design as a productive asset
throughout organisational policies and
practices.

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Applications of Design Thinking
• In education:
- professional design education.
- developing design thinking in students.
- increasingly linked with technology
studies.
- gradually replacing and/or developing
traditional art and craft.

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Applications of Design Thinking
• In computer science:
- user centered design and human
centered design.
- designing human-computer interfaces.
- central to the recent conceptions of
software development.

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So What is Design Thinking?
“Design Thinking is a comprehensive,
user-oriented approach that
systematically applies methods for
observation, questioning and
brainstorming as well as other
moderation techniques in the individual
phases in a process with numerous
iteration loops”.

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“If you have always done it that way, it
is probably wrong”.
- Charles Kettering.
Engineer and Businessman.

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Ready to Think?
“See what everyone is
seeing, but think
differently!”
– Buddha.