Design Thinking

Design thinking is a process used to “understand users, challenge assumptions, redefine problems and create innovative solutions to prototype and test” (Siang). Ultimately, it is a means of gathering feedback to better a project, product or service. It is unlike any other method though, as it involves the customers or audience, getting them involved in the process, and making them loyal to the company or creators.

Design thinking is used in all disciplines and subject matters, as it is a multipurpose and universal way of problem solving. Due to this, there is no single, correct way to apply design thinking. There are multiple processes, stages, and modes that are used, which can be rearranged and organized to best suit the work at hand. In fact, these phases “do not have to follow any specific order and can often occur in parallel and repeat repetitively. Given that, you should not understand the phases as a ranked or step-by-step process” (Dam and Siang). They should be looked at as discontinuous and fluid. This quality of design thinking makes it much more valuable than other processes that are used to gain insight because it makes the process personal and individualistic to the project. It can be customary, as each phase can be used whenever and however the creators desire and as many times as they want.

The phases referenced include the following: (1) empathize, (2) define, (3) ideate, (4) prototype, and (5) test. Empathizing with your users “allows you to set aside your own assumptions about the world and gain real insight into users and their needs” (Siang). This is especially useful because oftentimes, as creators, we are too close and too consumed by our work to see the point of view that our audience has on it. Using this step to gain their perspective enables us to make changes that are worthwhile. The “define” stage is where analysis and synthesis occur in order to determine what problems the project upholds (Siang). Defining the issues leads to solving them, in turn, making the creation better. These solutions usually are found in the ideating stage. Ideating challenges the issues at hand to create innovative concepts that later become legendary results. This stage is ultimately considered the brainstorming stage. These ideas are then put into the world through the prototype phase, where the solutions found are tested on a small scale to identify if they are valuable moves to enact (Siang). This is where the final solutions are found, which are then taken to the final stage, testing. The testing stage is similar to the prototype phase, just on a much larger scale, as it thoroughly tests the prototypes.

The goal of design thinking is to better understand the target audience and user, or “to gain the deepest understanding of the users and what their ideal solution/product would be” (Dam and Siang). Design thinking is used by some of the largest, most credible universities, as well as global businesses such as Google, Apple, and Airbnb. This is simply because “with design thinking, teams have the freedom to generate ground-breaking solutions. Using it, your team can get behind hard-to-access insights and apply a collection of hands-on methods to help find innovative answers” (Siang).

Dam, Rikke Friis, and Teo Yu Siang. “What Is Design Thinking and Why Is It So Popular?” The Interaction Design Foundation, 2020, www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/what-is-design-thinking-and-why-is-it-so-popular.

Siang, Teo Yu. “What Is Design Thinking?” The Interaction Design Foundation, www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/design-thinking.

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Design thinking is when a writer or content creator thinks about the user or reader experience before creating or writing content. This type of thinking involves empathizing with an intended audience when selecting the design, tone, style, medium, and mode. Design thinking involves critical thinking, preventive thinking, and visualizing various responses from the intended readers. For example, when design thinking, writers must consider how the delivery of a message could affect its meaning. Based on the intended product, is there a moment where a reader could feel attacked, threatening, offended, misunderstood? Writers Rikke Friis Dam and Teo Yu Siang inform writers of the various phases of design thinking: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test. Dam and Siang clarify that these phases are not always sequential, yet they are important for the development of a message through mode and medium.

Design thinking is synonymous with ‘thinking outside the box” because it requires that writers “challenge assumptions” (Dam and Siang), think ahead at possible complications, and “uncover new ways of improving the product, service, or design”. Design thinking is a useful tool to predict the outcome of the success of a piece of work. Thinking preemptively also helps strengthen the trust and understanding between a consumer (reader) and a producer (a writer). Design thinking benefits the producer on a long-term scale, and it creates a sense of trust for the consumer.

Furthermore, Farhad Manjoo makes an excellent point to consider when writing content for an audience, “When people land on a story, they very rarely make it all the way down the page. A lot of people don’t even make it halfway. Even more dispiriting is the relationship between scrolling and sharing” (Manjoo). Design thinking expands to consider the reading trends going on at the moment. If writers want their audience to be engaged, they must make the page visually pleasing and support the current statistics such as attention span, and reader engagement such as scrolling records. Design thinking requires all writers to access their creative thinking and extend empathy towards their desired audience. In summary, design thinking is a great tool to use as a digital creator, especially in this digital age where messages could easily get lost in translation.