Delving into how your customer will use your design can be a great way to starting creating. But the nuts and bolts of getting your team to realize the end user’s plight can be a long process. And so the term “design thinking” is born into a world of industrial creation.
Some companies are using design thinking to restructure the culture in their organization while other companies use design thinking to innovate a new product.
But design thinking isn’t just a set of simple tactics – it’s more like an ecology of mind that takes time to grow, adapt, and evolve.
Solid design thought marries sound business decision-making principles with the designers focus on the future – of what is not today, but could be tomorrow. And, after all that, design thinking is a constant return to people and their unspoken, unmet needs.
With the culture of design thinking in the thought funnel, you consider how you can start to focus on the user more during your design creation. It may involve getting an early prototype to a set of users earlier and truly listening to their critiques and suggestions. Even earlier, design thinking requires a “no holds barred” approach to the concept stage. All ideas are accepted to spur even more creative design ingenuity. Later, you scrap the ideas that don’t make sense.
Knowing your community – or more, being part of that community – are excellent ways to turn the design thought corner to Design Boulevard. In this episode of the Product Design Show, Vince and Allison explore two of their four highlighted aspects of the design thinking framework: empathy and collaboration.
