Design thinking involves several key principles:
- Focus on the user. Designers using design thinking start by studying users and understanding their needs.
- Idea generation. Designers generate lots of ideas to approach a problem from different angles.
- Prototyping. Designers create prototypes to test ideas and get feedback from users.
- Iterations. Designers make changes to the product based on user feedback and test results.
Understanding the problem and focusing on the user
At this stage it is necessary to identify what is not working at the moment and what can be improved. Different tools can be used for this: customer interviews, data analysis and observation of user behavior.
Before starting to solve the problem, the target audience and their needs must be thoroughly researched. To do this, market research and surveys are conducted to understand how users feel about the product or service, what they like and what they don’t like.
Finding and generating ideas
After understanding the users’ needs, the process moves on to finding and generating ideas. Here, creativity plays a crucial role in helping to generate innovative ideas. This is done through brainstorming and other techniques aimed at creating and “giving birth” to new ideas.
At this stage, it is necessary to come up with as many ideas as possible to solve the problem. The goal of this stage is to not limit yourself and get as many options as possible.
Prototyping.
When the ideas are formed, you need to move on to prototyping, which allows you to visualize the idea and assess its workability. In this step, you need to select one or more ideas and create prototypes for testing.
The prototype can be implemented as schematic drawings, drawings, layouts, or as a functioning prototype. You can use it to see how a product will look and how users will interact with it.
Iterations and testing
Testing helps to verify in practice that the product works and meets the user’s needs. If testing shows that the product is not working properly, additional iterations are needed to fix problems and improve the product. Iterations and testing help create a better product that is most effective for users.