What is Design Thinking and Human Centered Design
What this is
Design thinking is a process that involves examining the broader perspective and emphasising innovation to develop products or services that address problems.
Human-Centered Design, on the other hand, is a mindset that concentrates on enhancing usability and user experience by paying attention to specific details.
By combining these two approaches, both in terms of mindset and toolkit, it becomes possible to create impactful product and service solutions that effectively resolve genuine issues and fulfil the actual needs of end users.
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Design thinking is a problem solving approach to innovation. It focuses on scoping real problems, and moves through a series iterative steps that builds understanding and empathy with a user, while challenges and tests assumptions that product or service managers may have. The approach is a nonlinear, and solutions-oriented. The methodology can solve complex or ill-defined problems / gaps / opportunities in community-focused services, products, and general human-focused needs. A five-stage design thinking model suggested by the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford (the “d-school”) is one of the most popular modes of design thinking, these stages include empathising, defining, ideating, prototyping, and testing.
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Human-centred design is a creative approach to problem solving that focuses on meeting the needs of the user, to end with purpose-built solutions. At its core it’s about cultivating deep empathy for who you’re designing for, while generating ideas, building prototypes and sharing together what’s been made to eventually put an innovative new solution out into the world. “A human-centred approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibility of technology, and the requirements for business success” (Tim Brown, CEO, IDEO)
Why is this important
Reframing problems or market gaps in human-centric ways helps to get to the true crux of a problem. It places an emphasis on empathy to develop an understanding of what changes and shifts are required to service the population most effectively. This approach helps to shape better longer-term solutions that have long-term positive effects for populations, communities and individuals, over easy short-term quick fix solutions or under-baked products.
How we do it
Reframing problems or identifying market gaps from a human-centric perspective is crucial in reaching the core essence of a problem. It places a strong emphasis on empathy to gain a deep understanding of the necessary changes and shifts needed to effectively serve the population. This approach helps shape long-term solutions that have lasting positive impacts on communities, individuals, and populations, rather than resorting to quick-fix solutions or half-baked products.
The five stages are as follows:
Empathising: Through user-centric research, we immerse ourselves in the user's environment to gain a deep understanding of their experiences.
Defining: We utilise research findings to define the core problem in a way that prioritises users' needs over the company's bottom line.
Ideating: Idea generation explores the problem from various perspectives, and brainstorming generates as many different solutions as possible.
Prototyping: We develop and test various prototypes and ideas.
Testing: We receive feedback and iterate between prototyping and testing, often revisiting the drawing board multiple times before achieving the desired outcome.
Tools used
One of the tools we employ is empathy maps, which consist of four quadrants - says, thinks, does, and feels. By placing the user or demographic at the center, this tool allows designers to set aside assumptions or biases and gain insight into the user's mindset. It helps us paint a comprehensive picture of their true needs and emotions in relation to the problem or market gap. This ensures that our prototyping and testing phases come as close as possible to delivering optimal results and solutions.
The empathy map consists of four key quadrants:
See: This quadrant captures the explicit statements and feedback expressed by users during interviews or consumer research.
Think: Here, we delve into the users' thoughts and mindset throughout the experience or testing phase.
Feel: This quadrant allows designers to document the emotional state of users during their interactions with the product or service.
Do: It focuses on observing how users interact with the prototype during the testing phase.
By utilising these four quadrants, designers can gain valuable insights into the users' perspectives, thoughts, emotions, and behaviours, enabling them to create more user-centered and effective solutions.