Design Thinking Strategies to Create the Best Innovation
Everyone can utilize design thinking, even if it needs a little more strategy to maximize the ability. Designing doesn't come up naturally. Yet, it needs a strong will to help yourselves while also having a comprehensive mindset to proceed.
Is it possible to apply this creative method, even without we need to think about it? Yes, it's possible. A masterpiece can extend from the proper collaboration between a designer and a client. Both parties should understand each other's requirements, in which the final design should be the result of ideas that they control. So, keep on reading to find out how it will help you in accomplishing your project.
The Real Definition of Design Thinking
It means the approach of strategy and philosophy that refers mostly to the design that centers on human basic. It is the precise process of creating innovation in a creative mindset, in which a person can frame design purposefully for a specific solution.
Meantime, it is exactly the mind frame that is pinned down with only one definition, which comes from several ideas. The main point is the designer's apprehension in improving his customer's concern about the desired design. The essential part is actually to hold the thought as if you are the customer.
It was Tim Brown, the CEO of IDEO that popularized design thinking. They assure that this concept is definitely more effective among individuals or companies. Correspondingly, this concept can be applied to almost all factors in life, as well as business-related matters. The most crucial part about this concept is its practicality in solving almost any problem that relates to innovation creativity.
Brown emphasized that it is simply categorized as a discipline, which utilizes the designer's sensibility to combine the need of customers with the latest technology and the most innovative business strategy. Through the combination, the designer can meet the values of the client's requirements while also meeting the market's opportunity.
Simply said, this method is applicable to everyone. It doesn't require a genius to establish. However, most people overlook their ability to apply creativity because they can't move on from conventional problem-solving practices. Some people doubt starting new ideas of solving problems, as they worry that the problems will worsen. Some people are just lazy. The basic principle will solely depend on individuals' abilities to be insightful, distinguish outline, and put up ideas that own emotional and functional meaning.
The Relativity of Design Thinking and Designs
People mostly think that design is the performance of a product. As Steve Jobs once said, design is more than just how a product looks and feels. It is close to the ability of the design to work on increasing the product value.
When a person thinks like a designer, it doesn't mean that he already applies design thinking. It is not about approaching only an individual point of view to maximize their creative solutions and solve their problems. When designers plan to apply the creative method, they should be ready to use both logic and intuition through exploring the chances of having ideas. There will be lots of possibilities and sources to compare, so the designers can decide which ideas will be the best to meet a specific problem and demand.
Design thinking relates to establishing well-managed expectations while creating several ideas. In which "Creating" means to create things that didn't exist previously. It relates closely to the innovation that any human being will need, in which the designer should start with gradual design development.
Can We Apply Design Thinking in Running A Business?
Design thinking is more than just having an innovative design upon products. It is also good for those who want to apply it to their business. Running a business needs more than just courage and intuition. They need an analytical and thoughtful mindset to manage their organization and customers. This method can be described as the spaces overlapping system, though some people consider it merely systematic steps progression.
To successfully run a business, you will need to maintain three important aspects when applying design thinking. The first is an inspiration. Inspiration is the best way for any designer to find a solution and better ideas. The second one is creating ideas. Last but not least is the implementation, which is the final step that any designer can consider as a failure or success.
How Design Thinking Contributes To Crucial Factors in Business
Design thinking contributes to several factors which are highly crucial in business, as well as personal lives. Those factors include:
1. Innovation
Through design thinking, any designer can own lots of innovative ideas. Innovation won't come up from merely the latest technology or other kinds of aesthetic properties. Yet, real innovation comes up from things that are unpredictable and beyond anyone's expectation. Innovation should meet certain principles and ideas which didn't exist before. Innovation doesn't only depend on taste and luck, and it requires a great amount of creativity.
2. Customers' Needs
By applying design thinking, designers should not focus on their own experiences in providing ideas. Instead, they should pay attention to users' needs and desires. There are lots of designers whose failures are mere because they prefer to insist their ideas upon clients. As human beings, designers feel that they have the right to offer their ideas. But, clients can't always follow what their designers merely want when the real aim is to meet clients' satisfaction upon the final design.
3. Problem Solving
Design thinking becomes the best solution for almost all problems that customers face. It should help customers in understanding the problems along with their causes and find a solution about it. Customers might find difficulties in deciding the best idea. This is the right time for designers to establish their creative solutions for solving any problem without taking the importance of creating innovative ideas.
4. Simplifying The Process of Production
Utilizing design thinking can speed up the production phase because it produces proper guidelines for an easier process. With the innovative design, the designer will discover the most suitable ways for evaluating his or her success. In this case, he can avoid the chance of failure by emphasizing his total effort.
How To Implement Design Thinking
It is easy to summarize that a designer will go through several steps of learning and inventing. Making a strategy is also a part of design thinking, which these are important steps for any designer to implement:
Most designers have the opportunity to implement design thinking aspects. Unfortunately, most of them don't always utilizing them because they doubt that they won't meet the desired goals. There are barriers that they face when they want to adopt the creative method, mainly when they are in a team. They doubt that other members of the team won't agree with the evaluations. The most common reason why design thinking cannot be applied is the hesitation among modern people when practicing a human-centered approach. They consider that technology can solve problems much better.
Fear of facing failure is actually the worst reason among designers that stop them from being innovative. The idea that failure is the best teacher. However, most people aren't ready to face it. The fact is that creativity doesn't come up out of the blue. It requires a series of struggles that urges any designer to be creative in finishing the ideas.
The Process of Design Thinking; Go Through These Steps!
Any designer needs to go through several steps to establish design thinking in every project they deal with. It should be regarded as a proper mindset. It is a guideline instead of merely instructions, and all of these steps are highly important. They have to be repeated as a habit, while they can also be easily followed as required.
1.Deep Comprehension Upon Clients' Needs And Taste
A proper design will depend mainly on how a designer could understand customers' needs before producing the final outcome. As a designer, we should have a deep level of understanding of clients' requirements. We also have to practice comprehensive market research as the material to start the whole process. Else, you will have no clue at all about what to create for your client.
The best thing to get the idea well-thought is by observing through several daily activities upon the target market. This is to ensure that you can perceive the demographic information that becomes the main approach of market research strategy. It is recommended that the designer conduct candid observations that clients are not aware of. By doing this method, the designer can observe the most authentic outcome.
Any observation should involve the designer's understanding to use emotion and empathy while recognizing what they have been observing. It is important for the designer to get rid of any bias so that there is no personal tendency that may affect the result of the observation. The observation has to be purely based on research and numbers in order to be accurate.
2. Making A Description
Creativity should be focused on solving problems with the most proper human-centered solution. The problem solution should define the problem in a clear and concise way, and it has to be delivered as the most accurate goal. So then the designer could evaluate his or her attainment or failure.
The real challenge that any designer will face is the problem in identifying the problem itself. Some obstructions can be somewhat complicated, while there are also several unexpected events that occur beyond expectations. It can be said that finding symptoms can be somewhat a complicated problem among designers. But, there is no other way for any designer to solve the fundamental reasons.
Basically, a designer can just do the old-school ways by finding several 'Whys'. By doing so, any designer will find the real reason for the things that went wrong. And there is a thin line between the reality that occurs between now and the future that the designer should expect, which can be identified through the problem statement that should be applied. There shouldn't be anyone or anything to blame, regardless of what problems that designer can control or not. Meanwhile, the designer should never have any prejudice or judgment in solving any problem.
Most designers have failed in this step because some of them start finding ideas through prejudice or bias. When the fact is that precipitate solutions may ruin the problem comprehension genuinely.
3.Analyzing And Finding Ideas
The phase of analyzing is when a designer creates the problem statement solutions. The designer needs to use the time wisely to find several possibilities in creating as many ideas as possible, even if they already have an idea that they think is good. Instead, any designer has to find the most unexpected ideas that other people might not be able to compare. The best way to gain lots of ideas is to take notes on any idea that comes up to mind, even the silliest ones.
Ideas can come up in several ways. It can be from listing anything that happens in the day, creating sketches, finding ideas through speaking with the community members, and searching what most customers really want upon the product or service. Not many people know that we can also take an idea from what customers always like to share through social media. As an observer, we can check what your target market likes to behave on online platforms. This is actually one of the best and easiest idea sources to find.
Analyzing and finding ideas can be done through several steps. It means the designer can use one method throughout the week and another method in the next week. Whenever there are ideas from friends, colleagues, or even other competitors, it is better to list them down. Those lists will be very helpful in triggering fresh ideas.
4.Examples of Design
After a series of analyzing and creating ideas, it is time to create examples of the design. This is the test before a designer is coming up with the final design. In this case, there should be several examples to produce so that the designer can make comparisons among several options. The process is similar to the previous one, in which the designer can get ideas about the examples that they have made. By making comparisons and asking for advice from other experienced people, the designer can choose the one that suits his or her customers.
The importance of having several examples or prototypes is too high that the designer can finish the project in a fast and effective way. Yet, it is best not to make decisions too quickly. Some customers faced lots of disappointment when the result of the design wasn't as good as what their designers offered in the sketches. The most crucial thing that any designer should emphasize is the time effectiveness in representing the idea until the customer is totally satisfied.
5. Conducting A Test
Conducting a test requires any designer to show off the design examples to customers. This phase is the time for all designers to find out whether they can successfully impress their clients. By conducting a test, the designer can figure out his or her success in establishing the whole process. But, the designer still has to take up understanding during the time of conducting tests. If customers find problems with the design, then the designer should be ready with revisions, new ideas, and other design examples.
Meanwhile, conducting a test is also a good time for gaining as much feedback as possible. They can represent customers' different needs and requirements, while they can also show how people have different perspectives and opinions about the designed product. By doing this, the designer can have various ideas about how customers will like the final intentions.
Who should conduct the test? Of course, the designer should do this, while he or she can involve several other people whom they will work in a team. The team can conduct several surveys, group mapping, and so forth.
Conclusion
Design thinking is actually the start of creating the best design for customers and the target market. All designers should go through these several processes mentioned above and apply design thinking to create extraordinary innovation. For sure, it is not a simple process. We should be ready to face several obstacles. And through those obstacles, we can improve ourselves as a learning process through practices and struggles.
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