What is Design Thinking?
‘Design thinking? Is there a specific method of thinking for designing? Is it about not liming yourself so that you can think of something creative? What exactly is design thinking?‘
These were some questions on my mind when I heard the term “design thinking” for the first time. As someone who does not believe in my own creativity, I thought the term must be about a specific process that the designers follow when designing something new that helps them foster creativity. I thought this must be the secret formula for being creative and coming up with innovative ideas.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t quite what design thinking was. However, it is a critical mindset to have for successful designing. In fact, this may not be THE secret formula for fostering creativity, but it is certainly a mindset that will help with the process. Design thinking is basically another term for human-centered design, which means that when designing a product, every decision made has to be based around the intended user of the product. This is a critical mindset to have because when you design for the intended users, it may lead to an idea that you would not have thought of otherwise. While you might be working on a design believing that you are providing what the users want, if you do not take an effort to reach out to those users and understand their motivations and desires, you may be going in a completely wrong direction.
An example of such situations was shared by our TA, Mehment Aydin. He shared a story of how for children, going through a MRI machine is a scary experience. It is challenging for them to stay calm without any movement while being stuck in a dark, narrow space with lots of noise surrounding them. Upon hearing this problem, we might jump straight into how we can adjust the machine to provide more comfortable experience. Perhaps we can find a way to decrease the noise level. Perhaps we can make the bed more comfortable. But what solved the problem was much simpler than those ideas.
What was the solution? Turn the whole MRI experience into a fun role-playing game. Instead of having the children go through the MRI process in all seriousness, the solution was to have the doctors and nurses be pirates and have the children to stay hidden from them in the MRI machine, which is decorated as a ship, until the whole procedure was finished. Now, instead of being afraid of the darkness and the noise, the children were having fun and filled with excitement as they stayed in the machine, “hiding” from the bad guys. In fact, Mehmet shared that they had so much fun that they were asking when would be the next time that they come back.
How could someone reach such a solution without truly understanding the problem from the perspectives of the users? That is what a design thinking is all about.
Going Forward
This mindset of design thinking is very important for my team as we try to design something that will allow the youth wheelchair users to easily customize their wheelchairs and improve their experiences. We really need to understand why the users may want to customize their wheelchairs and in which way they would like to. To find out all these different factors, we are in the process of reaching out to not only youth wheelchair users but also adult wheelchair users who have experiences of being youth wheelchair users themselves. We want to help them step into their childhood and have them share their “dream wheelchairs.” What is this wheelchair capable of? What does it look like? We want to bring out the child-side of the users to really dive into the limitless creativity we had when we were kids. By being in this mindset of children, we believe that we will be able to find a solution to help the youth wheelchair users enjoy their experience more.
Hi Matthew,
I really liked your analysis about design thinking in the beginning of your post. I also consider myself someone who isn’t creative so the design thinking mindset has really helped me to feel more confident in this project. I wrote in my reflect about how the optimism mindset is really important. What specific trait did you connect with in the HBR design thinking article?
Hi Matthew,
I just want to start off by saying that I enjoyed your post. I thought it was interesting that you decided to focus on one topic/theme that was discussed in class instead of just summarizing what we did for that week. I believe that the question you asked about design thinking is one that many other students ponder. In your post, you perfectly broke down the definition of design thinking, especially when you included the example of MRI scans for children. Your description of design thinking also reminded me of an example another guest mentioned. While working at Intel I believe one of the representatives from Milestone Studios said that a group of people worked to build a device that would help solve one person’s issue with being blind. However, after talking with her they quickly found out that what they built was not necessarily something she needed or wanted. Just as Einstein said, it is more important to spend time analyzing the problem then it is to spend time coming up with a solution. After all, sometimes the solution is very simple.
Hi Michael!
I really like your analysis on design thinking. I wasn’t in class last week, so I did not hear the presentations. The story of youth MRIs was very interesting. I would have never thought about improving children’s experience in that way. I think it’s interesting that your project relates to this example. I am intrigued to see where your project goes. Do you think you will alter the function of the wheelchair or the experience?
Hi Mathew,
Your perspective related to the “design thinking” is really impressive. From the MRI story, we can learn about that some small innovations might change the whole situation. It’s also the same as our projects. Sometimes, if you think about the problem from your customers’ side, even though the solution might be really simple, it’s still really efficient and beneficial. This is also what I’m thinking right now. I thought a lot of complicated stuff last week, and I didn’t actually have the ability to make the ideal product in my mind. Therefore, I might need to rethink about my targeted customers and figure what I can do to help them.
Hi Matthew,
I liked how you started your reflection with questions to get both you and the readers to think more and reflect further on the subject. I too was very intrigued when I first heard about the term “design thinking”. I think that you should be more confident in yourself and we are all creative in some way.
Hi Matthew,
I love how you are very passionate about creating wheelchairs for the youth. And by asking your mentors about their experience in the past is a great example. I would also look into other younger generation wheelchair users. This way you can strengthen your design. Also, why don’t you try using the wheelchair yourself? You can hopefully ask around for a wheelchair and try them out for a day and write your experience down.
hey! I really enjoyed how you focused on the story Mehment shared with out because I found that really impact too. I think it is a great story to gain inspiration for for your team especially because you are designing for youth as well. I think what could be interesting to explore is kids design in general. Whether that means visiting a toy store or going to a playground, you might be able to gain inspiration from just being in the environment that kids like to be in.