デザイン Thinking

I have been trying to understand and apply Design Thinking in my work as a way to improve client experience and sense of purpose.

It has been a learning journey, and here’s where I am right now:

Design thinking isn’t about aesthetics, it’s about how things work.

It is about reducing complexity and focusing on what people need.

It is based on a set of principles that include (1) empathy with users (2) prototyping and (3) tolerance of change.

It is difficult to express in quantitative language, but even logic-dominant thinkers can “get” it.

Providing good experiences isn’t limited to product designers, marketers, strategists. It should be in mind for everyone.

Design artifacts (models, diagrams) are how concepts are shared. Examples of design artifacts include customer personas, experience maps, user flows.

Artifacts are often used to explore the problem space. Prototypes are used to explore the solution space.

Tolerating failure is not encouraging failure. It is just accepting that it is rare to get things exactly right the first time.

Removing features is one way to provide clear, simple experience to the consumer. This is especially challenging with things that are complex on the inside.

Design thinking does not belong to a isolated group of “creatives”. It has to be cultural to achieve its potential.

NOTE ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATION. This is often called the Newman Squiggle, named after Damien Newman. Newman used it to explain to a client how, working together, through the Research/Concept/Design process, their thinking would gain focus.