Material Selection

in
Design
Design Thinking
 Introduction
• Design Thinking is a comprehensive customer-
oriented innovation approach that aims to
generate and develop creative business ideas or
entire business models
• Essentially, Design Thinking attempts to project
designers' approaches and methods onto
business processes
 Introduction
• Design Thinking is an integrative approach
• The process of problem solving is considered
together with its framework conditions.
• The problem analysis and solution development
are considered systematically and holistically in
the form of a process
• The various experts necessary for problem
analysis and solution development are involved
and enter into exchange with each other.
 Introduction
• The three Ps of Design Thinking:
– People (the human being),
– Process (the problem solving process)
– Place (the working spaces)
– Partnerships
• The Ps must be considered for a successful idea
development.
 Introduction
• Focuses on early customer orientation
• Design Thinking starts with people and not with
a technology or a business goal.
• The end user should have a decisive influence
on the "go/stop" decisions in the process.
• It is no longer sufficient to question customers
about the classic market research instruments.
• Traditional methods of (testing) market research
often only deliver disappointing results in the
search for innovations.
 Introduction
• Emphasizes Empathy - the central element is to
put oneself in the position of the customer/user
and to observe them in detail.
• Empathy creates customer orientation
• Developments can thus be better aligned with
the customers and, if necessary, prioritized to
what extent they can satisfy the needs and
wishes of these customers.
• Strives to make ideas tangible at an early stage
 Introduction
• Prototypes must be created as quickly as
• possible – this also applies to immaterial
services.
• It is not a question of testing a quasi-finished
(perfect) product, but quite the opposite:
individual functions/features/characteristics or
activities of the product/service offer are to be
checked by the customer.
• The prototype is as simple as possible, as
meaningful as necessary.
Design Thinking
 Design thinking
• Design Thinking is a “process for creative problem solving.”
• The process typically involves five steps:
– Empathize
– Define
– Ideate
– Prototype
– Test
 Design Thinking: Step #1:
• Empathize
– The first step of the design thinking process provides an
opportunity to set our assumptions aside and immerse
ourselves in the context of the problem we’re attempting to
remedy.
– The particular problem determines who might find the
solution useful as well as which experts might help shed
light on ways the issue is currently being solved
 Empathize
• Several approaches can help draw out the information
needed to paint a full picture of the problem’s context.
• Conducting face-to-face interviews to learn about how
people are currently solving the same or similar issues
is one of the most common.
• Asking someone to tell a story about the last time they
experienced the problem you’re investigating provides
a rich description that highlights details you might not
have otherwise considered.
• Interviewing/surveying prospective
endusers/customers
• Observe and engage
 Design Thinking: Step #2:
• Define
– The goal of the Define mode is to craft a meaningful
and actionable problem statement
– This should be a guiding statement that focuses on
insights and needs of a particular user, or composite
character.
– Synthesizing information to discover connections
and patterns.
– Define mode is sense making.
 Define
• Provides focus and frames the problem
• Inspires your team
• Informs criteria for evaluating competing ideas
• Empowers your team to make decisions independently
in parallel
• Captures the hearts and minds of people you meet
• Saves you from the impossible task of developing
concepts that are all things to all people
• Problem statement should be discrete, not broad
 Design Thinking: Step #3:
• Ideate
– Concentrate on idea generation
– Step beyond obvious solutions and thus increase the
innovation potential of your solution set
– Harness the collective perspectives and strengths of
your teams
– Uncover unexpected areas of exploration
– Create fluency (volume) and flexibility (variety) in
your innovation options
– Get obvious solutions out of your heads, and drive
your team beyond them
 Ideate
• Prototype limited to idea generation
• Other ideation techniques such as bodystorming,
mindmapping, and sketching.
• One theme throughout all of them is deferring
judgment – that is, separating the generation of ideas
from the evaluation of ideas.
 Design Thinking: Step #4:
• Prototype
– A prototype can be anything that a user can interact
with, a gadget you put together, a role-playing
activity, or even a storyboard.
– Something a user can experience.
– Walking someone through a scenario with a
storyboard is good, but having them role-play
through a physical environment that you have
created will likely bring out more emotions and
responses from that person.
 Prototype
• Prototype limited to idea generation
• Other ideation techniques such as bodystorming,
mindmapping, and sketching.
• One theme throughout all of them is deferring
judgment – that is, separating the generation of ideas
from the evaluation of ideas.
 Design Thinking: Step #5:
• Testing
– Sometimes this means going back to the drawing
board.
– To learn more about your user. Testing is another
opportunity to build empathy through observation
and engagement—it often yields unexpected
insights.
– To refine your POV.
– Sometimes testing reveals that not only did you not
get the solution right, but also that you failed to
frame the problem correctly.
 Testing
• Show don’t tell
– Put your prototype in the user’s hands
• Don’t explain everything (yet).
– Let your tester interpret the prototype. Watch how they use
and how they handle and interact with it, then listen to what
they say about it, and their questions
• Create Experiences.
– Create your prototypes and test them in a way that feels like
an experience that your user is reacting to, rather than an
explanation that your user is evaluating.
• Ask users to compare.
– Bringing multiple prototypes to the field to test gives users a
basis for comparison, and reveal latent needs