Design Thinking
Graphic from: Design Thinking Process (www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyoZTUGzdGY)
Design Thinking is a problem-solving protocol that has existed for several decades. It was originally developed for businesses, but it has been adapted to fit many sectors of society, including education. It is particularly popular for maker spaces where students design and create physical products, but it applies equally well to digital design, too. Some schools have even sought to use design thinking as part of their culture and success Links to an external site..
Design Thinking is a five-step process that begins with empathy and moves through stages where you define, ideate, prototype and test your idea. However, depending on results, you may find that at the end of the last step you need to go back and work through one or more of the steps in order to refine your product.
In this class, I am going to encourage you to follow the design thinking model when you complete the Design Challenge assignments that are included in each module. Here's how that might work.
1. Empathize: Read the scenario for each challenge. The human element is crucial to the design thinking model so take some time to think about who you are designing for and what their needs are.
2. Define: Make a plan for how you are going to attack this problem. Each Design Challenge comes with an element of choice, so make some decisions for what your design will include and make a plan for what might be important to have in your final product.
3. Ideate: Brainstorm some ideas. Draw it out on paper if you want, or on a mobile device. Make some rough sketches. Do some research as to what this product could or should look like. Think about layouts, colors, and fonts.
4. Prototype: Use the ideas you brainstormed in the last phase(s) to create your design. Let your creative juices flow and get that design done!
5. Test: Review your finished design, make sure that it meets the criteria and includes all the elements that you wanted it to include. It's also a time you can elicit feedback from others. You will do that in a discussion forum. Once you have that feedback, you may decide to make some alterations or refinements.
When you've done all that, feel free to revisit any of the steps you followed along the way. Then, submit your design to me on the Assignment page for each module.