Design Thinking
Design thinking is an extremely user-centered, cognitive, strategic, practical, and iterative approach to solving complex problems.
Design thinking processes
Design thinking process can be broken down into five (5) stages:
- Stage 1: Empathize — Research users’ needs
Conduct research to identify the users and gain insights into their needs
2. Stage 2: Define — State users’ needs and problems
Analyze the research and use it to define the problem statement
3. Stage 3: Ideate — Challenge assumptions and create ideas
Generate ideas about the problem and think of possible solutions.
4. Stage 4: Prototype — Start to create solutions
Decide upon the best solution and produce preliminary versions of the design
5. Stage 5: Test — Try the solutions out
Test the design, and then iterate, refine the solution or return to the other stages.
What does it mean for a designer to be able to fit himself into the shoes of a user?
As a designer I shouldn’t fit myself into a users’ shoe, USERS SHOULD BE IN THE CENTER.
The main idea of user-centered design is to keep the user in the center. Design must be based on the understanding of users, their goals, and contexts of use.
But that understanding does not come by imagining what you would do if you were the user. Understanding comes from user research. If you go out there, observe and interview users, that’s when users really are in the center. If you sit on your desk imagining what users would do, that’s when you and your thoughts are in the center and also been in the shoes of the user. Not the same thing?
So don’t put yourself in the user’s shoes. Instead, go out there and watch real user’s shoes. Well, don’t watch their shoes but interview and watch the actual users.
Don’t imagine users’ needs, research them.
