Design methodologies

Design Thinking is a design methodology that provides a solution-based approach to solving problems. It’s very useful in tackling complex problems that are undefined or unknown, by understanding the human needs involved, re-framing the problem in human-centric ways, creating many ideas in brainstorming sessions, and by adopting a hands-on approach in prototyping and testing. The method consist of five-stages model and was developed by the Hasso-Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford. The five stages of Design Thinking are: Empathise, Define (the problem), Ideate, Prototype, and Test.

Empathise
The first stage of the process is to gain an empathetic understanding of the problem you are trying to solve. This involves consulting experts to find out more about the area of concern through observing, engaging and empathizing with people to understand their experiences and motivations, as well as to get a deeper understanding of the issues involved. Empathy is crucial in this step, as it allows the designer to set aside their own assumptions about the world in order to gain insight into the users and their needs.

Define (the problem)
During the Define stage, the information gathered during the Empathise stage need to be put together and analysed. The observations are synthesised to define the core problems that have been identified so far. The main problem should be defined in a problem statement in a human-centred manner, and not as your own wish or company’s need. This stage will help the designer team to gather ideas about the functions, features or other elements that will allow them to solve the outlined problem.

Ideate
In this stage, designers start to generate ideas, after understanding the user needs and synthesizing the observations in previous stages. Now with this background information, the design team start identifying new solutions to the problem stated before by thinking outside of the box. Using one or several of available ideation techniques (for example using brainstorm techniques s, Worst Possible Idea concept or the SCAMPER method), you can find alternative views on the problem. It is important to gather as many solution ideas as possible, to choose and test the most promising ones by the end of the phase.

Prototype
The fourth stage aims to create a number of scaled down versions of the designed product to further investigate the solutions found in the Ideation stage. The prototypes can be tested by the same design team, but also it can be insightful to share them with different departments to get a second opinion. This experimental stage should strive toto test the best solutions out of all ideas gathered in the previous stages. The solutions are implemented in different prototypes and depending on the test results, they are either accepted, re-examined or rejected completely. As a result of this phase the design team will have a better understanding of the problems connected with most promising prototype, the constraints connected to it and the overall user experience with the product or packaging prototype

Test
After the product or packaging design is complete, it is rigorously tested. This step is an iterative process. The results obtained from tests are used to redefine the remaining problems and implementing refinements to achieve a deep understanding of the product and its users. It is also a good idea to get back to the users for final feedback.

Empathise
The actors to be involved in the first step are experts in the field of concern and users to understand their needs.

Define (the problem)
In this step’s actors involved are mainly other members of the design team.

Ideate
In this step’s actors involved are mainly other members of the design team.

Prototype
Design team, possibly also other departments or people outside of the design team, to get an external view.

Test
In this step’s actors involved are mainly other members of the design team and possibly users.

Keep in mind that the Design Thinking process is not linear. For example, designers might prototype or collect information during the whole project to visualise better the ideas. The iteration may mean going back into one or more phases and evaluating new insights. The stages described are also not always sequential, but act rather as are general project elements to be considered.