Innovation is one of the driving forces that ensures success in nearly every industry. Design thinking is one of the popular iterative processes for perfection and innovation as it ensures solutions for customer’s problems. The reputed MIT college of design equips its students with the design thinking skills to generate innovative solutions.
What is Design Thinking?
It emerges as a structured methodology to solve the complex problems using creative, innovative and user-friendly solutions. Besides increasing the brand value of businesses, it also ensures great relief to users and customers.
Design thinking and innovation values the customers more than businesses; thus, ensures success, scalability and growth. It encourages creative problem-solving with collaboration and a deep understanding of the user’s needs, wants, experiences, emotions and challenges.
Why is Design Thinking so Important?
The design thinking model connects business, logic, and emotion with its holistic approach. Along with the creative and rational solutions, it also considers the economic needs as well. It also provides many businesses with a competitive edge by combining creativity, experimentation, and learning.
Moreover, as traditional problem-solving methods fall short of complex problems, design thinking brings new perspectives. It offers a solution by breaking complex problems into human-centric components.
The Four Phases of Innovation
The typical framework of design thinking consists of 4 phases, which are:
1. Clarify:
This phase narrows the focus of the process by identifying the problem statement to offer the best outcome. It observes the roadblocks that hindered the past solutions without assumptions and biases. The observations are then framed to shape the insights for effective solutions.
2. Ideate:
Ideation comes as the problem statement is solidified. It creates an innovative process that can be used in the future to overcome the fixed concerns of the problem. The users are kept at the forefront during the ideation phase to offer new and innovative ideas.
3. Develop:
The third phase focuses on developing concepts with a wide range of possible solutions. It includes prototyping, testing and experimenting to find the desirable answers for critical questions. It is not about perfection but to experiment with different ideas to ensure what works and what doesn’t.
4. Implement:
The fourth phase in the design thinking process is to implement the potential innovative solution. The finalised solution is tested, reflects results, reiterated and then again tested. Businesses often go back to the previous phase until a successful solution is developed. This phase focuses on learning from experiences
Distinction Between Design and Design Thinking
Design refers to the working mechanism to create functional and practical products, services and experiences. Design thinking, on the other hand, connects the necessities with technologies for innovative solutions.
The design process includes analysis and creativity to bring the desired solution. Design thinking combines logic and reasoning with imagination. Overall, design improves quality, and design thinking assists in the improvement.
Why Design Thinking Skills Matter?
The graphic design college in Shillong values design thinking as it offers a defined process for innovation. It is also trusted to develop new and innovative solutions to have positive outcomes for growth and success. It is also crucial for:
- Improved problem-solving
- Increased adaptability
- Enhanced collaboration
- Fostering innovation
- User-centric solutions
Real-World Examples and Case Studies
1. Apple:
Apple uses design thinking to make amazing products with a great emphasis on the user experience. It makes technology accessible and intuitive for users.
2. Airbnb:
It uses design thinking to better understand the needs and wants of guests, users, and hosts. It addresses the main points with research and prototyping for its global success.
Conclusion
Design thinking fosters innovation and creative problem-solving with its user-centric approach. It empowers businesses to find solutions that are functional, meaningful, and impactful. Design thinking creates solutions that resonate with users to make a lasting and positive impact.
The design course from the B.Des UX design college in Shillong, MIT, prepares students to drive innovation in any field. It equips students with skills to solve complex problems using creativity, empathy, innovation, and collaboration. Choose MIT to transform your problem-solving abilities.