#flooid

Lessons I could only learn on the job

It takes a lot to put together a website that’s aesthetic as well as designed to deliver a function effectively. It’s a job for professionals trained especially in the principles of effective interaction and communication design. 

Design thinking: What is it?

Design thinking is a way of seeing anything. It is a lens. An approach. Perhaps, even a philosophy? It doesn’t necessarily have to be a “design-specific” problem.

At the heart of it is a human perspective that asks, What are we solving for? What difference will it make to the human being involved?

Being in the domain of designing user experiences, this specific approach has gained relevance for us. But academics say it has been used even in domains like architecture, engineering, and business for decades now. Which brings me to my next point.

Why is design thinking useful for everyone?

Adopting a multi-pronged approach to thinking is increasingly relevant given that we live, work, play, and interact in a more and more dynamic world where multiple realms intersect.

Our pain points are also dynamic and intersect with other aspects of our lives. This is a small example at the level of an individual.

But the same can be extrapolated to some of the bigger questions having significant consequences in the world today. Businesses, educational institutions, players in the development sector, and governments are all finding new ways to navigate our increasingly global and diversified populations to meet their plural needs.

How can we respond rapidly to crises? How can we predict patterns in climate change with greater accuracy? How can we cater to specific diverse and minority communities while also balancing the bigger eco-systems they exist in?

Imbibing a solutions-based approach that focuses more on the outcome and the specific change required for the humans involved, rather than a problem-based approach that is more focused on removing obstacles, offers solutions that are wider in scope, sustainability, and feasibility.

This is the fine line between ideating to address an issue and solving a problem for the desired outcome from a human point of view. This approach can transform not just design,” but processes, strategies, services, products, and interactions.

How does empathy-based thinking make a difference?

Probably the most important differentiator is that the design thinking process is not linear. Understanding this takes a shift in perspective.

There are five phases in the process, but often times the process may go back and forth with no linear progression: Empathize, Define, innovate, Prototype, and test.

For example, once the problem has been ideated and defined and you begin to prototype a possible solution, be open to the fact that you may stumble on something that will take you back to redefining the problem in a clearer way.

This is not necessarily a regression, but a progression in the design process. An openness to problem-solving rather than moving through obstacles makes this a much more fluid, flexible, and free-flowing process.

Whether thinking for your own business, a client requirement, a personal circumstance, or a social context, Design Thinking encourages creativity and innovation.

It pushes us to think outside the patterns and predictable habits that we are aware of, thereby creating plurality and uniqueness in solutions, and also flexibility in our own attitudes and ways of thinking.