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Creative thinking as defined by Alison Doyle is “looking at something in a new way. It is the very definition of ‘thinking outside the box.’” It is a skill that people are born with but that can also be learned and enhanced. Nowadays, it is becoming more important to think creatively in the way a business is run or how to improve the product they sell, in finding new solutions to old problems as well as solutions to problems people do not even know they have. While many people pair the word “creative” with “artistic,” that is not always the correct way to interpret the former. What they should think of is things like “innovative,” “original,” and “problem-solving.” In the design field, it is helpful to be both “creative” and “artistic” but in the end, it is the ability to create something new that will win over users, not the aesthetics of the design. 

One example of someone using creative thinking is Tony Fadell, who had a big hand in the creation of the Apple iPod. Back in 2001, he was part of a team trying to come up with a new way to listen to music. Some of the problems he and his team realized were that CDs had limited space, MP3 players were too slow and had a short battery life. They came up with a product that gave the user the ability to add 1000 songs to their device, they could choose the song they wanted to listen to easily and quickly, and they could carry it in their pocket. Most people see not being able to carry around 1000 songs in their pockets as an inconvenience or unfortunate. Maybe because the technology was new, it might even be unthinkable to be able to carry 1000 songs with you. However, most people did not see that as a problem that needed to be solved. Even still, Steve Jobs, Tony Fadell, and their team saw this as an opportunity to create something that would revolutionize the way people listened to and thought about music.

A second example of creative thinking is the story of Airbnb. Joe Gebbia is one of the co-founders of Airbnb and says that one of the most difficult parts of making their business successful was designing for trust. They needed to create a “well-designed reputation system” which they found was essential for creating a business that is completely based on trusting a stranger in your most private space, your home. Gebbia explains in the TED Talk linked below (35:32) that their mantra while designing the app was “fun and friendly.” To make their business take off they really needed to think outside the box. They expressed this by focusing on things like tone on voice, showing a face whenever they could, the color palette, they even made the comment and message boxes the perfect size for people to give just enough information. These are only a few of the things that they had to be creative about in order to accommodate for a new need they discovered. 

There are two kinds of designers according to Fadell: the ones who come up with innovative ideas whose inspiration is totally unknown, and the ones who have a process that they follow, much like the design thinking process. Training yourself to think creatively, as this latter type, is not as hard as it sounds, but it does take practice. Some tips are to re-conceptualize the problem, get other people’s insight, embrace something absurd, and visually consume as much as you can. The more you see, the more you can be inspired. 

Works cited 

https://www.thebalancecareers.com/creative-thinking-definition-with-examples-2063744

https://www.sparringmind.com/creative-thinking/

     Design thinking is not used exclusively in design firms or artist studios. It is a common use of thinking for people in all sorts of work fields as well as everyday life. Much like the scientific method, design thinking can be used as a way to break down and reassemble a problem. What one does with the end result is up to the person.      To understand design thinking one must first understand design. According to the Dictionary, a design (noun) is defined as, “an outline, sketch, or plan, as of the form and structure of a work of art, an edifice, or a machine to be executed or constructed”. It can also simply be defined as “a plan or project”. Bob Gill gives his definition of design in his book, Graphic Design as a Second Language, and states, “You cannot hold a design in your hand. It is not a thing. It is a process. A system. A way of thinking”. Design is not just a word used to describe the visual art found in posters or billboards. It is the result of problem-solving. Whether the end goal is a poster or a rocket ship, the solution to the problem will be considered as a design.      If a design is a solution to a problem then design thinking is the process of coming up with a design. As stated earlier, design thinking is much like the scientific method. On the Interaction Design Foundation website, they talk about five stages of design thinking being, Empathise, Define (the problem), Ideate, Prototype, and Test. However, unlike the scientific method, there is no order in which to follow. The Interaction Design Foundation explains that “It is important to note that the five stages are not always sequential — they do not have to follow any specific order and they can often occur in parallel and be repeated iteratively.”.      With this in mind, design can be anything from pictures and architecture to spreadsheets and presentations. Design is a good way to organize information. Much like a collage, when using spreadsheets or presentations one must take into consideration the audience that views it. From this, one must design it to be easily understood by the said audience. The same can be said for any item of information. Planning out where and how the information will be perceived is the whole point of design.    Design thinking is the act of planning out how works of art, articles of advertising, architectural blueprints, or simple business presentations are used to convey information. It is the process of coming up with a solution, and it is more common in everyday life than most people think. Design is everywhere, but it is never without the use of design thinking.

“Design.” Dictionary.com, Dictionary.com, www.dictionary.com/browse/design.

Gill, Bob. Graphic Design as a Second Language. Images Publishing Group, 2004.

According to “The design of everyday things” by Don Norman”, human centered design is a design and management framework that develops solutions to problems by involving the human perspective in all steps of the problem-solving process.

Human centered design has been around for hundreds of years. Essentially, It helps people help themselves. Its a creative way to solve problems. It normally starts with people, and ends with an innovative solution that is tailored to someone’s needs. It involves a step by step process. Normally, you need to be able to understand the people you’re trying to reach. This will help you with designing from their perspective, which is very useful. Human centered design is a great example of how you think, and what you can do with the information you’ve thought up. According to a TED TALK by Evan Fried, which i found on the resources tab in my 1302 TRACS page, human centered design technically has 3 steps to it. Inspiration, Ideation, and implementation. The inspiration phase involves learning when possible and opening up your mind to creative ideas and possibilities. As long as you stay true to whoever your designing for and continue to listen in on their perspective, this plan seems pretty much foolproof! All the ideation phase consists of primarily coming up with new ideas, and trying to branch out those ideas to make new NEW ideas. Constantly be trying to design, refine, and branch off. This phase will eventually boil down to crossing out the bad and refining the good. Next, you would go about by building a prototype, which can/will make your idea tangible. It also can give you something to put right back into the hands of the people you’re designing for, just to let them know how your progress is coming! You need their input to visualize and see if your solution is on target.You will need to keep integrating, testing feedback, and more. This will make all the difference in the world. The implementation phase will mostly involve building business partnerships, and implementing and getting your idea/solution out and into the world. Anyone can practice human centered design, and EVERYONE can learn and grow from the outcomes.

“I knew that Sara was just the kind of song you could fall in love with. Because I fell in love with it. It’s one of those songs that I don’t know where it came from and I don’t even like to take complete credit for even writing it. I think it got channeled through me or something, because I do love it so much and I do enjoy singing it so much. And I still walk to the piano and I’ll sit down, you know, here, where I wrote it, and I’ll just be playing Sara, and it’s like it was never recorded. It’s like it is still brand new to me."