Design thinking

Q: Which projects should you set up a design thinking approach for?

It is important to make clear that this is not a recipe that guarantees success, but rather a working framework. Following the different steps mainly helps to limit the risk of forgetting a whole part of a project. Most UX approaches are carried out in the spirit of this 'design thinking', with longer or shorter periods devoted to each step. All of this depends on the stakes and the constraints specific to each project.

Q: What is the connection between a design sprint and design thinking?

The design sprint offers a condensed version of the design thinking process. In just a few days, the design sprint method promises to deliver very promising results. Feedback from experience mainly points to the quality of the awareness it raises (through experimentation) about the spirit of the user-centred design approach. Which is still an important first step!

UX method

A reference framework for UX projects

Design thinking is an innovation-management method. This thinking framework emerged in 1980 but only became popular in the early 1990s. The rise of the expression design thinking was largely carried by design firms, starting with IDEO (with the d-school) and Tim Brown.

The principle is simple, but it can vary depending on the school of thought. Some present the method in 5 steps, others trim it down to 4 or extend it to 7. The vocabulary and content of these steps can also vary, but the stages remain very similar.

What is design thinking for?

framing innovation projects within an overall approach
surfacing areas for improvement
pinning down the key points that will drive innovation and renewal
reducing production costs
strengthening team cohesion

Why use design thinking?

Why take an interest in design thinking?
to innovate within your sector
to bring teams together around an innovative project
to sequence a project within a reference framework
a heads-up: it's no magic recipe

Empathy

Ideally, you can engage directly with users to gather real, representative data on how they feel. At a minimum, you'll include exchanges with subject-matter experts and the sharing of information sources relevant to the topic.

Problem definition

Based on the previous step, the goal is to identify and prioritise the relevant topics, framed as a problem to solve.

Ideation

Often run as a workshop, this step is about generating possible solutions to discuss and refine with the group.

Design

Building a prototype, a mockup or other storyboards based on the chosen idea, and ideally something that can be tested afterwards.

Evaluation

Confronting the candidate solutions with potential users to gather their feedback and evolve the product or service. The conclusions of the evaluation can become the inputs of a new empathy phase, to progress through iterations.

Though optional, this step lets you have exchanges with target users, usually based on a prototype, even a very partial one. Evaluation and the prototype can take many forms depending on the project context.

Which projects should you set up a design thinking approach for?

How do you evaluate the concepts produced in design thinking?

What is the connection between a design sprint and design thinking?

Related methods

Sketching

Sketching is a technique for creating interfaces as drawings, most often by hand. It is often used in co-design workshops.

User testing

User testing has target users assess the usability of your product or service. Depending on the goals, several approaches exist.

Service design

Service design shapes the whole experience of a service, online and at the counter, beyond its screens. Definition, public sector and examples.

Personas

Personas come out of work on user-profile modelling. They highlight behavioural archetypes that prove useful when designing.

Co-design

Drawing on collective intelligence, these workshops align stakeholders and surface solutions with the team and/or the end users.

Design sprint

The design sprint is a format, not a method, that condenses the design thinking steps into 5 days to tackle a problem as a group.

Prototype

More or less advanced animation of the screens to present a dynamic journey to users and gather feedback.

Qualitative research

Qualitative research explores users' motivations and barriers. It answers the why where quantitative metrics stop at the what.

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