When you hear the words Design Thinking, you might think: "this is only something designers do." However, this couldn't be further from the truth! Design Thinking has been practiced by innovators in nearly every profession. The word "design" in Design Thinking alludes to the fact that a designer's process can help us creatively solve problems using human-centered techniques. Even if you don't think you have a problem you need solving, we recommend you to take a look at Design Thinking. According to the World Economic Forum, creativity, problem-solving, and critical thinking are in the top 5 skills that will increase in demand by 2025 - and you can practice this all through Design Thinking!
We've compiled 6 resources for you to start learning and applying design thinking in your work. So let's get thinking about Design Thinking, shall we?
1. What is Design Thinking and Why Is It So Popular? by Rikke Friis Dam and Teo Yu Siang
This article from Interaction Design Foundation gives you an overview of why Design Thinking ever became popular outside of design classes and how it's being used to innovate products across the world.
2. An Interview With David Kelly
IDEO is a design as a service agency that's been around for decades. In this video, the founder of IDEO, David Kelly speaks about some of his company's innovative designs and the thing that lies at the heart of all of it: user empathy, which means that being attuned with what your users need and how they feel about your designs is key to making things that people actually want.
3. Why Design Thinking Works by Professor Jeanne Liedtka
Need some convincing on why you should be using Design Thinking? This article "Why Design Thinking Works" by Professor Jeanne Liedtka show us how Design Thinking helps us overcome human bias to produce better products.
4. Design Kit by IDEO
Design Kit was Developed by IDEO to give people basic resources to start design processes in their communities. You can use their card set, or go through various methods that are laid out step-by-step on the site!
5. d.school Starter Kit by Standford d.school
Want to try Design Thinking and have the courage to lead a zoom session with your team? Stanford d.school has prepared a slide deck for you to use just for that. You don't need to be an expert in Design Thinking - you just need to be a "lead learner" to facilitate the session.
6. Rolljak
Want to exercise your creativity and practice design skills collaboratively and remotely? Try Rolljak - all of the challenges are gamified, guided, time-based, and easy to use. Rolljak uses design thinking principles in all of the challenges so you can come up with great, wacky, and amazing ideas.
more about how to apply design thinking in your business...
Design Innovation is a unique blend of design thinking, computational thinking, maker culture, and business.