Design thinking is perceived to be an ability that usually comes as a natural entity embedded within the minds of all designers. This is a gross misconception that has been wrongfully projected in the mainstream think tanks, who have zero knowledge regarding the designing process’s essence. In fact, innovation is not a skill that is conceived naturally. It requires strategy, brainstorming, and a long period of experience before it can be mastered efficiently. Innovation blossoms substantially with designers’ commitment to engage with one another productively and strive to assist people with a holistic thought process. To garner the best results. Both the designer and the client have to cooperate diligently and work to invest their focus on elements that they can exert control over.
The amalgamation of the designer’s talent and the client’s excellent taste will facilitate the development of the designs; however, it is necessary that they maintain full control over their design throughout this collaboration. Usually, this client-designer collaboration occurs through the clients seeking support from an unlimited graphic design service where the designers have the expertise and the tools in place to execute their designs through their design thinking. We will elaborate on how you can use design thinking to your advantage and implement it without even being conscious about its enforcement.
Phases of Design Thinking Process
The design thinking process consists of dependable stages that need to be adhered to throughout the project creation duration. You can utilize these steps and perceive them more as guidelines than strict instructions. The execution of any specific step does not necessarily need to be precise or accurate. It only needs to be thorough enough for implementation. If you miss out on any stage and have not observed them effectively, you can always repeat them with zero time to waste.
Empathize (Design Thinking)
Empathy is an emotion where one person can relate to the feelings of another. For a designer, this empathy needs to be established with his capacity to understand, observe and analyze his clients. The target audience is customarily deconstructed collectively, but a particular customer will view the designer as the mediator between the customer and his grievances. The designer will recognize the client’s emotions with due diligence and work to remove any areas of the visuals that are deemed unnecessary by him.
This does raise the question of how a designer can thoroughly get an insight into his target demographic. This is usually done with observations through A/B testing and recorded user trials. The best user testing method is when the user has no idea he is being trialed with, which produces exceptional results.
Once the designer has done his due diligence in observing his audience, the next step is to interpret what the client feels upon viewing the visuals. The best way to conduct empathy is to remain unbiased and become devoid of preconceived notions when analyzing the respective customer. US Designers have made it their agenda to dispatch user personas to recognize the customer as real human beings who breathe and see the same things they do. Taking this into context generally has been beneficial to all designers.
Define (Design Thinking)
This phase mainly refers to the design thinking process, which solves real problems for actual people. In order to maintain a human-centric mind frame, designers need to get insight from customers of their complaints, issues, and grievances with the design and formulate it into a concise and succinct problem statement. This gives designers an incentive to strive for and identify areas where they can find success and avoid potential failures.
That said, defining a problem can become a problem in its way. Users experience deterrence which is rather complicated and co-occur at a more considered pace. Designers must take it upon themselves to discover these problematic symptoms and identify their causes for future solutions. The trick is to routinely question yourself why? Why does this design present a problem, and why is it not effective? A problem statement will give you a head start determining the problem and address its current realities for future usage. While the problem statement needs to be accurate and eloquently expressed, it also needs to be one where you can take action. While the designers can develop new ways to address these problems, they still need to ensure that they do not get tempted by solution biases. It is attractive to begin initiating the first ideas that emanate from your mind; however, enforcing them prematurely will weaken the understanding of the problem and potentially create new problems.
Ideation (Design Thinking)
Ideation is the step where you or your designer team will create solutions pertaining to the problem statement. You need to invest your time in coming up with as many solution ideas as possible. Don’t settle for just one. You can entertain both imaginative and unimaginative ideas depending on your preference. No matter if they are workable or not, you need to document them throughout the process. Typically, brainstorming, sketching, and role-playing is tools that enable designers to form their respective ideas. You can also receive constructive ideas from customers through their social media network or other forums. Please encourage them to participate in this process. Once you have a list of concrete ideas at your disposal, you need to classify their effectiveness separately.
Prototype (Design Thinking)
A prototype is the test model of the final product. It operates as an entity where the customer is encouraged to experience the prototype and give his reviews for further modifications. It is feasible to create multiple prototypes and expand your options so you can determine which models carry the most weight.
Prototypes are an essential aspect of the design thinking process as they give you an opening to escape from wasting resources and finances on the final product that may not have the desired effect. You can use pens, paper, or software to construct your prototype just so long as it accurately portrays your product’s mechanism.
Testing (Design Thinking)
Testing is the phase where you will introduce your prototype and allow them to evaluate. This will pave the way for you to discern the problems associated with the final product and remove or alter them. You can then proceed to materialize your final product and test it out again to generate sales. Feedback is the fundamental advantage that can help you determine how the final product will perform to a larger audience.
The design thinking process is obligatory for businesses that want to avoid a potential setback and become vulnerable to the backlash. Many unlimited graphic design agencies have taken note of the importance of design thinking and have adopted its phases within their operations to lubricate the process. Some of the best graphic design services have succeeded in creating the final products that impact their target audience. Designing is a resource and time-consuming process, which is why you have the most to lose if the final product does not come out the way you anticipated. Creating a prototype is a sure way to avoid any hassle that could hinder its impact. Avoiding this process will render you in a compromised position.