Human-centred approach in Design Thinking

There is always a misconception about design, people usually make visual association with graphic and product design. It is traditionally thought to be the last production stage which adds aesthetical value to the products (Schreibman at el., 2018, Unit 1). However, design could be incorporated as a thinking process (Figure 1) throughout a project development. This is an iterative process that involves discover, define, develop and deliver (Schreibman et al., 2018, Unit 3). According to Brown (2008), founder of a global design company, this approach revolutionizes the product, strategy and process development with a human-centred core value. Therefore, it can widely be applied in different disciplines, from engineering to humanities. There are numerous academic writings on Design Thinking that focus on the human-centred approach and how it guides the thinking process. In the next chapters, I will introduce two perspectives by Brown and Wang who examine the role of humans from different angles, and a case study to reflect how to materialize the theories.

Figure 1. A simplified Double Diamond Model to illustrate the iterative design thinking process. (Schreibman et al., 2018, Unit 3)

Innovation in Design Thinking

Brown (2008, p.2) embraces design thinking as a human centric and strategic approach for innovation. Design Thinking has to be taken into consideration before and throughout the development process. The design projects have to go through three stages, inspiration, ideation and implementation (Brown 2008, p.4) (Figure 2). By real-life observations, the design team will come up with a problem as inspiration. Through brainstorming and integrative thinking, which involves experts from multi-disciplines, a prototype will be developed for user feedback. Based on their comments, new problems may arise. This directs the workflow back to the “inspiration” step again, and then they run three stages repeatedly to improvise and innovate. Brown also explains that empathy is a crucial designer trait for innovative ideas as they genuinely listen and reflect from user’s comments. Prototyping and adapting user’s feedback contribute to innovation. Design Thinking investigates the root of the problem and user’s needs from a holistic view, instead of focusing on the product or service itself. Solving the problem from a new and user perspective results in breakthrough and innovation.

Figure 2. The three ideas of design thinking (Brown, IDEO Design Thinking, n.d.)

Aesthetics and ethics in Design Thinking

Brown argues that design thinking goes beyond how the product looks aesthetically. But humans desire aesthetics (2008, p.7). Although Brown does not drill into this aspect, Ge Wang, an Associate Professor of Music and Computer Science, published which explores the role of art in design. He emphasizes that “anything worth designing is worth designing beautifully” (Wang, 2018). He also believes that art shapes our society into “something useful and human” (Schreibman at el., 2018, Unit 2). He used an example of the mobile app Ocarina to illustrate that artful design can shape how users view a product – in this case, they do not feel like playing on an app but a real ocarina. Besides aesthetics, he also stresses that ethics is important in design although this concept is not mentioned in Brown’s arguments.

Design and technologies always go hand in hand, and that design is the “embodied conscience of technology” (Schreibman at el., 2018, Unit 2). Therefore, design influences how people feel, think and act (2018). Good Design Thinking has to be moral as well (Wang, 2008). Similar to Brown, Wang also embraces a multi-disciplinary Design Thinking mindset. Wang comes up with the pi-shaped model for illustration as shown below (Figure 3). The formula shows merely possession of domain and disciplinary expertise is inadequate, moral-ethical and aesthetics are needed to bridge the gap. This is why art, social sciences and humanities are important to engineering fundamentally. As he once said in a talk “To be a good engineer, you have to be a good human being”. Because what we make, in the end, they also shape us (Wang, 2018). Wang believes that aesthetics and ethics are the base of Design Thinking because human values are the fundamental needs that design has to cater. 

Figure 3. Wang’s formulation on pi-shaped model (Wang, 2018)
To understand how Design Thinking is put in practice, below is a real-life example on a sustainable apparel online store that uses the Design Thinking process in their business model.

Materializing the theories - The Knotty Ones

The Knotty Ones is an online store specializes in sustainable knitwear. They hire knitters from Lithuanian. According to Ruta (2019), the owners founded the brand after visiting Bali. The local Indonesian craftmanship inspired them. They were also aware that many women working in the garment factories were being exploited by fast fashion companies, and they use bad quality garment which is harmful to the environment. These symbolize the discover and define stage in the Double Diamond model where they see the problems, and empathy inspires them. Then they started to develop the business by recruiting knitters. Unexpectedly, many young mothers applied, they wanted to be financially independent so they can afford to fulfil their dreams, such as learning English and getting a driving license. At first, they thought old women were more likely to apply and they had already developed the brand narrative based on this assumption. They had to change their marketing strategy. They developed a poetic Dream-fulfilment Fund later and made it a campaign to promote sustainable and responsible consumption. As consumers pay for the product, not only part of the money goes directly to the knitters, consumers can also choose to donate to the knitters additionally as a fund for them to cherish after their dreams. This demonstrates how they develop and implement would have an effect on each other. Their business model also goes in line with Brown and Wang’s theory. The founders noticed different ethical problems, they solved them by prioritizing humans, they created a campaign which is aesthetically and ethically appealing to their consumers in an innovation way.

Reflection

Design Thinking enables us to see problems from different new perspectives through testing and failing. We also have to keep in mind that all designs are for human beings, so we have to always be ethical and aesthetical so that we do not let technologies take over our lives. We, humans, should have the full control in our society.

References

Brown, T. (2008). Design thinking. Harvard business review.

Brown, T. (n.d.). IDEO Design Thinking. Retrieved from: https://designthinking.ideo.com/.

Ruta (April 16, 2019). The Knotty Ones: Making the World a Better Place One Stitch at a Time. Retrieved from: https://www.vilniusplayground.com/vilnius-tips/shops/the-knotty-ones-making-the-world-a-better-place-one-stitch-at-a-time/

Schreibman, S., Papadopoulos, C. & Huang, M. (2018, August 17). IGNITE. Introduction to Design Thinking and Maker Culture. Retrieved from https://clarin.oeaw.ac.at/moodle-dev/course/view.php?id=34&section=0

Wang, G. Artful Design: Technology in Search of the Sublime! (D+G 2019). Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG0RA5BIHEY&t=2080s

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *