Design Thinking for youth projects
candidate, PhD in Economics
Director of the Center for Technology Transfer and Cluster Development of Northern Arctic
Federal University, Arkhangelsk (Russia)
aleksander.gusakov@gmail.com
“Design thinking” - a methodology that imbues the full spectrum of innovation activities with a human-centered design ethos. By this I mean that innovation is powered by a thorough understanding, through direct observation, of what people want and need in their lives and what they like or dislike about the way particular products are made, packaged, marketed,sold and supported”. [Tim Brown, Design Thinking]
Design Thinking is a structured approach to innovation that leverages multidisciplinary teams, flexible environments and a creative process in order to come up with user
focused products, services or experiences. The Design Thinking Process is a human-centered set of methods and tools that combines approaches found in design and ethnography with technology and business skills. Without constraints design cannot happen. These constraints represent three close tied spheres:
- technology, business and human. Designers use this iterative process to find out about
- people's hidden needs and match those with what is technologically feasible and what is
- viable in terms of business strategy.
Design thinking process consist of the some steps: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test.
Empathy is the foundation of a human-centered design process. To empathize designers should watch what people do and how they interact with their environment. These
observations give them clues about what they think and feel. It also helps them to learn about what they need. By observing people, designers can capture physical manifestations
of their experiences, what they do and say. This allows design thinkers to interpret intangible meaning of those experiences in order to uncover insights. These insights will lead to the innovative solutions. The best solutions come out of the best insights into human behavior. Watching what people do, asking what they feel in this moment - is one of the important distinction of design thinkers from classic marketer. Because new solution should change not only the product - at first it should change the user experience. Do users like this experience? Do they want to repeat it? Important part of Design Thinking process play the steps of rapid prototyping and testing. The aim of this approach is not about finding the one best solution like in classical business analysis - it’s about generating a lot of hypotheses, developing fast prototypes on the base of these hypotheses and testing them in laboratory and with a real customer. Design Thinking can be allied to other practices such as Rapid Development, Lean Startup and Gamification,
swiftly bringing the robust solutions to market. Members of the Design Thinking team play the different roles: designer, engineer, researcher, producer, psychologist etc. Design thinking process is the glue that holds different types of disciplines and points of view together and makes the projects successful.
To be successful in DT participants should have T-profiles. They need to speak different "languages" to ease understanding and allow for varying points of view. The vertical bar of
T-profile shows information about academic studies and professional experiences. Horizontal bar shows competencies and activities that transcend or do not relate directly to
the core professional competencies of team members. One of the very important "horizontal" competence is the skill to hear the partner.
Good space for Design Thinking should has a possibility to accumulate the content of the teamwork process. This content usually consists of photos, drawings, schemes and a lot of color stickers. Other point to organize the teamwork is the focus on mobility and adaptability. Design Thinking schools usually have special designed tables and whiteboards on the wheels. Design Thinking schools usually have special designed tables and whiteboards on the wheels.
First school of Design Thinking - d.school - was established at Stanford University in California (US) in 2005. In 2007 school of design thinking was established at Hasso Plattner
institut in Potsdam (Germany). HPI D-School is Europe’s biggest hub for Design Thinking education. All these photos were made by author in HPI D-School. In the last decade many universities in the World include Design Thinking in the education process. Design Thinking helps to implement the principles of problem oriented education. Students get skills of work in the multidisciplinary team. NArFU and its Center of Technology Transfer and Cluster Development have also some experience in Design Thinking projects. In last years the experts from Moscow and Kiev took part in our seminars and workshops. In 2013 a representative of the university visited Potsdam HPI D-Schol and took part in Family & Friends Day where students presented their projects in Design Thinking. In 2014 we elaborated and implemented the project "Improving the innovative potential of UiT and NArFU with the Design Thinking methodology" with participation of DT Labs from Tromso university. This project consisted of two 3-days workshops - in Arkhangelsk and in Tromso. Twenty students from two universities worked in small multidisciplinary multicultural teams including participants from Norway, Russia, China, Germany and Indonesia. Today we intend to include Design Thinking approach in the education process in the university.
Business uses Design Thinking process and culture to create a culture of innovation in their companies, inspire their staff to new ways of thinking and develop concrete, user-centered products or services. Design Thinking is very productive approach not only for creative industries. Hasso Plattner -founder of SAP- was a sponsor of establishment d.school in Stanford and in HPI. Many people don't associate SAP with creative industries. All of the modern application programs for PC and mobile are the services - B2C, B2B, etc. In this case Service Design is one of the main application sphere for design thinkers. Last years design thinkers work fruitfully on the social projects to develop the new and better social services. There are lots of examples of implementation of Design Thinking in the design for city life.
1. Topic one of the student project in the HPI D-School focused on mobility: ”How might we design an integrated mobility offering for young “digital natives” in Berlin, that meets
their today’s mobility needs?”
2. One of the good example of implementing design thinking principle in the design of the city spaces is the project "(Re)Activating Huizum' implemented by Nijha Experience Center and Jantje Beton Foundation in Leeuwarden (Netherland). Children as main users of these places were involved in the design process. You can see on the photo the amazing zebra crossing that attract children to use it and change their user experience.
3. Russian service design firm Signbox used Design Thinking for development of systems of navigation for large spaces like Tsaritsyno Park (200 ha) and Moscow
Zoo, Moscow (Russia).
I believe that Design Thinking approach should be used in broad range of international projects that concern education and territorial development especially with young
participants.
Photos from website Design-management.ru:
