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Design Thinking Online 101 (3-Hour Training)

Design Thinking Model

Office of Service-Learning (OSL) believes in the power of social innovation.  We equip students with tools to integrate research-oriented innovation in the problem-solving process.  Design thinking is one of these tools, a method that teaches students to envision creative solutions to problems and build prototypes to rapidly test out their ideas. 

Introduction

Before learning about the concept of Design Thinking, let's get yourself familiar with the concept and how it works.

Step 1: Empathy

Develop a deep understanding of the challenge.

In this process, you will interview as many people as possible in your community to understand the users, their needs, and the problems that underlie the development of that particular issue. (Take 30 - 45 minutes for this stage)

[GUIDELINE & TIPS DURING AN INTERVIEW]

Step 2: Define

Clearly articulate the problem you want to solve.

In the Define stage, you put together the information you have created and gathered during the Empathy stage. You will analyze your observations and synthesize them in order to define the core problems that you and your team have identified. (Take 30 - 45 minutes for this stage)

[DEFINE DECK]

[HOW MIGHT WE (HMW) STATEMENT]

[EXAMPLE OF HMW]

Step 3: Ideate

Brainstorm potential solutions, select and develop your solutions.

It is time to "think out of the box" to identify new solutions to the problem statement your team has created, and start to look for alternative ways of viewing the problem. Designers often look for a feasible solution, but in this stage, we would suggest you look for a POTENTIAL solution.

Remember to use "YES! And" statement. (Take 20 - 30 minutes for this stage)

[FEASIBLE? POTENTIAL?]

Step 4: Prototype

Design a (series of) prototype(s) to test all or part of your solution.

You and your team will now produce a number of an inexpensive, scaled-down version of the product or specific features found within the product so that you can investigate the problem solutions generated in the previous stage. (Take 30 - 45 minutes for this stage)

[SCENE, PROP, ROLE WORKSHEET]

[HOW TO MAKE A CARDBOARD PROTOTYPE]

Step 5: Test

Engage in a short-cycle testing process to refine and improve your solution.

In this stage, you must test the complete product using the best solutions identified during the prototyping phase. This is the final stage, but in an iterative process, the result generated during the testing phase are often used to redefine one or more problems and inform the understanding of the users, the conditions of use, how people think, behave, and feel, and to empathize. (Take 30 - 45 minutes for this stage)

[TEST EVALUATION SHEET]

[TEST DECK]