Design Thinking

Design Thinking is a human-centred problem-solving methodology that combines empathy for users, creative ideation, and iterative prototyping. Originally popularised by IDEO and Stanford's d.school, it has become the foundation of modern UX design practice.

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What is Design Thinking?

Design Thinking is not a rigid process but a mindset. It encourages teams to:

• Empathise deeply with the people they are designing for
• Challenge assumptions rather than accepting the first solution
• Embrace ambiguity and explore multiple directions before converging
• Prototype rapidly and learn from failures
• Iterate continuously based on real user feedback

Key Insight: Design Thinking shifts the question from "What can we build?" to "What do people actually need?"

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The Five Stages of Design Thinking

The d.school model defines five stages, which are non-linear and often overlap:

Stage	Goal	Key Activities
Empathise	Understand users and their needs	Interviews, observation, immersion, empathy maps
Define	Frame the right problem to solve	Synthesise research, create problem statements, define "How Might We" questions
Ideate	Generate a broad range of solutions	Brainstorming, sketching, mind mapping, Crazy 8s
Prototype	Build quick, tangible representations	Paper prototypes, wireframes, clickable mockups
Test	Validate solutions with real users	Usability testing, A/B testing, feedback sessions

Empathise  -->  Define  -->  Ideate  -->  Prototype  -->  Test
    ^                                                       |
    |_______________________________________________________|

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Stage 1: Empathise

The empathise stage is about setting aside your own assumptions and immersing yourself in the user's world.

Techniques for Building Empathy

Technique	Description	When to Use
User interviews	One-on-one conversations with users	Early research, exploring motivations and pain points
Contextual inquiry	Observing users in their natural environment	Understanding real workflows and workarounds
Empathy maps	Visual framework capturing what users say, think, feel, and do	Synthesising interview data
Journey mapping	Plotting the user's experience over time	Identifying pain points and opportunities
Diary studies	Users record their experiences over days or weeks	Long-term behaviour patterns

Tip: The best empathy work happens face-to-face. Remote research is useful but does not replace direct observation.

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Stage 2: Define

The define stage transforms raw research data into actionable insights.

Problem Statements

A well-formed problem statement follows this format:

[User persona] needs a way to [user need] because [insight from research].

Example: "Young parents need a way to find trusted babysitters quickly because they often face last-minute childcare needs and current options require extensive searching."

"How Might We" (HMW) Questions

HMW questions reframe problems as opportunities for design:

• How might we make the babysitter search feel effortless?
• How might we build trust between parents and babysitters before the first booking?
• How might we help parents find available babysitters within minutes?

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Stage 3: Ideate

Ideation is about quantity over quality. The goal is to generate as many ideas as possible before narrowing down.

Ideation Techniques