Table of Contents
Design Thinking comprises two parts viz. 1) ‘Design The Thinking®’ which literally means shaping the thinking and bringing a change in thought process to think user-centric 2) Thinking the Design OR ‘Design Doing’ which essentially means trying to solve a problem innovatively keeping in mind not only the problem but also the users facing the problem.
‘Design The Thinking®’ & Design Doing
In ‘Design The Thinking®’, the emphasis is on unlearning and staying curious for re-learning. Most of the time, as we grow up our age, we tend to gain a lot of experience and along with it, there is an inherent risk to develop biases and preconceived notions (if a particular kind of experience involving particular people/users gets repeated multiple times). These notions, when validated further and further, tend to form stereotypes about particular kinds of people, specific demographics, peculiar types of situations, etc. When we tend to carry forward such stereotypes (assumptions), while solving problems, it may lead to huge disasters, as we have begun the problem-solving journey making a number of assumptions. In ‘Design The Thinking’, the focus is on developing Empathy with users and cultivating empathy is all about developing a mindset transformation to think ‘user-centric’ and not ‘solution-centric’.
Whereas in ‘Design Doing’, the crux is to apply Design Thinking Tools and Design Thinking processes to solve problems innovatively. Kindly go through this detailed blog where we have shed some light on our ‘5-Step Design Thinking Process©’. Each step of the process is supplemented by the application of Design Tools. However, it is important to note that, Design Thinkers need not apply all the Design Thinking steps OR apply all the tools at each step. The magic lies in contextually applying what is required. This contextual application comes by practice and a lot of experience by ‘Asking the Right Questions’ to solve the correct problem.
Application of Design Thinking – Student-driven activities
Have we ever wondered why Kids/Students are more creative compared to adults? While there are multiple answers, one of the answers revolves around the ability to think from scratch (without any biases and judgments). Whereas adults are shaped by experiences, kids/children don’t carry that baggage with them and thus they are naturally exploratory and inquisitive. Their ‘mindset’ is different and that’s why they begin the problem-solving journey on a different note. In this blog, let’s take a look at some Design Thinking stories from the students’ point of view.
Stories from Design For Change (DFC)
Conceptualized by the Founders of Riverside School in Ahmedabad, India, DFC has designed their own FIDS (Feel-Imagine-Do-Share) method to spark innovation for young minds while tackling some of the community and social/societal problems. They call the FIDS approach, as the Superhero Formula that helps to inspire students and instill confidence in them during their formative years. It was formed in
2009 and since then there have been several such inspiring stories of change.
A couple of them are shared for illustration –
1. A Handful of Rice Project –
A group of students from Sairam Vidyalaya (Puducherry) decided to tackle the problem of hunger, especially for the poor, economically backward, downtrodden, destitute women, orphans and homeless aged people. By applying the FIDS framework, they were able to understand the minor nuances of the problem, arrive at various innovative solutions and importantly test the same on the ground. During the Feel Stage of the problem-solving journey, they were able to arrive at user-centric insights through Empathetic observation, Dialogue with the people facing the problem and importantly Listening to them without any urgency to reach a conclusion (listening only to understand and not to validate).
One of the innovative solutions involved sparing a ‘Handful of Rice’, every day during meals. It’s so practical and easy for everyone to do. To implement the same, a bin is maintained at every house to collect a handful of rice for later, to give it to the needy. The solution was so simple yet inspiring that family members, faculty, teachers from colleges, and people from the neighbourhood chipped in and thus the impact of the project grew bigger. The project was able to impact around 150 people from the locality.
2. Preventing Animal Violence – Students from the Sunbeam School (Babatpur, Uttar Pradesh) decided to tackle the issue of violence against animals by people. Applying the framework, they found that people of the locality lacked empathy towards animals and they considered physical abuse of them as mere enjoyment. While doing the finer work on the problem, they found out that we need to change the mindset of the people while trying to make them empathetic. This has to be done by actually demonstrating rather than merely requesting people to be more kind. So, they decided to give food to stray animals and show the people of the locality what it means to be kind to animals. Therefore, they focused on those areas where animals were not getting food and thus the solution of ‘leading by example’, began. Seeing students do the same, the elders too felt the need to.
3. Making commuting safer – This is the School of Design Thinking’s own success story of the application of a Design tool, by a group of students.
Four faculty members of a reputed Engineering college based out of Chennai participated in one of our flagship Faculty Development Programs on Design Thinking. They decided to take Design Thinking as a value-added course in their curriculum. To inculcate the spirit and nurture the culture of Design Thinking among the students, a first of its kind “Design Thinking Club” was formed in the college.
In order to practically apply their learnings, a group of 17 students worked together on a real-world project to tackle a live road traffic congestion problem at the junction of an arterial road in Chennai that was prone to accidents (both fatal and non-fatal). Applying one critical Design Thinking concept of finding patterns and anti-patterns of traffic movements across various time slots of the day, the group was able to suggest some simple and tactical recommendations to guide the driver, while crossing the junction. They were able to arrive at these insights simply through Observation complemented by Dialogue with lorry drivers, drawing Journey Maps of road movement and junction crossing and importantly brainstorming followed by classifying various ideas. The detailed report was submitted to the Road Traffic Authority of the District.
We would request you to go through the detailed case study here.
4. Enhancing the Waiting Experience for the Shuttle – One of the students from a leading University based out of India underwent our credit course on Design Thinking, and subsequently went to UC Berkeley as part of this Exchange program initiative of the University. There He applied some of the niche Design Thinking tools, for his project, which focused on enhancing the waiting experience for the shuttle, for daily commuters.
One of the critical tools of Design Application involved Persona based Journey mapping that helped his team to arrive at an interactive ‘Smart Stand’ for entertainment along with a ‘Bag Buddy’ to take care of luggage.
An indicative image of the new design of the shuttle.
Sharing the link of the detailed blog here
To conclude, there is a lot to learn from students when it comes to tackling problems. Importantly, the ability to be curious, to think inquisitively and without any judgments is a very important and a fundamental step in the journey of problem-solving.
