Tim Brown is chair of IDEO and he frequently speaks about the value of design thinking. I thoroughly enjoyed scanning through the IDEO website previously and when I came across Tim Brown and his article titled ‘Design Thinking’ I had to read on.
Design Thinking
Tim Brown believes in this approach and IDEO is known for practising it in their work to solve big and small problems. There is no definition to design thinking, it is a method or an idea, but Brown defines it as,
Design thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.—TIM BROWN, EXECUTIVE CHAIR OF IDEO
Basically this approach brings together what is desirable from a human point of view, it also allows people who aren’t designers to use their creative tools to solve and tackle a range of challenges. It is a way to solve problems creatively. Design thinking keeps people at the centre of every process, it is important that I focus on the people I’m designing for. This approach uses creative activities to help designers solve problems in a human centred way and to do this they adopt a ‘Beginners mind’, this means to have an open mind and to not assume anything, which allows designers to be curious, therefore allowing designers to create solutions.
I made some notes and sketches on this approach (below).
Reflection
To think like a designer it requires dreaming up wild and crazy ideas, taking risks and being prepared to fail early and often! From researching this approach I have learned that creative confidence is key to unlock my full designer potential and work as a dynamic problem solver! I will definitely be referring back to this post and this approach whilst designing in the future.