Most people have heard the classic phrase, “It’s about the journey, not the destination.” The same can be said for those who work in the User Experience field. When it comes to the word “design,” most people tend to view the concept of design as an end product rather than a process. In Fast Company’s 2006 article “Design Thinking...What is That?”, the authors address the misidentification of design as an end objective: “...Design in its most effective form is a process, an action, a verb, not a noun...A protocol for solving problems and discovering new opportunities.” The Fast Company article goes on to list the four elements that comprise design thinking; 1. Identifying the problem, 2. Creating multiple possible solutions, 3. Refining one or a few solutions through a series of trials and errors, and 4. Choosing the overall best solution to the problem. All of these elements may lead to the end result but again, are not themselves the end result. These things - identifying, defining, idea-creating, and problem-solving - define the User Experience Design experience. SAP’s User Experience Community takes it a step further. While the technical aspects of User Experience Design require analytical thinking, SAP argues that the type of thought required of designers “builds up” or builds upon ideas rather than “breaks down” ideas. The SAP authors identify the analytical approach as one that “focus(es) on narrowing the design choices, while Design Thinking focuses on going broad, at least during the early stages of the process.” Design Thinkers not only encounter the challenge of putting themselves in the users’ brains to identify both problems and solutions, but the added hurdle of ensuring that their solutions benefit the businesses for whom they work. Designers must wear multiple hats at once - they must be creative, open-minded, empathetic, intelligent, and out-of-the-box thinkers. Innovative as they must be, designers still have a job to do; making the work that goes into fine-tuning products and services worthwhile for a business to invest in. The SAP authors expand on this idea: “Design Thinking has been characterized as a discipline in which the designer’s sensibility and methods match people’s needs, by applying what is technically feasible and by contemplating what a viable business strategy can convert into customer value and market opportunity.” As much as User Experience Design is about the user, it is also about the benefit of businesses. So what is Design Thinking? There’s not just one answer. All the characteristics required of a designer that I’ve listed above are what help define the design process and not only make the usability of a product more user-friendly, but also predict and answer the questions a user and business will have along the way. Sources: Design Thinking...What is That? Retrieved March 20, 2019, from https://www.fastcompany.com/919258/design-thinking-what Introduction to Design Thinking. Retrieved March 20, 2019, from https://experience.sap.com/skillup/introduction-to-design-thinking/
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