As we went through the course we were given a glimpse into what Design Thinking really means and from my personal perspective it has a great focus on the relationship between design, creativity and innovation within a business context.
"the methods and processes for investigating ill-defined problems acquiring information, analysing knowledge, and positing solutions in the design and planning"
To thoroughly explore this relationship several tools are used including empathy developing, insight gathering, brainstorming, creative ideation and basic idea
prototyping.
What really popped out about these ideas was how contemporary Design Thinking is and how it is versatile and can be applied to varying solutions through relatively simple processes.
We then briefly went through the learning outcomes for this paper;
1. Explain the fundamental principles of design.
2. Explain the fundamental principles of design thinking including cognitive
processes, human-centred research, collaboration, creativity and integration.
4. Undertake basic design thinking project to drive the creation and implementation
new ideas.
3. Identify and analyse the key steps in the design thinking process including insight
gathering and analysis, brainstorming,ideation and implementation.
5. Communicate ideas effectively and creatively using basic visual tools.
6. Analyse the impact of design thinking on contemporary business practices to drive
ideas, to improve user/customer experience and help create business competitiveness.
We then briefly went over the IDEO Design Thinking Model that worked through six stages;
1. Understand
2. Observe
3. Point of View
4. Ideate
5. Prototype
6. Test
Then we had a look at the AUT model we would be following for our problem solving
Another idea that struck me was that Design Thinking was incredibly human focused, not only about there products, graphics, buildings and services but there individual human experiences.
After this process we were all asked to make collages that represented ideas regarding solutions to life as a student at AUT. My collage was about food and had a large McDonalds insignia so I was grouped together with people who largely used symbols in there group.
After that we were asked to brainstorm general assumptions we had made about University.