When design thinking comes to mind, folks generally associate it with its namesake — something that is designer-exclusive; something one would expect to learn in a UX design course, for example. However, design thinking encompasses much more than that and is embraced by many industries to find solutions to a wide range of problems. In this article, we will learn more about what design thinking is all about, and why it is an essential, multi-industrial tool.

Design thinking is a work process that requires you to empathise with your users, challenge assumptions, identify problems, and create innovative solutions that you can test before rolling them out. The main objective of design thinking is to find alternate solutions that may not be apparent at first glance with your initial level of understanding. This is perhaps why we often associate design thinking with a UX designer course in Singapore, as a UX designer’s bread and butter is all about studying target users, developing empathy towards their problems, and designing experiences that meet their needs.

Based on the thought process that design thinking follows, it’s easy to see why it’s such an empowering tool for practitioners. Not only does it help them place themselves in the shoes of their users, allowing them to form a more rounded perspective about the problems at hand; it also develops their ability to question problems, assumptions, and implications, whilst giving them opportunities to incorporate unconventional and innovative ideas into their solutions, not unlike creative problem solving.

DESIGN THINKING FOR EVERYONE

Design thinking isn’t just for designers. More often than not, multiple departments are involved when an organisation develops a new project or service, making it difficult to develop, categorise, and organise ideas and solutions for the problems that they’re trying to solve. However, with design thinking, departments are synchronised and everyone can get involved together.

Additionally, design thinking is not just for everyone; it is also about everyone, as it largely revolves around how one can develop and nurture a holistic and empathic understanding of the problems that target users face. It involves looking beyond logic, tapping into ambiguous, intangible elements like emotions, needs, motivations, and drivers of behaviour. On the other hand, a scientific approach reduces problem solving to numbers and data, neglecting the emotional aspect altogether. Design thinking combines intangible factors with rational and analytical research, including researching users’ needs, considering present and future conditions, and testing prototypes to derive data needed to optimise the end product. UX courses in Singapore, or even our very own Design Thinking course, are a good starting point to learn more about what design thinking entails, as the core focus is on the most important stakeholders in any business: clients.

MEETING A MODERN NEED FOR INNOVATION

Regardless of the industry you’re in, design thinking remains an important tool for your organisation. Every industry faces challenges that require innovative solutions; in fact, innovation is arguably the main driving force behind mankind’s ability to evolve and adapt to new challenges. Design thinking basically challenges you to think outside the box and look past self-imposed constraints. The past few years have emphasised our need for innovation as the world copes with major challenges like the Covid-19 pandemic that has crippled businesses that couldn’t adapt to the limitations posed as a result. While a UX design course is one way you can immerse yourself in design thinking and witness first-hand, its importance and relevance across different industries, the truth is that design thinking can and should be practised wherever you are — whether you’re conceptualising a website that maximises traffic and sales conversions, or conceptualising a campaign to get more people engaged in hot-button societal issues. That is why we also have a design thinking course specifically tailored to equip students with critical design thinking capabilities across industries.

Here at Smartcademy, our UX designe course in Singapore, as well as our design thinking course, are carefully curated to instil proper design thinking thought processes needed to connect with their clients and understand them on an intimate level in order to conceptualise and execute groundbreaking interfaces that can help take businesses to the next level. For more information about the programme, please visit our website.