Introduction
It doesn't matter if you are an engineer or an artist by profession — everyone has an inner designer within their hearts. Being a designer is far more than just creating intricate logos or visuals for a business or a start-up. It englobes a whole process of creation and complex problem-solving, all centred around the user.
We believe that a simple guide with actionable steps can help out anyone to think like a designer. It all comes down to breaking down complex thoughts into comprehensible steps that anyone can follow and create personal works of art. Design thinking and marketing go hand-in-hand. Writers are unable to create good content for designers without understanding the thought process behind it.
The Principles of Design Thinking
Before breaking down the whole process of design thinking, it is worth having a look at the four principles that all design activity should follow, as described by Christoph Meinel and Harry Leifer, from Hasso-Plattner-Institute of Design at Stanford University, California:
“The human rule: no matter its purpose, all design activity is social in nature. This means that any social innovation will ultimately bring you back to the human-centric point of view.
The ambiguity rule: Meinel and Leifer believe that ambiguity is inevitable and that designers must preserve this ambiguity, by experimenting at the limits of their knowledge and ability, to see things differently.”
The redesign rule: because basic human needs remain unchanged, no matter how much society changes. This means that all new design is, actually, redesigning the way people fulfil these needs.
The tangibility rule: prototypes are a way of making ideas tangible, for designers to communicate them more effectively.
Following these principles, the design thinking process can be broken down into a few different steps: deconstruct, ideate and create.
Why does Design Thinking matter?
Simply following the process of Design Thinking is not enough to deliver quality content. For this, you must understand why Design Thinking is so critical and why this approach brings so many benefits. To begin with, Design Thinking encourages creativity and sparks innovation. Humans rely mostly on knowledge and experiences and, in time, they create patterns to help them solve certain situations. These patterns can limit the way you see things, especially when it comes to problem-solving. Design Thinking helps break those patterns and consider alternative solutions. To some, it often seems like the healthy, neutral ground of problem-solving, as it combines both analytical thinking and science, with intuition and emotions.
Conclusion
Everyone should nurture and practice their design thinking.
Just because there are professionals who work in the graphic design and art industry doesn't mean you don't have anything to contribute.
Many successful freelancers often work in seemingly unrelated niches as a means to pay the bills, only to come back home and design for a living.
Follow this simple guide to design thinking and try to apply it daily — soon you will notice the improvements in your results and will want to pursue the matter further.