What is design thinking and how does it enhance UX design?

When faced with a complex problem, you need a powerful problem-solving strategy. You can’t just start churning out random solutions, hoping one hits the mark. You must first understand and define the problem before attempting to generate solutions. This is what design thinking is all about.

Design thinking is an iterative process that teams use to deeply understand users, challenge assumptions, define problems, and create solutions. Through its five phases — empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test — UX designers can create user-centered and innovative solutions.

But what does each phase of design thinking involve? How can this approach enhance user experience? Read on to get answers to these questions and more.

Stages of design thinking

1. Empathize: Understanding user needs and emotions

To effectively solve a problem, you need to understand it. The empathize phase involves observing, engaging with, and interviewing users to learn about their behaviors, needs, and pain points. This initial step lays the groundwork for developing a truly user-centered solution.

Some research methods, such as user interviews, surveys, and ethnographic studies, can provide valuable insights that inform the next steps.

2. Define: Identifying the problem

After gathering user insights, the next step is to define the problem. This second phase involves organizing the data collected and identifying patterns to help pinpoint the key user problems.

By the end of the define phase, you should have a well-defined problem statement. A good problem statement is user-focused; it clearly defines the problem, who it affects, and the desired outcome.

3. Ideate: Challenging assumptions and generating ideas

Once you’ve defined the problem, it’s time for the creative juices to start flowing. In the ideation phase, designers brainstorm several possible solutions, thinking beyond the obvious answers. Collaboration is crucial in this phase as it brings together multiple perspectives and encourages fresh thinking.

Techniques like mind mapping, storyboarding, crazy 8s, worst possible ideas, and brainstorming can help generate innovative ideas.

4. Prototype: Designing the solutions

The prototype phase is where the ideas come to life. In this phase, the design team creates inexpensive, scaled-down versions of the product or feature to help identify the best possible solutions to the problems identified. The goal is to turn ideas into a tangible solution that can be tested before committing to a final product.

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Prototypes can be anything from simple hand-drawn wireframes to interactive digital models.

5. Test: Refining the solutions through user feedback

Once the prototypes are ready, it’s time to check if they solve the problem. The testing phase involves presenting the design solutions to users and observing how they interact with the product. Designers collect user feedback, noting any flaws or issues they encounter. The feedback is then used to refine and improve the design.

The non-linear nature of design thinking

Looking at how the design thinking phases are outlined sequentially, it’s easy to think it’s a linear process. But make no mistakes. The process doesn’t necessarily follow a linear pattern. In practice, the steps can overlap, repeat, or be revisited at any point.

For example, you might uncover a flaw in your original problem statement after testing a prototype. This could lead you to revisit the define phase to better clarify the problem before trying to find new solutions.

This non-linear, iterative nature of design thinking is one of its biggest strengths, and it has numerous benefits, including:

• Continuous improvement — As teams can revisit and refine ideas at any stage of the process, they continuously learn and improve
• User-centricity — The resulting solutions are not based on mere assumptions but are firmly rooted in real-world insights and proper user testing
• Innovation — As design thinking encourages collaboration and diverse perspectives during ideation, it can produce a wide range of creative, even unexpected, ideas
• Adaptability — The iterative nature of design thinking allows designers to adapt to unprecedented circumstances, such as unexpected user feedback or technological advancements

These are just a few ways design thinking can lead to better solutions.

At this point, you should have a solid grasp of what design thinking is in theory. But to truly understand this concept, you’ll need to see what it looks like in practice. How have successful companies used design thinking to enhance user experience?

The following case studies will give you a clear picture.

Case studies: Design thinking in action

How GE Healthcare transformed experiences through empathy

GE Healthcare’s diagnostic imaging experience redesign is a notable example of the transformative power of design thinking.

When Doug Dietz, an industrial designer at GE Healthcare, saw a little girl crying on her way to a scanner he designed, he began to see the situation through the girl’s eyes. He noticed how the darkness of the room, the flickering fluorescent light, and even the machine’s design could trigger feelings of anxiety.

This begged the question, “What can we do around our diagnostic equipment to make it friendlier for the family and young patients?”

And here’s where design thinking came into play.

Doug Dietz started by observing and gaining empathy for young children at a daycare center. He also spoke to childhood experts to better understand the pain points of pediatric patients. Armed with research data, his team sketched out several ideas and ultimately created their prototype of what would later become the “Adventure Series” scanner. The scanner was installed as part of a trial program at Pittsburg Children’s Hospital.

The result?

The redesign cut the percentage of children needing sedation before a scan from a staggering 80% to less than 1%. In fact, children who once dreaded the experience were asking their parents if they could come back. This reduced need for anesthesiologists led to a higher patient turnover and lower costs.

How Bank of America used design thinking to increase bank account signups

Another worthy example of the power of design thinking is the “Keep the Change” program by Bank of America.

In 2004, Bank of America hired design agency IDEO to help increase new customer signups. Although the problem lacked any human perspective, they wanted a human-centered approach.

Here’s how they used design thinking to solve the problem.

A research team of five Bank of America employees and four agency designers conducted interviews and observed families across Atlanta, Baltimore, and San Francisco. Their research uncovered these interesting insights:

• Mothers were in charge of managing finances in many families.
• To keep track of their spending, they kept checkbook registries.
• One mother rounded up numbers in her checkbook to simplify calculations and add an extra buffer at the end of each month.
• Mothers struggled to save, either due to limited funds or impulse spending.

Based on these insights, a team of product managers, finance experts, software engineers, and operation experts held 20 brainstorming sessions. These sessions produced 80 product concepts. Ultimately, the team favored the “Keep the Change” program. “Keep the Change” is a service that automatically rounds up debit card purchases to the nearest dollar, transferring the extra cents to a savings account.

The team created a cartoon video displaying the rounding-up service and tested it in an online survey with 1600 participants. The response was highly positive, and the service was approved.

Bank of America: Keep the Change

Online annual report: Keep the Change For Seattle video production services, please visit us at http://www.creativemediaalliance.com

The result?

Within three months of launching the “Keep the Change” program, it had attracted more than one million customers. Even more impressive, over 20% of these customers were new to the bank.

Key insights for UX designers

Complex user problems call for a powerful strategy like design thinking. Even when the problem isn’t clear, design thinking can help you discover the issue and find the right design solution.

Let’s zoom in on the case studies for a moment, shall we?

The Bank of America team spotted a problem no one even knew existed, and this led to a solution that people truly needed. While in the case of GE Healthcare, they used design thinking to solve an obvious design problem. These case studies show how effective design thinking can be when it comes to solving user problems.

As a UX designer, you can leverage this powerful problem-solving strategy to create products that truly meet user needs. Just as the case studies illustrate, use the five phases of design thinking — empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test — as a guide, but stay open to revisiting them when necessary.

The main perk of using this strategy is that you’ll create innovative products or features that truly address the problems they’re designed for.