Week 1 - Reading and Video

During this week, I wasn't enrolled in class. Which means I wasn't able to participate in class activities. I did, however, studied independently at home.

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I watched "The Design Thinking Process".

In the video, we were told that design thinking is a 5-step process for developing meaningful solutions to real life problems for groups of people.

Step 1 [Empathize]: 

We start this step by conducting interviews to understand what people really care about. We listen to personal stories and challenges and repeat this step with other people sharing problems similar to this.

Step 2 [Define the Problem]:

To define the problem, we can study the interviews to understand the actual needs these people are trying to fulfill. We can do that by underlining the verbs - specific keywords - activities, that people mention when talking about their problems. After analysing, we can formulate a problem statement.

Step 3 [Ideate]:

After finding the problem statement, we can start coming up with ideas to solve the problem. This is not to get a perfect solution, but to find as many ideas as we can. Then, we can share our best ideas to get feedback.

Step 4 [Prototype]:

On this step, we'll need to take some time to reflect on how our ideas can fit in the context of people's actual lives. Then, we need to connect the dots, sketch up a final solution, and build a real prototype that's good enough to be tested.

Step 5 [Test]:

Use the prototype in a test with real users. We don't need to be defensive if people don't like our ideas, the point is to learn what works and what didn't. Any feedback is good feedback.

TL:DR, we repeat these steps for every problem we encounter. A solution doesn't have to be a new solution, it could be a combination of old ideas. If our prototype didn't work, then we go back to ideation or prototyping and apply our learning. We repeat the process until we have a prototype that works and solves the real problem.

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I also read "Wicked Problems in Design Thinking" by Richard Buchanan.

In which, Buchanan (1992, p. 13) discusses how design problems are "wicked" - they don't have a definitive formula, there's no 'one' correct solution. Design thinking allows designers to reframe problems.

To help find an idea on how extensively design affects life. Buchanan identifies four areas:

 1. Symbolic and visual communications: This includes communication through typography, advertising, book and magazine production, film, television, computer display, and scientific illustration.

 2. Material objects: This includes clothing, domestic objects, tools, instruments, machinery, and vehicles. This has expanded into an interpretation of physical, psychological, social, and cultural relationship between these products and their users.

 3. Activities and organized services: These are things like management concern for logistic, combining physical resources, instrumentalities, and human beings. This actually evolved to exploring how better design thinking can help achieve an experience that is more meaningful.

 4. Complex systems or environments: This includes system engineering, architecture and urban planning. This area expanded into exploring the role of design in sustaining, developing, and integrating users into broader ecological and cultural environment.

In short, I learnt that every problem is different but interconnected to bigger problems, and that every solution is never the 'final' solution. All solutions depend on the perspective taken on each problems. From this reading, we know that design thinking helps designers explore new problem areas and evolve solutions.

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Reference List

Buchanan, R. (1992). Wicked problems in design thinking. Design issues, 8(2).

Sprouts. (2017) The Design Thinking Process [Online video]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_r0VX-aU_T8(Accessed: 12 March 2025).