Module -1

Importance of Innovation
Design-led companies such as Apple, Pepsi, Procter & Gamble and SAP have outperformed
the S&P 500 by an extraordinary 211%. This topic highlights the distinctions between design
and design thinking and how the latter, if executed properly and strategically, can impact
business outcomes and result in real competitive advantages. 

When design principles are applied to strategy and innovation, the success rate for innovation
dramatically improves. Design-led companies such as Apple, Pepsi, IBM, Nike, Procter &
Gamble, and SAP have outperformed the S&P 500 over a 10-year period by an extraordinary
211% according to the 2015 Design Value Index created by the Design Management Institute
and Motive Strategies.

Designing is more than creating products and services; it can be applied to systems,
procedures, protocols, and customer experiences.

What is Design?
 Design: plan of a system, its implementation and utilization for attaining a goal
(change undesired to desired)
 Designing: How a design is developed (Both Goal and Plan)
 Designs can be for: Technical systems, Educational systems, aesthetic systems (logo
design, advertisements), legal systems, social, religious or cultural systems, theories,
Models etc.
Designs inspired by nature

Design Vs Engineering Design

 Engineering is the practical endeavour in which the tools of mathematics and science
are applied to develop cost effective solutions to the logical problems facing society.
 Engineers design many of the consumer products that needed in everyday life.
 Engineering is all about making useful things that work and impact lives
 The word “Engineering” derives from the Latin root ingeniere, meaning to design or
to devise, which also forms the basis of the word “ingenious
 Engineering is essentially a bridge between scientific discovery and product
applications
 Engineers apply their knowledge of mathematics, science, and materials— as well as
their skills in communications and business—to develop new and better technologies
 Engineers combine their skills in mathematics, science, computers, and hardware
Design to Design thinking

Direct Design
➢ Design or making, has been classically understood to be a process of turning ideas into
things
➢ In this design process there is a vision or an idea, it can be figured out by some drawings
work with fabrications of crafts and if everything worked out right then it be materialized.
➢ So, there is a direct correspondence between ideas, drawings, and finished products. This
design process called as Direct Design
➢ This is what most people understand design to be, and what they understand designers to
do that they turn their creative ideas into things.

Responsive design
➢Responsive design is just that it begins in a considered response of the world rather than an
idea comes from designers.
➢ Responsive design at its best shifted the focus of design way from the narrow idea of
designers and design as being focused on independently making beautiful things.
➢ Design now become about all the interactive processes needed to make anything come
into being. Responsive design came in many from environmental design to human centered
design

Design thinking
In responsive design the most popular form is “Design thinking”
➢ “Design thinking is simply a form of human centered responsive design broad name
“Design Thinking”
➢ The simplest way to understand how responsive design transforms direct design is to see
that it adds a new critical step prior to beginning of direct design called Consultation.
Responsive design does not replace direct design so much subsumes it.
➢ During consultation the design thinking variants of design asks: what are up to? What are
the problems? Then the phase of ideation becomes collective: brain storming, group
improvisation and other collaboration exercise are added to mix.
➢ Then response design works as iterative loop. This loop is significant because it allows the
object to evolve through testing and use and not come out of designers thought.
➢ Response design has had an enormous impact for good. Environmentally centered design
is of great value as is user centered design
➢ A huge part of design thinking appeals that it claims to be an exceptional source of
innovation
Definitions of Design Thinking:

Design thinking is a human- centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s
toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements
for business success
or
An approach that frames problems creatively and generates innovative solutions, strategies,
systems and paradigms at the nexus of domain
or
Design thinking is a human centered innovation process that emphasizes observations,
collaboration, fast learning, visualization and rough prototyping. The objective is to solve not
only the stated problems at hand, but the real problems behind the obvious
or
Design thinking can be described as a discipline that uses the designer’s sensibility and
methods to match peoples’ needs with what is technologically feasible and what a viable
business strategy can convert into customer value and market opportunity
A design mind-set is not problem-focused, it’s solution-focused and action-oriented. It
involves both analysis and imagination. 

Features of design thinking:

Design thinking provides multi-dimensional solutions to the problems.
Features are:
• Finding simplicity in complexities
• Having a beautiful and aesthetically appearing products
• Improving clients and end users quality of experience
• Creating innovative, feasible and viable solution to real world problems.
Use of design thinking:
The basic principle of design thinking is that innovation can be disciplined

Design thinking helps to learn the following

• How to optimize the ability to innovate
• How to develop a variety of concepts, products, services, processes etc for end-users.
• How to leverage the diverse ideas of innovation
• How to convert useful data , individual insights and vague ideas into feasible reality
• How to connect with the customers and end-users by targeting their actual requirements.
• How to use the different tools used by designers in their profession for solving customers
problems

Stanford D.school – Design Thinking model

The Stanford D.school, more formally called the Hasso Plattner institute of design at
Stanford, is an academic collaboration between Hasso Plattner institute in Potsdam, Germany
and Stanford University in Stanford, California. The Stanford d. school was one of the first
D.schools or design schools formed around design –thinking approaches to design. In 2004,
business consultants Hasso Plattner and David Kelley developed a model that would change
the way engineers and designers, and eventually educators, business executives, and social
entrepreneurs around the country solved problems — specifically human problems. The
 below steps can be employed for Design Thinking. It is an iterative system with many
variations. However, stand ford’s D.school teaches a framework that can help to start the
process for almost any problem

The design thinking framework: five key steps (some time referred as 6 steps)

The design thinking framework can be divided into three distinct phases: immersion,
ideation, and implementation. This framework can be further broken down into five
actionable steps which make up the design thinking process:

1. Empathize
2. Define
3. Ideate
4. Prototype
5. Test
6. Implement
Although these steps appear to be sequential, it’s important to point out that design thinking
doesn’t follow a strictly linear process. At each stage in the process, you’re likely to make
new discoveries that require you to go back and repeat a previous step.

Step 1. Empathize
 What? During the empathize phase, you’ll engage with and observe your target audience.
 Why? The aim of this step is to paint a clear picture of who your end users are, what
challenges they face, and what needs and expectations must be met.
 How? In order to build user empathy, you’ll conduct surveys, interviews, and observation
sessions.
 For example: You want to address the issue of employee retention, so you ask each
employee to complete an anonymous survey. You then hold user interviews with as many
employees as possible to find out how they feel about retention within the company.

Step 2. Define
 What? Based on what you’ve learned in the empathize phase, the next step is to define a
clear problem statement.
 Why? Your problem statement sets out the specific challenge you will address. It will
guide the entire design process from here on out, giving you a fixed goal to focus on and
helping to keep the user in mind at all times.
 How? When framing your problem statement, you’ll focus on the user’s needs rather than
those of the business. A good problem statement is human-centered, broad enough for
creativity, yet specific enough to provide guidance and direction.
 For example: “My employees need to be able to maintain a healthy lifestyle while working
in the office” is much more user-centric than “I need to keep my employees healthy and
happy in order to boost retention.”

Step 3. Ideate
 What? With a clear problem statement in mind, you’ll now aim to come up with as many
ideas and potential solutions as possible.
 Why? The ideation phase gets you thinking outside the box and exploring new angles. By
focusing on quantity of ideas rather than quality, you’re more likely to free your mind and
stumble upon innovation!
 How? During dedicated ideation sessions, you’ll use a range of different ideation
techniques such as body storming, reverse thinking, and worst possible idea.
 For example: Based on what you’ve learned in the empathize phase, you hold several
ideation sessions with a variety of different stakeholders. With your problem statement to
hand, you come up with as many ideas as possible for how you might make your employees
happier and thus more likely to stay with the company.

Step 4. Prototype
o What? Having narrowed your ideas down to a select few, you’ll now turn them into
prototypes—or “scaled-down” versions of the product or concept you want to test.
o Why? The prototyping stage gives you something tangible that can be tested on real users.
This is crucial in maintaining a user-centric approach.
o How? Depending on what you’re testing, prototypes can take various forms—from basic
paper models to interactive, digital prototypes. When creating your prototypes, have a clear
goal in mind; know exactly what you want your prototype to represent and therefore test.
o For example: During the ideation phase, one idea that came up was to offer free yoga
classes. To prototype this idea, you set up a dedicated yoga room in the office, complete
with mats, water bottles, and hand towels.
 Step 5. Test
 What? The fifth step in the design thinking process will see you testing your prototypes on real or
representative users.
 Why? The testing phase enables you to see where your prototype works well and where it
needs improving. Based on user feedback, you can make changes and improvements before
you spend time and money developing and/or implementing your solution.
 How? You’ll run user testing sessions where you observe your target users as they interact
with your prototype. You may also gather verbal feedback. With everything you learn from
the testing phase, you’ll make changes to your design or come up with a completely new
idea altogether!

6 Implement
Work at the previous five stages should pay off here, as your launch product or service has
been optimised to meet the needs of your user audience. However, it is still important to
measure and track its success in the market as other factors come into force. Continually
looking for ways to improve or evolve the user experience will prolong the lifespan of your
solution, and ultimately the business.
 The Implement stage is often forgotten by Design Thinking models that only include the five
stages from Empathise to Test.
Following these steps is important to:
• determine whether the implemented design is successful and offers a competitive advantage
for the business
• stay aware of any changes to the user audience, user needs and best practice which may
require the design and user experience to be re-visited
• maintain stakeholder awareness of the importance of user experience, in order to keep
human-centred design at the core of the business.

Applications of Design Thinking

 For example: You decide to test the yoga idea for two months to see how employees
respond. You find that people enjoy the yoga classes, but are put off by the fact that they
are in the middle of the day and there is nowhere to shower. Based on this feedback, you
decide to move the yoga classes to the evening .

❖ Business:
➢ Design thinking helps in business by optimizing the process of product creation,
marketing, and renewal of contracts.
➢ All these processes require a companywide focus on the customers and hence, design
thinking helps in these processes immensely.
➢ Design thinking helps the design thinkers to develop deep empathy for their customers and
to create solutions that mach their needs exactly.
❖ Information technology:
➢ The IT industry makes a lot of products that require trials and proof of concepts.
➢ The industry needs to empathize with its users and not simply deploy technologies.
➢ IT is not only about technology or products, but also it is process.
➢ The developers, analysts, consultants, and managers have to brain storms on possible ideas
for solving the problems of the clients. This is where design thinking helps a lot.
❖ Education:
➢ The education sector can make the best use of design thinking by taking feedback from
students on their requirements, goals and challenges they are facing in the classroom.
➢ By working on their feedback, the instructors come up with solutions to address their
challenges.
❖ Health care:
➢ Design thinking helps in health care as well as the expenditure on healthcare. The cost of
healthcare facilities is growing day by day.
➢ Experts worldwide are concerned about how to bring quality healthcare to people at low
cost
➢ Using design thinking, the efficiencies in the system and the perennial crises were
addressed

Empathy in design thinking

Role of Empathy in design thinking:
➢ As the starting point of the design process, Empathy allows a designer to understand the
people who will eventually use their product or service
➢ Empathy is a core value of design thinking .it is also the first step in the design thinking
process.
➢ Empathy, draws attention to the abilities of researchers and designers to see the world
through other people’s eyes, feel what they feel, and experience things as they do
➢ Empathy allows a designer to understand the user’s physical and emotional needs.
➢ The Oxford Dictionary defines Empathy as “the ability to understand and share the feeling
of another”.
➢ Empathy is the first step in design thinking because it is a skill that allows us to
understand and share the same feelings that others feel. Through empathy, designers are able
to put ourselves in other people's shoes and connect with how they might be feeling about
their problem, circumstance, or situation
Some questions to consider:
• What is the person feeling?
• What actions or words indicate this feeling?
• Can you identify their feelings through words?
• What words would you use to describe their feelings?
➢ Empathy is the cornerstone of any successful design project. The extent to which you
understand and empathize with your users ultimately determines the outcome of your design
➢ This means observing and engaging with people in order to understand them on a
psychological and emotional level. During this phase, the designer seeks to set aside their
assumptions and gather real insights about the user.
➢ Design Thinking cannot begin without a deeper understanding of the people that designers
are designing for. In order to gain those insights, it is important for designer as a design
thinker to empathize with the people you
are designing for so that you can understand their needs, thoughts, emotions and motivations
➢ Finally, empathy shows a designer how users think about the world and what is
meaningful to users.

Why Empathy is so important?

➢ In a social context, empathy is often what drives us to take action
➢ If we see people suffering or struggling, and we are able to empathize with their situation,
we are compelled to help relieve them in some way.
➢ Designers need to build empathy for their users in order to take the right course of action
➢ It’s important to understand how the user feels when interacting with a
certain product or interface; does the layout of this website evoke feelings of frustration?
➢ In building empathy, designers can create products which truly please the user and make
their lives easier
➢ Without this empathy, the design process lacks that all-important user centricity which
often marks the distinction between product success and failure.

Where does empathy fit into the Design Thinking process?

➢ During the empathize phase, the designer spends time getting to know the user and
understanding their needs, wants, and objectives
➢ Empathize phase requires you to set aside your assumptions. It’s human nature to assume
that others will think and feel the same as you in particular situations, but of course this isn’t
always the case.
➢ the first step in empathizing with your users is to suspend your own view of the world
around you in order to truly see it through your users’ eyes
➢ When it comes to Design Thinking and Human –Centered Design it’s time to stop
guessing and start gathering real insights about the user!

What is empathic design?

➢ One of the main objectives of empathize stage is to identify user needs and behaviors that
are latent, or unarticulated.
➢ As a designer, it’s important to distinguish between what people say they would do in a
certain situation, and what they actually do
➢ In reality, users may have habits or desires that they’re not aware of, so it’s essential for
the designer to observe the user in action
➢ Empathic research and design is not concerned with facts about the user, such as their age
or location. Rather, it focuses on their feelings towards a product and their motivations in
certain situations.
➢ Why do they behave in a certain way? Why do they prefer to do this instead of that? Why
do they click here rather than there when presented with a particular screen or page?
➢ These are the kinds of insights you will uncover during empathize phase, and they will
help you to create user experiences that cater to your audience.

Methods and tools of empathy:

1. Constant Curiosity: Ask What-how-why
2. Ask the 5 whys
3. Conduct interviews with Empathy
4. Build Empathy with Analogies
5. Use photo and video user-based studies
6. Use personal photo and video journals
7. Engage with extreme users
8. Story share-and -capture
9. Journey maps
10. Empathy Maps
11. Golden Circle Design
12. Mind Mapping
13. Body storm
14. Immersion and observation
15. Survey forms

What is a customer journey map?

A journey map provides a holistic and graphical overview of the various touch points a
customer has with a product or service. It pinpoints potential user experience, security and
reliability issues; in addition to identifying the factors at each touch point that may lead to a
positive or negative experience. Journey maps help to minimize the odds of these issues
occurring during design. They help software designers and their clients understand their
user’s experience at each step along the process and shift focus from operations to the user
and explain the emotions behind each one of the actions they take.

What value do customer journey maps provide?

Customer journey maps often expose pain points and opportunities for improvement in many
other areas along the entire user journey – not just as it relates to software applications, but
the process and overall customer service issues as well.
They spark discussions to help close knowledge gaps and provide a point of reference to help
fill in information that may be missing in the process. They also help inform valuable design
decisions and can act as a catalyst for idea sharing and generation between teams and clients.
The benefits of customer journey mapping include:

 Identifying where customers interact with your business

 Determining whether the customer journey is logical
 Identifying and focusing on different needs at various stages of the buying funnel
 Revealing gaps between the desired customer experience and the real customer
experience
 Allowing businesses to allocate expenditure on development priorities that matter
most

Characteristics of Journey Map

• It is used for understanding and addressing customer needs and pain points
• Journey mapping starts by compiling a series of user goals and actions into a timeline
skeleton.
• The skeleton is fleshed out with user thoughts and emotions to create a narrative.
• Then the narrative is condensed into a visualization used to communicate insights that will
inform Design Processes.
• It could either be constructed based observations and interviews with end users or it could
be something ask the customer to draw out and explained.
• Each journey map should contain the journey that a customer goes through and could be
either closely relevant or even tangential to the focus of the design project
• A customer journey map can help to build empathy towards the users as designers try to
experience what they go through
• When Designers compare journeys between customers or end-users, they will also find
common threads of find conflicting behaviours which will provide greater insights into user’s
needs, wants and motivations.
• Journey Mapping combines two powerful instruments: storytelling and Visualization.
• Storytelling and visualization are essential facets of journey mapping because they are
effective mechanisms for conveying information in a way that is memorable, concise and that
creates a shared vision.
Why Use Journey Map:
• To pinpoint specific customer journey touch points that cause pain or delight
• To break down into parts that shared, organization-wide understanding of the customer
journey
• To assign ownership of key touch points in the journey to internal departments.
Key Elements of Customer Journey Maps:
While journey maps can (and should) take a wide variety of forms, certain elements are
generally included:
• First and foremost, choose the “actor” of the story. Who is this journey
map about?
Point of view • Actors” usually aligns with personas if they exist
• For example, a university might choose either students or faculty
members, both of which would result in very different journeys
• Determine the specific experience to map
• This could be an existing journey, where mapping will uncover positive
Scenario and negative moments within that current experience, or a “to-be”
experience, where the mapper is designing a journey for a product or
service that does not exist yet
• At the heart of a journey map’s narrative is what the
Actions,
user is doing, thinking, and feeling during the journey.
mind-sets,
• These data points should be based on qualitative research, such as field
and emotions
studies, contextual inquiry, and diary studies
• The map should align touch points (times when the
actor in the map interacts with the company) and channels (methods of
Touch points communication or service delivery, such as the website or physical store)
and channels with user goals and actions
• These elements deserve a special emphasis because they are often where
brand inconsistencies and disconnected experiences are uncovered.
• The entire point of the journey-mapping process is to uncover gaps in the
user experience (which are particularly common in Omni channel
journeys), and then take action to optimize the experience. Insights and
Insights and ownership are critical elements that are often overlooked
ownership. • Any insights that emerge from journey mapping should be explicitly
listed. If politically possible, also assign ownership for different parts of the
journey map, so that it’s clear who’s in charge of what aspect of the
customer journey
Sample Journey Map
 How to Create a Customer Journey Map
Step 1: Determine Your Objectives
Why are you making a customer journey map? What goals are you directing this map
towards? What experience will it examine? Which type of customer will it follow?

These objectives will guide the remainder of the plotting process, so be sure to think long and
hard about the who, what, and why.

Step 2: Create Customer Personas

You cannot track a customer’s movements if you don’t know who they are, what they like,
their pain points, and their aspirations. One of the best ways to flesh out your customer
personas is to survey and test real-life people that have engaged with your brand.

Some valuable questions could be:

 How did you hear about our brand?

 Have you made a purchase with us? What was the deciding factor?
 How easy do you think our website is to navigate?
 Have you ever contacted our customer support team? If so, was it helpful?
  What goals are you trying to achieve with our company? What problems are you
trying to solve?
 What attracts you to our brand?
 Is there anything we can do to improve your experience?

Research and questionaries will likely leave you with several customer personas, different
distinct groups that interact with your brand. Your customer journey map can’t effectively
cover them all, so select one or two to focus on.

Step 3: Identify All Touch points

Touch points are the places on your website and online that your customers can interact with.
For example, adding a product to cart, engaging with a social media post, opening an email
newsletter, and so on.

You might find that there are fewer touch points than you expected – could this mean
customers don’t hang around your site long enough to make a decision? Or, there could be
more touch points than expected – could this mean your site is too complicated and there are
too many steps to get to an end goal?

Step 4: Decide on the Type of Map

The type of customer journey map you decide on will depend on your objectives. The main
types of maps include:

 Current state. The most common type of map, the current state map allows you to
visualize the actions, thoughts, behaviors, and emotions your customers experience
when interacting with your brand right now.
 Day-in-the-life: This maps your customer’s day from morning to night. It details their
habits and activities, whether that includes interacting with your brand or not.
 Future state. These visualize what you predict will be the actions, thoughts, behaviors,
and emotions your customers will experience during future interactions with your
brand.

Step 5: Plot the Customer Journey

You know who your customer is, and you have narrowed your focus. Now, it’s time to plot
the customer journey step-by-step. At this stage, just focus on actions. What actions are your
customers taking, and at what time?

Step 6: Take the Customer Journey

This is the crucial step – put on your customer’s shoes and work your way through the
customer journey you plotted in step five. Take note of pain points, moments when you don’t
get the information you need or the experience you expected. Analyze actions that feel
natural and identify why.
Sample Customer Journey Map
The following figure shows the entire analysis grid for a customer journey.
Storytelling
A fundamental principle of Design Thinking is empathy– the ability to understand and share
the feelings of another. One of the key tools that we, as Design Thinking coaches, use in
workshops is the attempt to invoke and build empathy through Storytelling.  Storytelling is
typically an exercise that we do during the Synthesis phase. In the Design Thinking approach,
the Synthesis phases follows Research phase. In Synthesis, we analyze the data collected
during Research and derive insights by applying various tools. The goal of the storytelling
exercise is to share the raw data collected during the Research phase with your teammates.

Storytelling puts the data collected in context to the different users and stakeholders by trying
to make sense of it all. The result of good storytelling is empathy for your user and in some
cases actually gain a better understanding of who the users are. You start to feel their pain,
truly understand their real needs, and maybe even uncover hidden needs.  This new
perspective allows you to articulate the needs in a way your users have not been able to.
Empathy storytelling breaks down the barriers between us and reminds us that we’re all
connected through our shared humanity.
Step 1: Start by identifying what brands or storytelling resonates with you
It may sound counter-intuitive. This is about your audience, after all.
But it helps to start somewhere you know well: yourself, and the things that move you
towards making choices.
Step 2: Understand what your audience — and the world — wants and needs NOW
It all starts by listening — really listening — and showing up in a way that makes your
customers feel seen and heard.
Because while we can’t walk in our customer’s shoes, we *can* be present with them and
listen.
Step 3: Identify your Empathy Story
Picture the scene: one minute you’re in the office, the next you find yourself on national news
with the opportunity to reach thousands of potential customers. What do you say to them?
Or, more importantly, how do you want them to feel?
Step 4: Make your story human and show that you’re listening
RIP service with a smile.
Putting a polished face on your branding will no longer cut it.
We’re operating in a post-filter era, where consumers are crying out for emotional
connection.
Step 5: Know that you can’t afford to do marketing without meaning
A meaningful brand is defined by its impact on our personal and collective wellbeing, along
with its functional benefits.
 Module -2
Define the Problem

An integral part of the Design Thinking process is the definition of a meaningful and
actionable problem statement, which the design thinker will focus on solving. This is perhaps
the most challenging part of the Design Thinking process, as the definition of a problem (also
called a design challenge) will require you to synthesise your observations about your users
from the first stage in the Design Thinking process, which is called the Empathise stage.
 When you learn how to master the definition of your problem, problem statement, or
design challenge, it will greatly improve your Design Thinking process and result.
 Why? A great definition of your problem statement will guide you and your team’s
work and kick start the ideation process in the right direction.
 It will bring about clarity and focus to the design space. On the contrary, if you don’t
pay enough attention to defining your problem, you will work like a person stumbling
in the dark.
Before we go into what makes a great problem statement, it’s useful to first gain an
understanding of the relationship between analysis and synthesis that many design thinkers
will go through in their projects. Tim Brown, CEO of the international design consultancy
firm IDEO, wrote in his book Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms
Organizations and Inspires Innovation, that analysis and synthesis are “equally important, and
each plays an essential role in the process of creating options and making choices.”
Analysis is about breaking down complex concepts and problems into smaller, easier-to-
understand constituents. We do that, for instance, during the first stage of the Design
Thinking process, the Empathise stage, when we observe and document details that relate to
our users. Synthesis, on the other hand, involves creatively piecing the puzzle together to
form whole ideas. This happens during the Define stage when we organise, interpret, and
make sense of the data we have gathered to create a problem statement.
Although analysis takes place during the Empathise stage and synthesis takes place during
the Define stage, they do not only happen in the distinct stages of Design Thinking. In fact,
analysis and synthesis often happen consecutively throughout all stages of the Design
Thinking process. Design thinkers often analyse a situation before synthesising new insights,
and then analyse their synthesised findings once more to create more detailed syntheses.

What is a problem statement?

A problem statement identifies the gap between the current state (i.e. the problem) and the
desired state (i.e. the goal) of a process or product. Within the design context, you can think
of the user problem as an unmet need. By designing a solution that meets this need, you can
satisfy the user and ensure a pleasant user experience.
A problem statement, or point of view (POV) statement, frames this problem (or need) in a
way that is actionable for designers. It provides a clear description of the issue that the
designer seeks to address, keeping the focus on the user at all times.
Problem or POV statements can take various formats, but the end goal is always the same: to
guide the design team towards a feasible solution.
Let’s take a look at some of the ways you might frame your design problem:
From the user’s perspective: “I am a young working professional trying to eat healthily, but
I’m struggling because I work long hours and don’t always have time to go grocery shopping
and prepare my meals. This makes me feel frustrated and bad about myself.”
From a user research perspective: “Busy working professionals need an easy, time-efficient
way to eat healthily because they often work long hours and don’t have time to shop and
meal prep.”
Based on the four Ws—who, what, where, and why: “Our young working professional
struggles to eat healthily during the week because she is working long hours. Our solution
should deliver a quick and easy way for her to procure ingredients and prepare healthy meals
that she can take to work.”
What makes a good problem statement?
A good problem statement is human-centered and user-focused. Based on the insights you
gathered in the empathize phase, it focuses on the users and their needs—not on product
specifications or business outcomes. Here are some pointers that will help you create a
meaningful problem statement:
Focus on the user: The user and their needs should be front and center of your problem
statement. Avoid statements that start with “we need to…” or “the product should”, instead
concentrating on the user’s perspective: “Young working professionals need…”, as in the
examples above.
Keep it broad: A good problem statement leaves room for innovation and creative freedom.
It’s important to keep it broad enough to invite a range of different ideas; avoid any
references to specific solutions or technical requirements, for example.
Make it manageable: At the same time, your problem statement should guide you and provide
direction. If it’s too broad in terms of the user’s needs and goals, you’ll struggle to hone in on
a suitable solution. So, don’t try to address too many user needs in one problem statement;
prioritize and frame your problem accordingly.
How to write a meaningful problem statement
Writing a meaningful problem statement can be extremely challenging. How do you
condense all the complexities of the user’s conscious and unconscious desires into one
simple, actionable statement? Fortunately, there are some tried-and-tested methods that will
help you do just that.

Space saturation and group

One of the first steps in defining a problem statement is to organize your findings from the
empathize phase. Space saturation and group is a popular method used by design thinkers to
collect and visually present all observations made in the empathize phase in one space. As the
name suggests, you will literally “saturate” a wall or whiteboard with Post-It notes and
images, resulting in a collage of artifacts from your user research.
As the Stanford D.school explains: “You space saturate to help you unpack thoughts and
experiences into tangible and visual pieces of information that you surround yourself with to
inform and inspire the design team. You group these findings to explore what themes and
patterns emerge, and strive to move toward identifying meaningful needs of people and
insights that will inform your design solutions.”
This method should involve anyone who took part in the empathize stage of the design
project, and should take no longer than 20-30 minutes.
The four Ws
Asking the right questions will help you put your finger on the right problem statement. With
all your findings from the empathize phase in one place, ask yourself the four Ws: Who,
what, where, and why?
Who is experiencing the problem? In other words, who is your target user; who will be the
focus of your problem statement?
What is the problem? Based on the observations you made during the empathize phase, what
are the problems and pain-points that frequently came up? What task is the user trying to
accomplish, and what’s standing in their way?
Where does the problem present itself? In what space (physical or digital), situation or
context is the user when they face this problem? Are there any other people involved?
Why does it matter? Why is it important that this problem be solved? What value would a
solution bring to the user, and to the business?
Approaching your observations with these four questions in mind will help you to identify
patterns within your user research. In identifying the most prevalent issues, you’ll be one step
closer to formulating a meaningful problem statement.

The five whys

Another question-based strategy, the five whys technique can help you delve deeper into the
problem and drill down to the root cause. Once you’ve identified the root cause, you have
something that you can act upon; somewhere specific to focus your problem-solving efforts.
Let’s take our previous example of the young working professional who wants to eat
healthily, but finds it difficult to do so. Here’s how you might use the five whys to break the
problem down and get to the root cause:
Why is she not eating healthily? → She orders takeaway everyday.
Why does she order takeaway everyday? → Her fridge and cupboards are empty.
Why are the fridge and cupboards empty? → She hasn’t been grocery shopping in over a
week.
Why hasn’t she been grocery shopping? → She doesn’t have time to go to the supermarket.
Why doesn’t she have time? → She works long hours and is exhausted.
The root cause here is a lack of time, so your solution might focus on efficiency and
convenience. Your final problem statement might look something like this: “Young working
professionals need a quick, convenient solution to eating healthily.”

Problem statement examples

A problem statement is a way to explain the problems users need your UX design to solve
and why. However, if it’s too broad, it will leave too many possible solutions open, making it
challenging to arrive at the best one. As a result, keep in mind when writing a problem
statement that it should be broad enough to allow for creative thinking and innovative
solutions, but narrow enough that it can provide a direction for that solution.
That said, there is no one right way to create a problem statement. No matter how you reach
your final problem statement, it should be user-focused, which means it should begin with
identifying a user and their need and include an idea of why they require that need to be met.

Here are some good examples of problem statements.

Problem statement from the user’s point of view: This kind of problem statement names a
specific user and explains what they need from their perspective.
 1. I am a parent who wants to make sure my children don’t fall for scams on the internet,
but I don’t know the best way to teach these skills because I can’t find high quality
resources that explain the best way to do so, leaving me feeling uncertain.
2. I am a young professional who wants to exercise regularly but I spend long hours at
the office so I usually can’t make it to a gym before it closes, which frustrates me.
3. I am a grandparent who wants to be able to easily see and talk to my grandchildren on
a weekly basis, but I can’t because they don’t live nearby, which makes me feel
lonely and disconnected.
4. I am a single young adult who just moved to a new city where I don’t know anyone
and don’t know where to go to meet people and make friends. As a result, I feel
isolated.
Problem statements based on user research: This kind of problem statement pinpoints a
group of users identified during user research and states what they need and why they need it.
1. Parents need a way to quickly and easily access high-quality information about
teaching their kids how to avoid internet scams because currently it is hard to find
resources about this topic, which leads to uncertainty.
2. Young professionals need a way to exercise regularly even though they work long
hours, making it frustratingly difficult to get to the gym before it closes.
3. Grandparents need a way to easily see and speak with their grandchildren on a weekly
basis even though they don’t live nearby so they won’t feel lonely and disconnected.
4. Single young adults who move to a new city where they don’t know anyone need to
know where to go to meet people and make friends so they don’t feel isolated.
Problem statements based on the 4 Ws:
This kind of problem statement uses the 4 Ws technique to create a statement that outlines
who has the problem, what that problem is, and where they experience it, and then explains
why your solution should deliver a specific user experience to solve the user’s problem. In
order to encourage brainstorming in the next phase of the Design Thinking process, you can
state the last part of this kind of problem statement in the form of a question.
A parent’s problem is that he wants to teach his kids how to avoid scams when they’re using
the internet. How can we ensure he can get all the best resources on the topic he needs so he
can avoid uncertainty?
A young professional’s problem is that she needs a way to exercise regularly even though the
long hours she works make it difficult for her to get to the gym. How can we give her an
alternative option for exercise that will require no gym equipment and allow her to work out
in her own time and space so she won’t be frustrated when she can’t make it to the gym?
A grandparent’s problem is that they want to see and speak with their grandchildren on a
weekly basis, but can’t do so in person because their grandchildren don’t live nearby. How
can we give them a way to easily reach their grandchildren so this grandparent doesn’t feel
lonely and disconnected from them?
A single young adult’s problem is that she doesn’t know anyone in the new city she just
moved to. How can we help her figure out where to go to meet people and make friends so
she doesn’t feel isolated?
Problem statements using the fill-in-the-blank approach: For this kind of problem
statement you can simply fill in the blanks in one of the problem statement templates
provided in the previous section, such as this one: [A user] needs [need] in order to
accomplish [goal].
A parent of two needs to find high-quality resources in order to successfully teach his kids
how to avoid internet scams.
A young professional who works long hours needs to find a way to work out outside a gym in
order to fit in regular exercise.
A grandparent needs to easily see and speak with their grandchildren, who live too far away
for them to see in person, in order to avoid feeling lonely and disconnected from them.
A single young adult who just moved to a new city needs to figure out where to go to meet
people so she can make friends and no longer feel isolated.
You’ve likely noticed that some of these problem statement examples focus on specific
design issues that may make up only part of a larger project. If you are tackling a large
project, you’ll likely want to create an overarching “umbrella” problem statement that
articulates the project’s overall objective and additional problem statements for each
component of the project.
In addition, if a specific component of your project is especially complicated, you may want
to create a “parent” problem statement that describes a general goal along with several
“child” problem statements that set sub-goals. However, this doesn’t mean problem
statements should be created haphazardly. You should only create as many problem
statements as are necessary to define the scope of your project.

Analysis & Synthesis

Analysis
To analyze the problem break down the complex concepts into smaller, easier to understand
parts from the information collected during the phase of empathy in the empathy map.
The empathy map can be studied and observed further with the below categorization which
helps in creating an actionable and tangible problem statement.
Who are we empathizing with? Who is experiencing a problem that needs to be solved? Can
these people be further categorized as potential users according to their situations,
demographic details, persona, motivation, and behavioral patterns?
What are the pain points? What is the real problem? What needs to be accomplished by
solving that problem? What pain point needs to be relieved? what are the struggles of the
people?
Where is the problem happening? What environment does the problem take place in? How
many people are experiencing the same problem in the same environment? Are the people
getting used to the problem? Do they need a solution at all?
Why is the problem needs to be solved? is this problem really worth solving? Does it bring
value to the user's life? Does it also bring value to the business?
What are the gain points — What will the problem statement solve? How many people will
benefit from it? and what will be those benefits including those of users and business?

Synthesis
Involves putting these pieces back together to form the whole problem statement.
For example, the problem could be —The changing world with social distance norms has
affected the mental well being of people.
Now we have to consider, Who is being affected by the problem? Who are we empathizing
with? — People who are staying away from home, working remotely, and are unable to meet
their friends, family, and go out to make new connections.
A defined problem statement after considering the details would be, "We need to provide a
way of easy connection for the extroverts, extroverted introverts who miss going out and
one's who are used to going to work every day".
Now, is more information need to be observed? like the environment of the problem, where
are the users located?
A more defined problem statement would be "We need to build an app for people in urban
and sub-urban cities who feel alone and need to feel connected while also creating a new
connection, while they stay at home and work remotely".
There are other points that could be factored in while defining the problem further. Why does
it matter? What will this problem solve? A more defined problem statement after factoring all
aspects would be, "People who are used to being social and active on a daily basis, need an
app where they can interact, indulge in group discussions, play games, join groups and go
live to stay connected to people with similar interests and ideals because shared experiences
can bring people closer and create a sense of belongingness all over again".
Not all points are required to be implemented in a single problem statement but it's important
to ask questions and consider as many factors. By the end of the define phase, the phase of
empathy turns into a workable and user-centered problem statement.
Case Study
Problem Statement − Suppose the problem statement at hand is to contain the attrition that
happens in companies worldwide. High quality employees leave the organization, mainly
after the appraisal cycle. As a result, an average company loses its valuable human resources
and suffers from an overhead of transferring the knowledge to a new employee. This takes
time and additional human resource in the form of a trainer, which adds to the company’s
costs. Devise a plan to contain attrition in the company.
Analysis − Now, let’s break down the problem statement into various constituent parts.
Following are the subparts of the same problem statement, broken down to elementary levels.
 The employees are not motivated anymore to work in the company.
 Appraisal cycle has something to do with attrition.
 Knowledge transfer is necessary for new employees.
 Knowledge transfer adds to the cost of the company.
Synthesis − Now, let's start solving each problem individually. In this step, we will do
synthesis. Let's look at one problem at a time and try to find a solution only for that problem
statement, without thinking of other problem statements.
 To solve the problem of lack of motivation, the management can plan some sort of
incentives that can be given on a regular basis. The efforts put in by the employees
must be rewarded well. This will keep the employees motivated.
 To solve the issue of occurrence of attrition during appraisal cycle, the management
can conduct a meeting with the employees leaving the organization, and take their
insight as to what led them to leave the company.
 For knowledge transfer, the management can hire only those people who are experts
in a domain.
 Regarding concerns for budget of knowledge transfer, the management can have a
document prepared by experts in a domain and this document can be uploaded on
intranet. This can be made available to new joinees. Hence, additional human
resource is not required for knowledge transfer and this will reduce the figures in the
company's budget.
Now, if we observe carefully, the third solution may not be feasible all the time. We cannot
be assured of expert professionals coming for interviews all the time. Moreover, expert
professionals demand more compensation than not-so-expert professionals. This will increase
the company's budget.

Hence, we will now combine the other three solutions to form a coherent one. The final
solution will be for the management to first have a talk with the employees leaving the
organization to know the reasons behind attrition, then come up with awards in suitable
categories and then, create an easily and universally accessible document in the organization
for knowledge transfer.
This way, analysis and synthesis together help in design thinking process. Design thinkers
start with breaking down a problem into smaller problems that can be handled and studied
easily. Then, the different solutions are combined to form a coherent single solution.

Empathy map
Definition: An empathy map is a collaborative visualization used to articulate what we know
about a particular type of user. It externalizes knowledge about users in order to 1) create a
shared understanding of user needs, and 2) aid in decision making.
Format
Traditional empathy maps are split into 4 quadrants (Says, Thinks, Does, and Feels), with the
user or persona in the middle. Empathy maps provide a glance into who a user is as a whole
and are not chronological or sequential.

The Says quadrant contains what the user says out loud in an interview or some other
usability study. Ideally, it contains verbatim and direct quotes from research.
“I am allegiant to Delta because I never have a bad experience.”
“I want something reliable.”
“I don’t understand what to do from here.”
The Thinks quadrant captures what the user is thinking throughout the experience. Ask
yourself (from the qualitative research gathered): what occupies the user’s thoughts? What
matters to the user? It is possible to have the same content in both Says and Thinks. However,
pay special attention to what users think, but may not be willing to vocalize. Try to
understand why they are reluctant to share — are they unsure, self-conscious, polite, or afraid
to tell others something?
“This is really annoying.”
“Am I dumb for not understanding this?”
The Does quadrant encloses the actions the user takes. From the research, what does the user
physically do? How does the user go about doing it?
Refreshes page several times.
Shops around to compare prices.
The Feels quadrant is the user’s emotional state, often represented as an adjective plus a short
sentence for context. Ask yourself: what worries the user? What does the user get excited
about? How does the user feel about the experience?
Impatient: pages load too slowly
Confused: too many contradictory prices
Worried: they are doing something wrong
Our users are complex humans. It is natural (and extremely beneficial) to see juxtaposition
between quadrants. You will also encounter inconsistencies — for example, seemingly
positive actions but negative quotes or emotions coming from the same user. This is when
empathy maps become treasure maps that can uncover nuggets of understanding about our
user. It is our job as UX professionals to investigate the cause of the conflict and resolve it.
Some of these quadrants may seem ambiguous or overlapping — for example, it may be
difficult to distinguish between Thinks and Feels. Do not focus too much on being precise: if
an item may fit into multiple quadrants, just pick one. The 4 quadrants exist only to push our
knowledge about users and to ensure we don’t leave out any important dimension. (If you
don’t have anything to put into a certain quadrant, it’s a strong signal that you need more user
research before proceeding in the design process.)
Problem Statement
1. What is the define stage and why is it necessary?
As the second step in the Design Thinking process, the define stage is dedicated to defining
the problem: what user problem will you be trying to solve? In other words, what is your
design challenge?
The define stage is preceded by the empathize phase, where you’ll have learned as much
about your users as possible, conducting interviews and using a variety of immersion and
observation techniques. Once you have a good idea of who your users are and, most
importantly, their wants, needs, and pain-points, you’re ready to turn this empathy into an
actionable problem statement.
The relationship between the empathize and define stages can best be described in terms of
analysis and synthesis. In the empathize phase, we use analysis to break down everything we
observe and discover about our users into smaller, more manageable components—dividing
their actions and behaviour into “what”, “why” and “how” categories, for example. In the
define stage, we piece these components back together, synthesising our findings to create a
detailed overall picture.
Why is the define stage so important?
The define stage ensures you fully understand the goal of your design project. It helps you to
articulate your design problem, and provides a clear-cut objective to work towards. A
meaningful, actionable problem statement will steer you in the right direction, helping you to
kick-start the ideation process (see Stage Three of the Design Thinking process) and work
your way towards a solution.
Without a well-defined problem statement, it’s hard to know what you’re aiming for. Your
work will lack focus, and the final design will suffer. Not only that: in the absence of a clear
problem statement, it’s extremely difficult to explain to stakeholders and team members
exactly what you are trying to achieve.
With this in mind, let’s take a closer look at problem statements and how you can go about
defining them.
2. What is a problem statement?
A problem statement identifies the gap between the current state (i.e. the problem) and the
desired state (i.e. the goal) of a process or product. Within the design context, you can think
of the user problem as an unmet need. By designing a solution that meets this need, you can
satisfy the user and ensure a pleasant user experience.
A problem statement, or point of view (POV) statement, frames this problem (or need) in a
way that is actionable for designers. It provides a clear description of the issue that the
designer seeks to address, keeping the focus on the user at all times.
Problem or POV statements can take various formats, but the end goal is always the same: to
guide the design team towards a feasible solution. Let’s take a look at some of the ways you
might frame your design problem:
From the user’s perspective: “I am a young working professional trying to eat healthily, but
I’m struggling because I work long hours and don’t always have time to go grocery shopping
and prepare my meals. This makes me feel frustrated and bad about myself.”
From a user research perspective: “Busy working professionals need an easy, time-efficient
way to eat healthily because they often work long hours and don’t have time to shop and
meal prep.”
Based on the four Ws—who, what, where, and why: “Our young working professional
struggles to eat healthily during the week because she is working long hours. Our solution
should deliver a quick and easy way for her to procure ingredients and prepare healthy meals
that she can take to work.”
As you can see, each of these statements addresses the same issue—just in a slightly different
way. As long as you focus on the user, what they need and why, it’s up to you how you
choose to present and frame your design problem.
We’ll look at how to form your problem statement a little later on. Before we do, let’s
consider some problem statement “do”s and “don’t”s.

What makes a good problem statement?

A good problem statement is human-centered and user-focused. Based on the insights you
gathered in the empathize phase, it focuses on the users and their needs—not on product
specifications or business outcomes. Here are some pointers that will help you create a
meaningful problem statement:
Focus on the user: The user and their needs should be front and center of your problem
statement. Avoid statements that start with “we need to…” or “the product should”, instead
concentrating on the user’s perspective: “Young working professionals need…”, as in the
examples above.
Keep it broad: A good problem statement leaves room for innovation and creative freedom.
It’s important to keep it broad enough to invite a range of different ideas; avoid any
references to specific solutions or technical requirements, for example.
Make it manageable: At the same time, your problem statement should guide you and
provide direction. If it’s too broad in terms of the user’s needs and goals, you’ll struggle to
hone in on a suitable solution. So, don’t try to address too many user needs in one problem
statement; prioritize and frame your problem accordingly.
Bearing these things in mind, let’s explore some useful methods for creating a meaningful
problem statement.
3. How to write a meaningful problem statement
Writing a meaningful problem statement can be extremely challenging. How do you
condense all the complexities of the user’s conscious and unconscious desires into one
simple, actionable statement? Fortunately, there are some tried-and-tested methods that will
help you do just that.
Space saturation and group
One of the first steps in defining a problem statement is to organize your findings from the
empathize phase. Space saturation and group is a popular method used by design thinkers to
collect and visually present all observations made in the empathize phase in one space. As the
name suggests, you will literally “saturate” a wall or whiteboard with Post-It notes and
images, resulting in a collage of artifacts from your user research.
As the Stanford d.school explains: “You space saturate to help you unpack thoughts and
experiences into tangible and visual pieces of information that you surround yourself with to
inform and inspire the design team. You group these findings to explore what themes and
patterns emerge, and strive to move toward identifying meaningful needs of people and
insights that will inform your design solutions.”
This method should involve anyone who took part in the empathize stage of the design
project, and should take no longer than 20-30 minutes.
The four Ws
Asking the right questions will help you put your finger on the right problem statement. With
all your findings from the empathize phase in one place, ask yourself the four Ws: Who,
what, where, and why?
Who is experiencing the problem? In other words, who is your target user; who will be the
focus of your problem statement?
What is the problem? Based on the observations you made during the empathize phase,
what are the problems and pain-points that frequently came up? What task is the user trying
to accomplish, and what’s standing in their way?
Where does the problem present itself? In what space (physical or digital), situation or
context is the user when they face this problem? Are there any other people involved?
Why does it matter? Why is it important that this problem be solved? What value would a
solution bring to the user, and to the business?
Approaching your observations with these four questions in mind will help you to identify
patterns within your user research. In identifying the most prevalent issues, you’ll be one step
closer to formulating a meaningful problem statement.
The five whys
Another question-based strategy, the five whys technique can help you delve deeper into the
problem and drill down to the root cause. Once you’ve identified the root cause, you have
something that you can act upon; somewhere specific to focus your problem-solving efforts.
Let’s take our previous example of the young working professional who wants to eat
healthily, but finds it difficult to do so. Here’s how you might use the five whys to break the
problem down and get to the root cause:
Why is she not eating healthily? → She orders takeaway everyday.
Why does she order takeaway everyday? → Her fridge and cupboards are empty.
Why are the fridge and cupboards empty? → She hasn’t been grocery shopping in over a
week.
Why hasn’t she been grocery shopping? → She doesn’t have time to go to the supermarket.
Why doesn’t she have time? → She works long hours and is exhausted.
The root cause here is a lack of time, so your solution might focus on efficiency and
convenience. Your final problem statement might look something like this: “Young working
professionals need a quick, convenient solution to eating healthily.”

Using “How Might We” Questions to Ideate on the Right Problems

Constructing how-might-we questions generates creative solutions while keeping teams
focused on the right problems to solve.
A How might we (HMW) question can generate lots of creative ideas. Here are some
examples of How might we questions:
How might we ensure more people pay their taxes before the deadline?
How might we help employees stay productive and healthy when working from home?
How might we make customers feel that their information is safe and secure when creating an
account?
The How might we template was first introduced by Procter & Gamble in the 1970s and
adopted by IDEO. The technique has become popular in design thinking and is used by
design teams worldwide.
5 Tips on Writing Good HMWs
While writing HMW questions seems straightforward, there’s slightly more than meets the
eye. The better you write them, the better the ideas that they prompt.
#1 Start with the Problems (or Insights) You’ve Uncovered
Some teams generate HMWs that are not specific to what they’ve learned. For example, How
might we improve the user experience of the product? is not specific to what you might have
uncovered in your discovery research. This question can result in ideas that don’t address the
root problems and the insights you uncovered.
Once you and your team have carried out your discovery research, agree on what the top
findings were. Use these to craft HMW questions, as in the example below.
Problem - Users aren't aware of the full product offerings.
HMW How might we increase awareness of the full product offerings?
#2 Avoid Suggesting a Solution in Your HMW Question
It can be easy to limit your thinking and embed solutions in your HMW questions. But doing
so restricts the pool of possibilities, and fewer ideas are generated. In the example below, the
first HMW suggests a particular type of solution, whereas the second is agnostic about any
particular solution.
Insight Users are often unsure about which form to complete when they file their taxes.
HMW (poor) How might we tell users which form to complete to file their taxes?
HMW (good) How might we make users feel confident they are filing their taxes correctly?
The problem with the first HMW question is that only solutions related to communication
will be generated. With the second HMW, further possibilities could be generated such as
filing taxes automatically for users or removing multiple forms and only having one form that
presents users with tailored questions based on the user’s responses.
#3 Keep Your HMWs Broad
When writing HMW questions, ask yourself if you could rewrite them in a broader way? The
broader the HMW, the more ideas can be generated.
Insight Users often spend a long time checking their submission for mistakes.
HMW (good) How might we make it quick and easy for users to check their work for
mistakes?
HMW (better) How might we support users to efficiently draft submissions that they’re
happy with?
Although we want HMWs to be broad, make sure not to go too broad that you lose sight of
the problem you’re trying to solve. For example, How might we redesign the submission-
drafting process? would be too broad.
#4 Focus Your HMWs on the Desired Outcome
To avoid solving symptoms of the problems rather than the root problems themselves, ask
yourself whether your HMW question focuses on the desired outcome. In the example below,
the first HMW question loses sight of what we really want to achieve.
Problem Users often call us because they’re unsure about the application process.
HMW (poor) How might we stop users from calling us?
HMW (good) How might we make users feel confident they have all the information they
need?
While it’s true that we want to cut costs for unnecessary contact, the high cost is a symptom
of the root problem (users are unsure about the application process, and therefore call us). We
really want to solve the problem of why users are calling us, which the second HMW
question addresses. The desired outcome of our design efforts should be increased user
confidence in the application process.
Another problem with the first HMW question is that it can result in a solution like making
the contact number on the website harder to find, rather than creative solutions that increase
user confidence.
#5 Phrase Your HMW Questions Positively
In a similar vein to point 4, stating your HMW questions positively can generate more ideas
and also encourage creativity.

If you find yourself using negative verbs like ‘reduce,’ ‘remove,’ ‘prevent,’ ask yourself if
you can frame things more positively by using positive action verbs, like ‘increase,’ ‘create,’
‘enhance,’ ‘promote’ and so on.
Problem Users find the return process difficult.
HMW (poor) How might we make the return process less difficult?
HMW (good) How might we make the return process quick and intuitive?

How to Gather Customer Insights

Since insights are more about the conclusions that you can use to make decisions, you can
reach those conclusions from a variety of sources, including:
1. Customer Feedback
Perhaps the easiest way to get customer insights is by simply asking them what they think.
Surveys and “How Are We Doing?” style questionnaires can lead to powerful take-aways
that can be applied to future campaigns.
The challenge, though, is that this mode alone may not be enough to give you the full picture.
Many customers may be afraid or unwilling to share their true opinions and/or give minimum
viable feedback to complete the survey/questionnaire.
2. Customer Sentiment
Methods that measure customer sentiment, such as NPS and star ratings, are equally as
important (if not more so) than surveys. By asking customers to rate how they feel and
removing the friction to do so — one-click popup, anyone? — you can begin to measure
customer satisfaction with any digital experience. These are especially effective for in-app or
on-page testing of a single feature as well as experiences after a sales call or customer service
interaction.
3. Third-Party Data
If you don’t have access to a large amount of customer feedback to make decisions from, you
can draw insights from market research performed by larger organizations with a wider
audience. Being aware of customer trends in your industry can help you understand the pains
and problems your customers face, which can help you craft marketing campaigns, develop
new offerings, and serve your customers with better empathy and understanding.
4. Situational Analysis of Anecdotal Experiences
Customers may not know that something could be better until it comes along and
metaphorically hits them in the face. This could be detrimental if an innovative competitor
makes them aware, or it could mean delight if it’s an improvement you make.
However, if a customer doesn’t realize the flaws in a process, service, or product, how can
they communicate it to you? This is where customer feedback alone falls short.
Companies that conduct in-person interviews, ongoing gap analysis, and/or training seminars
may unearth insights a survey never could, especially if they rely on open-ended questions.
For a great example of what I mean, read on to the next section where I discuss SEMrush’s
product development strategy.

5. Passively Collected Behavioral Data

By paying attention to not just what customers tell you but also how they interact with your
website, product, or content, you can determine a lot about your customers. Analytics
platforms such as Google Analytics or your social media dashboards, heat mapping software
such as Hotjar, and screen recording software such as Lucky Orange all contain data from
which you can draw conclusions. You can also get information about what prospects care
about from searches they do online. This can be done by using keyword research tools such
as Google Trends, Ahrefs, and SEMrush.
6. Real-Time User Testing
For apps, websites, and online-based experiences, you can gain insights into audience
preferences by running A/B tests on certain variables of their experience. With A/B testing,
you can watch in real-time as your user base interacts with elements such as copy, navigation,
and button color or placement to determine what works best. Majority rules, and you’ll be
able to draw conclusions from statistical proof.
7. Predictive Models
Speaking of statistics, predictive modeling is another source that some companies are
beginning to use when they want to gain insights and make decisions. With machine learning
and artificial intelligence, it’s becoming more and more possible to use algorithms and
statistical models to analyze large quantities of data and variables much better than you can
without computer help. This can often be used to make “predictions” with regard to user or
customer experience.
Examples of Customer Insights
PodcastGuests.com Customer Feedback Survey
HubSpot's Net Promoter Score System
Market Research for the #Likeagirl Campaign
SEMrush's In-Person Interview
Yokel Local's Bug Fix After Insights from Behavioral Data
Csek Creative's A/B Testing
Netflix's Machine Learning

1. PodcastGuests.com Customer Feedback Survey

PodcastGuests.com is a service that connects podcast hosts who need guests to podcast guests
who are looking for shows. In January 2019, this service sent out a survey as part of its
weekly email campaign.
The beauty of their survey is that the questions they chose served two purposes:
Gather meaningful feedback from subscribers to improve the experience
Gather meaningful data from subscribers to ensure that the PodcastGuests.com email list is
segmented properly

2. Netflix's Machine Learning

One of the best examples of machine learning to enhance customer experience is Netflix's
recommendations engine. By analyzing each customer’s interactions against other customers’
in addition to other data, Netflix is able to serve up content most likely to align with the
customer’s interests. This increases their satisfaction and the amount of time they spend on
the platform.

How Might We…?

Hoping to turn problems into opportunities for design? Look no further than How Might We.
This is a classic Design Thinking activity—and simple, to boot. Begin with a problem area
that is challenging for a person/organization/system/environment/etc., and add “How Might
We,” reformatting the problem to suggest that a solution is possible.
Primary GoalTo encourage brainstorming and a change of perspective
When to Use During any part of a project when fresh ideas are in short supply
Time Required 30-60 minutes
Number of Participants 2-10+
Who Should Participate? Any project participants, especially those married prematurely
to an idea, plan, or decision
Supplies Sharpies and Post-its
1. Get the Questions Right with “How Might We”
Grab enough Post-its and Sharpies for all participants, and begin framing questions. Each
question should start with, “How might we…”
As a facilitator, your role is to guide participants so that questions aren’t too broad or too
narrow. You want to unearth a wide range of ideas with unique, specific solutions. For
example, “How might we redesign travel?” is too broad, and “How might we create the
perfect airplane seatbelt made of recycled pop bottles?” could (potentially) be too specific.
“How might we redesign an airline’s safety speech?” is a more appropriately-scoped
question.

Stanford’s d.school suggests ways to make the most of “How Might We” by changing the
questions’ goal. Here are their question suggestions, plus examples for an airport-centric
experience:
Amp up the good: How might we use the kids’ energy to entertain fellow passengers?
Remove the bad: How might we separate the kids from fellow passengers?
Explore the opposite: How might we make the wait the most exciting part of the trip?
Question an assumption: How might we entirely remove the wait time at the airport?
Go after adjectives: How might we make the rush refreshing instead of harrying?
ID unexpected resources: How might we leverage free time of fellow passengers to share the
load?
Create an analogy from need or context: How might we make the airport like a spa? Like a
playground?
Play against the challenge: How might we make the airport a place that kids want to go?
Change a status quo: How might we make playful, loud kids less annoying?
Break POV into pieces: How might we entertain kids? How might we slow a mom down?
How might we mollify delayed passengers?

2. Generate Solutions
Once you’ve picked one to three “How Might We” questions of an appropriate scope, begin
brainstorming solutions with Post-it notes. Ask for one idea or solution per Post-it, and
encourage quantity over quality. Have the group generate as many ideas as possible during
this time.
Once the allotted time has passed, review all of the ideas and trim them down to the best ones
(with another activity like Affinity Mapping or Dot Voting).
Use this simple phrase as a launchpad for your team’s next brainstorming session, and leave a
comment below if you’re a veteran facilitator of “How Might We.”

Real-time Interaction
What is the Real Time Interaction?
Real-time interaction is the ability to provide an optimized real-time response to a customer
event. Forrester defined RTIM as: “Enterprise marketing technology that offers contextually
relevant experiences, value and usefulness at the appropriate point in the customer’s lifecycle
through the customer’s preferred touch points.” The main applications of RTIM today are in
the generation of contextually relevant content and personalized messages and offers, in the
context of an interaction with the customer.

Customers have different expectations these days. They expect to be helped even before their
question arises. This is where Real-time Interaction Management (RTIM) helps to anticipate
those customer needs. RTIM depends on real-time data instream, allowing you to engage
with your customers in real-time. Note that there is a big difference between receiving data
insights in real-time, and the capability to also react to those insights in real-time.
Some platforms can process and calculate scores in real-time as new data comes, yet, they
rely on other systems to regularly fetch the updated information and define what
communication the customer should be presented through which channel. The context of the
customer could have changed already when the message reaches him as this requires a
process for transferring data and interpreting scores by another system. So they miss the end-
to-end real-time actionability from receiving through calculation to response.

Offer personalized experiences across all channels

The ability of an RTIM system to integrate via email, SMS, push and mobile inbox is a good
starting point, but it also requires that the opt-in status for each of these channels is
communicated and respected by means of the your system. For example, a brand knows that
a customer buys the same pair of basketball shoes each season, then sends an email to the
customer with a discounted offer on a pair of basketball shorts. However, if the RTIM system
observes that the customer has broken a geographic barrier at a specific store, and the brand
offer management system is aware of the stock, the brand can send an offer that is very
unique or specific to the customer at that store. moment that time.

The key elements in an RTIM system are:

Identifying customers and sending them experiences across preferred channels and devices,
in real-time.
Understanding & merging all data from the detailed customer history and the customer’s
current context such as the time, device, or location.
Selecting the right experience. Based on a change in behavior or a query at a customer’s
touchpoint, every offer for which the customer is eligible, is scored and ranked. This
‘Opportunity Index’ takes into account propensities and behavior, business priorities, and the
journey stage the customer is in, to define the most relevant experience in the preferred
channel.
Capturing interaction data for measurement and optimization. Once an experience is
presented to the customer, the response (or non-response) of the customer will be captured as
new data to further influence the opportunity score for that and other related offers. We call
this the feedback loop.

Real-time interaction management can be broken into five key functional

areas:
Recognition — Understanding your customer behavior and affinity to build actionable
customer segments
Context — Ensuring that digital experiences align with the context in which users are
browsing. How did your users arrive at your website or mobile app? Is it snowing in the city
where they are shopping? Are they seated comfortably at home or browsing your mobile
website from a packed train?
Offer — Providing personalized recommendations, messaging or incentives to convince a
user to convert.
Orchestration — Delivering a unified experience across devices. If a user visits your mobile
website but abandons the session, can we immediately return that user to context when he
logs in from a desktop device two days later?
Optimization — Maximizing the value of RTIM by measuring the impact of every interaction
and automatically testing different experiences at all stages of the funnel.

Features of an RTIM tool

Unique identification of a customer across all channels: Improve the customer experience on
all devices with identity management, which securely identifies customers and reduces
friction in the registration process. Gigya and Janrain are examples of technologies used for
this purpose, allowing customers to use their Facebook or Google social login. Customer
identification is the first step when interacting with anything related to a brand. The basic
profile with personally identifiable information, such as phone number, device identifiers,
acceptance status, email addresses, username and password, is captured in this layer and
possibly augmented with collected basic demographic data, such as gender or age.
Context Management: Forming and using a rich user context will trigger relevant
interactions. By capturing the user’s context – before and during an interaction – and
interpreting it in real time, the brand generates high-value and impactful conversations that
will increase consumer interest and conversion.
360 ° date of enriched customer: 360 ° customer data is aggregated and comprehensive
historical data on all interactions between the consumer and the brand. It is enriched with
product or brand environment data (store or restaurant location) so that the mapping can be
discovered between the product and / or store location. These mappings come from statistical
analysis of purchase or navigation data and identify any propensity or affinity between the
consumer and the products. For example, an insight of propensity would be that, at a certain
time of the week, a particular consumer likes to buy a large coffee from a chain of
restaurants. In the process, affinity data indicates that coffee at a certain time of the day is
often purchased with a full breakfast meal. A decision engine will then produce an offer of
free coffee at a certain time for that customer.
Customization Mechanism: The content and, by extension, the offers are attributed to
customers according to personal analysis. The combination of personalization based on
persona and relevant context triggers the visibility of the content or offer by the customer.
Offering or attributing content and their actual visibility to the customer are two separate
steps calculated in sequence, sometimes almost instantly. The first stage is performed by the
personalization mechanism and the last one by the decision mechanism.
An offer management mechanism: The engine creates offers, publishes them on a point of
sale or e-commerce system for redemption, and publishes them on a campaign engine or
through a mobile application that can announce the availability of the offer to the customer.
This ad is sent by push or email notification or a portfolio of offers on a mobile app.
Performance and scalability: Consumer events are generated in very high numbers at a very
high rate, especially when ordering online on Black Friday or several times a day for QSR
networks. The ability to process these events in real time, collect user profiles, identify their
context and apply personalization rules – all at a glance – is one of the new technical
requirements for Marketing Technologists. The scalability and performance of RTIM should
not be underestimated and should be the main criterion for selecting the solution. Proof of
concept with an initial performance test is also highly recommended.
 Modue-3
What is Ideation?
Ideation is a creative process where designers generate ideas in sessions (e.g., brainstorming, worst
possible idea). It is the third stage in the Design Thinking process. Participants gather with open
minds to produce as many ideas as they can to address a problem statement in a facilitated,
judgment-free environment.

Before starting to look for ideas, team needs a clearly defined problem to tackle – a focused problem
statement or point of view (POV) to inspire and guide everyone. “How might we…?” questions—e.g.,
“How might we design an app finding cheap hotels in safe neighborhoods?”—help in reframing
issues and prompting effective collaboration towards potential solutions. To bring people together
to conjure ideas and bypass established frontiers, you need a skilled facilitator and a creative
environment, including a prepared space, featuring posters of personas, relevant information, etc.
Your team also requires rules – e.g., a 2-hour time limit, quantity-over-quality focus, ban on
distractions such as phones, and “There are no bad ideas” mindset. By being bold and curious,
participants can challenge commonly held beliefs and explore possibilities past these obstacles.
Team members should take each other's ideas and build on them, find ways to link concepts,
recognize patterns and flip seemingly impossible notions over to reveal new insights.

Using Ideation to Build Castles in the Sky, then the Bridges

There are hundreds of ideation techniques to help you in your ideation sessions. You want an
ideation technique that combines your conscious and unconscious mind—fusing the rational with
the creative. It must match the sorts of ideas your team must generate and reflect their nature,
needs and experience with ideation. Some crucial ones are:

Brainstorming – You build good ideas from each other’s wild ideas.

Braindumping – This is like brainstorming, but done individually.

Brainwriting – This is like brainstorming, but everyone writes down and passes ideas for others to
add to before discussing these.

Brainwalking – This is like brainwriting, but members walk about the room, adding to others’ ideas.

Worst Possible Idea – You take an inverted brainstorming approach, emboldening more reserved
individuals to produce bad ideas and yielding valuable threads.

Challenging Assumptions – You overturn established beliefs about problems, revealing fresh
perspectives.

Mindmapping – You use this graphical technique to connect ideas to problems’ major and minor
qualities.

Sketching/Sketchstorming – You use rough sketches/diagrams to express ideas/potential solutions

and explore the design space.
Storyboarding – You develop a visual problem/design/solution-related story to illustrate a
situation’s dynamics.

SCAMPER – You question problems through action verbs (“Substitute”, “Combine”, “Adapt”,
“Modify”, “Put to another use”, “Eliminate”, “Reverse”) to produce solutions.

Bodystorming – You use role-playing in scenarios/customer-journey steps to find solutions.

Analogies – You draw comparisons to communicate ideas better.

Provocation – You use an extreme lateral-thinking technique to challenge established beliefs and
explore paths beyond.

Movement – You take a “what if?” approach to overcoming obstacles in ideation and finding
themes/trends/attributes towards reliable solutions.

Cheatstorm – You use previously ideated material as stimuli.

Crowdstorming – Your target audiences generate and validate ideas through feedback (e.g., social
media) to provide valuable solution insights.

Creative Pause – You take time to pull back from obstacles.

Other methods for ideation include co-creation workshops (combining user empathy research,
ideation and prototyping), gamestorming (gamification-oriented ideation methods) and prototyping.
The beauty of ideation is its unbounded freedom, although structured environments are critical. If
you get stuck, you have fallbacks: e.g., “breaking the law” (listing constraints to see if you can
overcome them), “stealing” ideas (emulating applicable concepts from other industries), inverting
the problem and laddering (moving problems between the abstract and the concrete).

3 Steps to Generate More Ideas: Lateral Thinking Concepts by Edward de Bono

Introducing the example
Jumping into this process (Exhibit 1) through an example, let’s assume that I have a problem of not
being able to find the keys to my front door when I leave home (possibly inspired by real-life events)
and try to brainstorm on a few potential ideas to solve this problem using Lateral Thinking.

It’s important to understand that the aim of this process is not - to come up with a solution. We only
wish to arrive at a set of ideas that could then be taken forward.

Part 1: Before Ideating

Laying out an objective

Context: Before you start to think outside the box, you first need to identify the right box. The mind
tends to move from one topic to another and soon you may be solving a problem that you originally
did not intend to solve.

Action: The objective in this example, would be to design a solution that would help me find my keys
easily while leaving my house.

Setting a target for the minimum number of ideas

Context: We must set a target for the number of ideas that are to be generated. If we fail to do so,
we may be overly cautious even while thinking of our first idea. However, if we set a target, say 5,
we may be assured of at least 2-3 workable ideas.

Action: In our problem, let’s set a reasonable target of 5 ideas.

Suspending judgment

Context: Lateral thinking is generative by nature, so we must not be selective during the ideation
process. In spite of it being common knowledge, we are often very critical of our ideas at an early
stage and dismiss them, without adequate consideration. There are 3 reasons why we must fight our
impulse to do so.

Temporary obstacles could make the idea seem infeasible

One might be unknowingly wrong (at that moment) to dismiss the idea

Infeasible ideas could lead to an interesting perspective and potentially pave the way to another
idea.

Part 2: Initial set of ideas

Pick an obvious idea

Context: Pick the first idea that comes to your mind. The idea can be anything, there isn’t just one
way to go about this, so don’t be afraid. The purpose of the idea is just to help us get started.

Action: One of the most common solutions is to use a key stand, something that is mounted on a
wall, or perhaps placed on a table.

Finding the assumptions

Context: We need to identify the assumptions involved in the first idea. Try to link the assumption to
the objective and rank them based on how essential they are to achieving the objective.
Action: The key stand idea assumes that the key (or set of keys) is an individual object which
requires to be placed in an appropriate location. However, the key does not need to be an individual
object and hence is not a necessary condition to reach our objective. In fact, if the key was attached
to something else, then there is no requirement for a key stand.

Challenging the assumptions

Context: We can generate ideas by challenging the assumptions of the problem. Often, just a simple
act of reversing the assumptions can help us arrive at an idea.

Action: Let’s reverse the assumption and look for solutions where the keys are attached to another
object rather than being kept individually. Some ideas that we can generate around this concept are:

Wallet: Most people don’t forget their wallets, so the keys could be attached to the wallet physically.

Phone: Smartphone cases could be modified to safely conceal keys in them.

Door: We could also devise a solution where the keys don’t leave the door’s lock. In this solution, the
full length of the key could be completely inserted into the door when you enter the house so that
you don’t have to worry about keeping it anywhere. And, when you leave the house, the key could
pop out of the door.

Part 3: Generate more ideas

Digging deeper into the current classification of themes

Context: If we were to continue with the same classification of themes, we could generate more
ideas around these themes by using these following techniques suggested by Edward de Bono:

Changing the entry point: Switching the order in which you receive new information can sometimes
lead to new ideas

Analogies: Creating analogies to other objects

Random Simulation: Drawing inspiration from random words to spark a new idea

Turning the problem upside down to form a new classification of themes

Context: If one is not satisfied with the current classification of themes, they could regroup the
themes and form another type of classification. Edward de Bono uses a method called “the reversal”
which reverses the perspective of the problem (turns the subject into the object and vice-versa) and
helps in forming a new classification of themes.

Action: In the current example, I am looking for ways to find the key easily. Using the reversal
technique, instead of personally putting in all the effort to locate the key, rather we could ask how
the key could help me locate it?

A GPS tracker integrated with the key could reveal its location via a mobile app.

Similarly, a key with a micro-speaker module could emit noise when triggered remotely.

A more futuristic solution could involve the key automatically being flown to the owner on a small
drone while leaving the house (Exhibit 3, Theme set B).

Creative thinkers
Creative thinkers tend to be balls of energy and productivity machines. Think of Richard Branson and
Elon Musk. Another is Yoshiro Nakamatso, a Japanese inventor who claims to have his best ideas
while underwater suffering from oxygen starvation. He invented the floppy disk in 1952, apparently
seconds away from death by drowning.

Creativity is generally perceived to be something external, out of our control, or an inherent talent
for a chosen few. But consider that creativity is fundamentally about ideas (the Oxford Dictionary
defines a creative state as relating to or involving imagination or original ideas). Ideas are generated
by thinking, and skills for thinking can be learned. Therefore, creativity, thinking and idea generation
are skills that can be learned.

Generating Design Ideas

Generating Ideas A fundamental stage in product development is concept generation – the ability to
come up with new ideas for products. Typically, a business will create a range of ideas and options,
before selecting the best one, which is then taken forward and developed. Ideas are normally
evaluated and the top one selected against the specification. They are rated by reviewing which idea
best meets the specification criteria. Idea generation may also involve identifying a range of
advantageous new features, functions or assemblies, which may then be developed-up to enhance
an existing product.

Ideas are the key to innovation. Without them, there isn't much to execute and because execution is
the key to learning, new ideas are necessary for making any kind of improvement.

It's obvious that ideas alone won't make innovation happen, as you need to be able to build a
systematic process for managing those ideas. The point of ideation isn't just about generating tons of
them but about paying attention to the quality of those as well.

We agree that it can sometimes be difficult to come up with more of those high-quality ideas. It’s
not unusual to get stuck in our old habits and routines when we’re supposed to be creating
something new.

What is idea generation and why it's important?

 Idea generation is described as the process of creating, developing and communicating
abstract, concrete or visual ideas.
 It’s the front end part of the idea management funnel and it focuses on coming up with
possible solutions to perceived or actual problems and opportunities.
Ideation Methods to Spark Innovative Ideas
There are hundreds of ideation methods. Some methods are merely renamed or slightly adapted
versions of more foundational techniques. Here you’ll get brief overview of some of the best
methods:

1. Brainstorm
2. Braindump
3. Brainwrite
4. Brainwalk
5. Challenge Assumptions
6. SCAMPER
7. Mindmap
8. Sketch or Sketchstorm
9. Storyboard
10. Analogies
11. Provocation
12. Movement
13. Bodystorm
14. Gamestorming
15. Cheatstorm
16. Crowdstorm
17. Co-Creation Workshops
18. Prototype
19. Creative Pause
These methods can help you select the best idea at the end of an Ideation session:
1. Post-it Voting or Dot Voting.
2. Four Categories Method
3. Bingo Selection
4. Idea Affinity Maps
5. Now Wow How Matrix
6. Six Thinking Hats
7. Lean Startup Machine Idea Validation Board
What is Lateral Thinking?

Lateral thinking (horizontal thinking) is a form of ideation where designers approach

problems by using reasoning that is disruptive or not immediately obvious. They use indirect
and creative methods to think outside the box and see problems from radically new angles,
gaining insights to help find innovative solutions.

Lateral Thinking helps Break Out of the Box

Many problems (e.g., mathematical ones) require the vertical, analytical, step-by-step
approach we’re so familiar with. Called linear thinking, it’s based on logic, existing solutions
and experience: You know where to start and what to do to reach a solution, like following a
recipe. However, many design problems—particularly, wicked problems—are too complex
for this critical path of reasoning. They may have several potential solutions. Also, they
won’t offer clues; unless we realize our way of thinking is usually locked into a tight space
and we need a completely different approach.

That’s where lateral thinking comes in – essentially thinking outside the box. “The box”
refers to the apparent constraints of the design space and our limited perspective from
habitually meeting problems head-on and linearly. Designers often don’t realize what their
limitations are when considering problems – hence why lateral thinking is invaluable in (e.g.)
the design thinking process. Rather than be trapped by logic and assumptions, you learn to
stand back and use your imagination to see the big picture when you:

 Focus on overlooked aspects of a situation/problem.

 Challenge assumptions – to break free from traditional ways of understanding a
problem/concept/solution.
 Seek alternatives – not just alternative potential solutions, but alternative ways of
thinking about problems.

When you do this, you tap into disruptive thinking and can turn an existing paradigm on its
head. Notable examples include:
The mobile defibrillator and mobile coronary care – Instead of trying to resuscitate heart-
attack victims once they’re in hospital, treat them at the scene.

Uber – Instead of investing in a fleet of taxicabs, have drivers use their own cars.

Rather than focus on channeling more resources into established solutions to improve
them, these innovators assessed their problems creatively and uncovered game-changing
(and life-changing) insights.

THREE TECHNIQUES FOR LATERAL THINKING #

1. Use an analogy.

To avoid getting trapped by the obvious when looking for creative ideas and solutions, use
an analogy to shift your thinking. Imagine searching for a solution to find car keys. Consider
different scenarios: being lost in fog, a vision-impaired person finding their way around, a
stranger in a foreign location. You will see the problem in different ways and approach it
with fresh solutions.

2. Reverse information and reject the obvious.

Break the natural pattern of order. For example, the aim of online marketing is to direct
traffic to websites. Reverse and consider: How do you take the website to the traffic? Or
reject the obvious, which will force the brain to consider alternatives. For example, when
considering how to increase the online visibility of a website, imagine that search engines
didn’t exist.

3. Oppose elements.

Another pattern-breaker is to take two random and opposing items and connect them (a
classic technique for humor); for example, a fish riding a bicycle, a ballet-dancing hippo, a
toad singing opera. Brainstorm and create a mind map of keywords related to your theme,
which could throw up a lot of possible connections that suggest creative ideas.
Ways to Improve our Lateral Thinking

Here’s what we encourage in our own teams at Making Sense:

 Distortion: When you think something will work, think of extreme situations.
 Exposure: Consider things unrelated to the problem. Could a soccer team be related
to our organizational problems? How?
 Cross-fertilization: Ask experts in other areas how they might solve a problem.
 Problem switching: Don’t get stuck. Switch back and forward between different
problems.
 Challenge: Assume there may be different ways to do something, even if there is no
apparent problem with the current way of doing it.
 Review things taken for granted: Constructively challenge the status quo to enable
new ideas to appear.
 Think of problems as opportunities.
  Brainstorming: This technique is excellent for new ways of dealing with problems.
 Be constructive, not disruptive: Listen to ideas and opinions no matter how awful
they sound at first. Encourage feedback. Creativity can be fed anywhere by anyone.

Analogies
An analogy is a comparison between two things—for instance, a comparison of a heart to a pump.
We communicate in analogies all the time, as they allow us to express our ideas or to explain
complex matters in an understandable and motivating way.

In reality, Analogies are used to explain complex realities to young children by their parents. Things
may be different in the design world; the concept is pretty much the same. You use analogies to,

 Build empathy with users

 Define information
 Generate new and innovative ideas
 Gain a fresh look

As we are talking about effective Ideation techniques, let’s focus only on ‘Generating new and
innovative ideas with the user of analogies’ area.

The concept of Analogies is used to explore unrelated concepts to gain new insights into your design
problems. These insights may help you to reshape a known concept into a whole different one
within a different context. Purposely looking into analogies gets the design team thinking on a
different level which will help to find new inspiration and new ideas on a specific concept. Analogies
can help the team to seek inspiration on problem-solving as well as redesign the design problem to
come up with uncommon design solutions.
Using analogies will give you a fresh aspect to look at your design problems. There are 6 simple steps
to come up with analogies,

 Extract attributes of your problem scenario

 Look for similar objects and their behaviors
 Look towards an industry completely different from yours
 Look for specific people that you could interview
 Use Brainstorming methods
 Create an analogous inspiration board

First, check if you can make connections within the scenarios of the problem where these attributes
exist. Afterward, check for similar objects that provide an innovative use of resources. To create
better analogies by learning through a completely different industry. You can conduct interviews or
observations to get more information needed to create your analogy and then to come up with the
analogies you can conduct brainstorming sessions with your team members. After you have a
definite set of analogies you can create an analogous board with photos, quotes, and scenarios to
help with inspiration and insights for better design solutions.

Examples of analogy

1. Hospital emergency rooms have been inspired by F1 pit stop crews.

2. Henry Ford's assembly line was inspired by observing systems within slaughterhouses and
grain warehouses.
3. Executives, artists, writers and all kinds of other creative professionals have relied on
creating analogies as a powerful tool for empathizing with audiences and communicating
and sparking ideas.

How to Use Analogies – Best Practices and Examples

You can apply these best practices in any situation, be it if you’re aiming at building empathy,
defining a problem, solving ill-structured problems or generating ideas.
Start by extracting attributes of your problem scenario and see if you can make connections with
scenarios, systems, spaces or objects where these attributes already exist. For instance, if you are
working on improving a supermarket experience, some of the key aspects might be containing and
separating different goods in the shopping cart, making a decision when presented with many
options, and handling long waiting lines. Then, find other experiences that contain some of these
aspects—it will help you gain a better understanding of your users’ problems, and it will also spark
new ideas for improving their experiences.

Look towards nature: Look for similar objects, systems, scenarios, and creatures and their behaviors.
They all have some insight to offer in terms of innovative use of resources, space and time.
Biomimicry applies learning from natural systems towards problem solving, essentially copying or
borrowing from nature and building this into new technology. Think of how a flower opens with the
first rays of sunshine, or how the honeycomb pattern is one of the strongest for use in structures, for
instance.

Look towards an industry completely unrelated to yours. You could benefit from creating analogies
to and learning from completely different industries—as Henry Ford did when he found inspiration
for the creation of the assembly line by observing systems within slaughterhouses and grain
warehouses.

Look for specific people you could interview about these analogous scenarios, systems, objects or
spaces, or how you might do a quick observation.

Use brainstorming or brainwriting methods to help the team come up with analogies.
Create an analogous inspiration board: Create a board of quotes, photos and key insights from your
analogous space, scenario, system or object. This will help your team share inspiration and help keep
the analogous insights in mind later in the process.

Brainstorming
This is the most common technique that is used within the Ideation process. During a Brainstorm
session, you always leverage the other team member’s ideas and build upon them. For this session
to be conducted, you must build an environment where a person will be comfortable speaking
without any criticism. To conduct a successful Brainstorm session, it is best to switch between group
and individual Brainstorm sessions.
Brainstorming which is a group session has 3 siblings known as

Braindumping (Individual sessions)

Brainwriting (Mix of individual and group sessions)

Brainwalking (Mix of individual and group sessions)

Not every person will be comfortable participating in these sessions. Introverts would be more
tempted to sit in the back of the room and reflect on these ideas on their own whereas Extroverts
would be more dominant and controlling of the session. To avoid such situations, the sibling
techniques of Brainstorming can be put into use,

Braindumping

This method is very similar to Brainstorm but it is conducted individually. This session is conducted
where members of the design team would write their ideas on post-it notes and later share them
within the team itself.

Brainwriting

This method too is like a Brainstorm session but in this session, the individual will write their idea on
a piece of paper and pass it onto another participant who will elaborate on the first person’s idea.
This process is continued within the entire team and afterward, all the papers will be collected for an
instant discussion to see which idea would be the best.

Brainwalking

Brainwalk is like Brainwriting but instead of passing around the paper, the participants would walk
around the room to find ‘ideation stations’ where they could discuss and elaborate on the other
individuals’ ideas.

Each of these techniques under Brainstorming has its own perks. Therefore, it is best to conduct
braindumping, brainwriting, and brainwalking before and after a brainstorming group session. This
brainstorming group session is mostly like a discussion among you and your peers therefore it is best
to have it right in the middle of the entire session.

How to Run Your Brainstorming Session Right

Now let's dig into how to run your brainstorming session effectively, from setting the scene, to
coming up with ideas, ranking them, and troubleshooting issues as needed.

1. Set the Scene

Before you start brainstorming, give your group the information they need to be successful. Some of
that information relates to the brainstorming process—and some to personal comfort! Be sure to
cover these bases:

Set the scene by presenting your goals, describing the brainstorming process and expectations for
activities following the meeting, and clearly outlining the schedule by which they will be achieved.

Share critical information that your team will need: location of bathrooms, plans for food breaks,
anticipated completion time, assumptions regarding use of cell phones, availability of coffee, etc. If
you fail to provide this information, there’s a good chance your participants will spend much of their
time trying to get the answers from one another!
Tell participants—literally—where to sit. Bear in mind that it’s often a good idea to split up social
and/or work groups, both to increase creativity and also to reduce kibitzing in the corners.

Introduce the facilitator and describe their role. If that person is you, explain your own role. Make it
clear that the facilitator’s word is law: if the facilitator says “time’s up,” then the time is up!

Write, post, and answer questions about rules and procedures. This may include a repetition of the
“hold your critique” rule, limits on speaking time, limits on critical comments, procedures for asking
for the floor, etc. Tell people whether you intend to ask each person to speak, or whether you’re
open to raised hands.

Nominate a time-keeper and/or put a clock front and center.

Nominate a note-taker and provide them with a whiteboard, flipchart, or other tools needed.

2. Move Your Session Forward

Now with the scene set, goals and ground rules in place, it's time to begin. Here are a few actions to
get started and move the brainstorming session forward:

Action 1. Start With an Icebreaker

In brainstorming, everyone is equal. Icebreaking sessions are a good way to establish this idea by
playing games in which everyone has an equal role. It’s also a great way to start creative juices
flowing.

Icebreakers can include games such as “if you could choose a superpower, which would it be, and
why?” or “what animal best represents you, and why?” The key to success with such icebreakers is
to include everyone: no one gets to “pass” because they think the idea is silly!

Action 2. Limber Up

Start the brainstorming process with a low-risk, project-related question that allows everyone to
toss in an idea without serious concerns about “looking silly.” Be sure everyone speaks up at least
once. For example, ask “if you could ask a genie to solve our problem or complete our project, etc.,
then what would you ask the genie to do?” You may discover that people have very different ideas
about what to wish for—and it’s those different ideas you’re searching for through the
brainstorming process.
Action 3. Get Started

Allow the facilitator to take over completely (unless you are the facilitator, of course). Be sure the
facilitator remembers to reiterate the “all ideas are good ideas” rule, and encourages everyone to
speak. Follow the rules and schedule you’ve set up.

Action 4. Record Everything!

In addition to having your note taker take notes, do record the session using either audio or video
(depending upon your preference, needs, and setup).

3. Troubleshoot Brainstorming Problems

As you get into the brainstorming process, you may run into one or more common challenges.
Here’s how to recognize and resolve them:

Problem 1. Drying Up or Becoming Repetitive

At some point, your group will have a hard time coming up with additional ideas. Sometimes that’s
because they’ve really expressed all their thoughts. Often, though, they may need a coffee break or
a little time to think. If a break doesn’t result in additional creativity, try going back to a few of the
ideas that have already been expressed. Does anyone have an idea that relates to or builds on one of
these?

Problem 2. Not Enough or Too Much Creativity

Too little creative thinking or too much off-the-charts imagination can be problematic to effective
brainstorming. While it’s great to think creatively, ridiculous suggestions intended to get a laugh
(Let’s deal with the Martians instead of our clients!) can steer things off topic. By the same token,
extremely conservative ideas (Let’s do what we did last time, but give it a red trim instead of a blue
trim) can stifle creative thinking.

Use your facilitation skills to steer people back on course. Maybe the Martians aren’t an option, but
should we be thinking about reaching out to a completely different group of clients? Maybe trim
isn’t the issue, but design may be. How can we expand our graphical approach?

Problem 3. Getting Off Topic or Lost in the Weeds

It’s very easy for discussion to steer itself away from vision and ideation and into practical issues. For
example, “It’s great to say you want new sales material, but we’d need more staff to create that
material and...” or “We tried that idea five years ago, and it didn’t work because...”

These discussions will be important as you move from brainstorming into working groups, so let your
team know this. Ask them to make notes and volunteer to be part of the working group that
addresses practical issues such as staffing, logistics, etc.

Problem 4. Participation Issues

Having one person monopolize the discussion or several people “opting out” of the discussion are
both problematic. Every group has its outspoken and shy members, but brainstorming requires
universal participation.
If you anticipate or see a problem with certain people dominating or avoiding involvement, change
your approach. Try using a round-robin technique in which each individual is asked to present their
ideas, one after the other. To avoid the problem of people spending all their time waiting to speak,
call on people in an unpredictable sequence.

Problem 5. Boredom

When people get bored, off-topic chatting, cell phone use, and doodling become more interesting
than the brainstorming itself. You have a few options for avoiding boredom. First, of course, keep
your brainstorming sessions to a reasonable length. Two days of brainstorming can leave anyone
bored to tears. Second, vary your procedures. Rather than simply asking for ideas for several hours
straight, try using multiple brainstorming techniques such as brainwriting, starbursting, etc. If you
still see restlessness in the ranks, consider the possibility that it’s time for a break.

4. Ranking Ideas

When the brainstorming ends, the planning process gets started. Your next move will be to select
the best ideas for action. To do that, you’ll need to facilitate a discussion that includes shifting topics
into good/better/best categories. Depending upon the size of the group and your particular needs,
you may:

Break the group into smaller teams, ask each team to rank ideas, and then ask each team to report.

Point to each idea on the board and ask the entire group to vote on which they like best.

Take a break during which you personally rank ideas, and then ask the group to comment on your
choices.

Ask each group member to put a mark next to their top three ideas, and then calculate the results.

Put the list of ideas into an accessible location and ask individuals to post their comments about
each idea over the course of several days (this can be done with post it notes and poster paper).

SCAMPER
This lateral thinking technique refers to a set of actions that can be carried out to help with the
innovation process. There are 7 inspirational elements in this technique,

 Substitute
 Combine
 Adapt
 Modify/ Magnify/ Minify
 Put to another use
 Eliminate
 Reverse
You can use SCAMPER on an existing product or service to improve it. What you can do is to ask
questions with regards to the 7 elements to help generate new ideas within each of these areas. By
going through these elements, you can ask 7 different types of questions that will help innovate and
improve the existing product or service.
How to Use the Tool- SCAMPER
First, take an existing product or service. This could be one that you want to improve, one that
you're currently having problems with, or one that you think could be a good starting point for
future development.

Then, ask questions about the product you've identified, using the mnemonic to guide you.
Brainstorm as many questions and answers as you can. (We've included some example questions,
below.)

Some ideas that you generate using the tool may be impractical or may not suit your circumstances.
Don't worry about this – the aim is to generate as many ideas as you can.

Finally, look at the answers that you came up with. Do any stand out as viable solutions? Could you
use any of them to create a new product, or develop an existing one? If any of your ideas seem
viable, then you can explore them further.

The SCAMPER method helps you generate ideas for new products and services by encouraging you
to ask seven different types of questions, which will help you understand how you can innovate and
improve existing products, services, problems and ideas. SCAMPER is an acronym formed from the
abbreviation of: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify (Also magnify and minify), Put to another use ,
Eliminate, and Reverse. SCAMPER is a lateral thinking technique which challenges the status quo and
helps you explore new possibilities.

SCAMPER Questions

Let's look at some of the questions you could ask for each letter of the mnemonic:

Substitute

What materials or resources can you substitute or swap to improve the product?

What other product or process could you use?

What rules could you substitute?

Can you use this product somewhere else, or as a substitute for something else?
What will happen if you change your feelings or attitude toward this product?

Guiding questions:

What can I substitute so as to make an improvement?

How can I substitute the place, time, materials or people?

Can I substitute one part for another or change any parts?

Can I replace someone involved?

Can I change the rules?

Should I change the name?

Can I use other ingredients or materials?

Can I use other processes or procedures?

Can I change its shape, colour, roughness, sound or smell?

Can I use this idea for other projects?

Can I change my feelings or attitude towards it?

Combine

What would happen if you combine this product with another, to create something new?

What if you combine purposes or objectives?

What could you combine to maximize the uses of this product?

How could you combine talent and resources to create a new approach to this product?
Guiding questions:

What ideas, materials, features, processes, people, products, or components can I combine?

Can I combine or merge this or that with other objects?

What can I combine so as to maximize the number of uses?

What can I combine in order to lower the costs of production?

Which materials could I combine?

Where can I build synergy?

Which are the best elements I can bring together so as to achieve a particular result?

Adapt

How could you adapt or readjust this product to serve another purpose or use?

What else is the product like?

Who or what could you emulate to adapt this product?

What else is like your product?

What other context could you put your product into?

What other products or ideas could you use for inspiration?

Guiding questions:

Which part of the product could I change?

Could I change the characteristics of a component?

Can I seek inspiration in other products or processes, but in a different context?

Does the history offer any solutions?

Which ideas could I adapt, copy, or borrow from other people’s products?

What processes should I adapt?

Can I adapt the context or target group?

What can I adapt in this or that way in order to make this result?

Modify

How could you change the shape, look, or feel of your product?

What could you add to modify this product?

What could you emphasize or highlight to create more value?

What element of this product could you strengthen to create something new?

Guiding questions:

What can I magnify or make larger?

What can I tone down or delete?

Could I exaggerate or overstate buttons, colours, size…?

Could I grow the target group?

What can be made higher, bigger, or stronger?

Can I increase its speed or frequency?

Can I add extra features?

How can I add extra value?

What can you remove or make smaller, condensed, lower, shorter or lighter—or streamline, split up
or understate?

What can I change in this way or that way so as to achieve such and such a result?

Put to Another Use

Can you use this product somewhere else, perhaps in another industry?

Who else could use this product?

How would this product behave differently in another setting?

Could you recycle the waste from this product to make something new?

Guiding questions:

What else can it be used for?

How would a child use it?—an older person?

How would people with different disabilities use it?

Which other target group could benefit from this product?

What other kind of user would need or want my product?

Who or what else may be able to use it?

Can it be used by people other than those it was originally intended for?

Are there new ways to use it in its current shape or form?

Would there be other possible uses if I were to modify the product?

How can I reuse something in a certain way by doing what to it?

Eliminate

How could you streamline or simplify this product?

What features, parts, or rules could you eliminate?

What could you understate or tone down?

How could you make it smaller, faster, lighter, or more fun?

What would happen if you took away part of this product? What would you have in its place?

Guiding questions:

What can I remove without altering its function?

Can I reduce time or components?

What would happen if I removed a component or part of it?

Can I reduce effort?

Can I cut costs?

How can I simplify it?

What’s non-essential or unnecessary?

Can I eliminate the rules?

Can I make it smaller?

Can I split my product into different parts?

I can eliminate what by doing what?

Reverse

What would happen if you reversed this process or sequenced things differently?

What if you try to do the exact opposite of what you're trying to do now?

What components could you substitute to change the order of this product?

What roles could you reverse or swap?

How could you reorganize this product?

Guiding questions:

What can I rearrange in some way – can I interchange components, the pattern, or the layout?

Can I change the pace or schedule?

What would I do if part of your problem, product or process worked in reverse?

I can rearrange what in what way such that this happens?

Example 1

To demonstrate how SCAMPER works, let's imagine that you need to improve a simple thermal flask
aimed at the morning commuter. We'll work through some of the questions above to think of ways
to develop this product.

Substitute: You could replace the metal cap with a plastic one to reduce heat loss. And perhaps
there is a more environmentally-friendly manufacturing process you could use instead, that would
make the product more appealing to green-minded consumers.

Combine: You could work with artists and designers to make the flasks more attractive and unique.
Adapt: Flasks are similar in shape to telescopes, though much shorter. Explore how you could adapt
the materials and design so that your flask could extend like an old-fashioned spyglass to hold more
liquid.

Modify: The flask isn't especially easy or comfortable to hold. You could add a rubber sleeve to aid
grip, or make the bottle thinner so that it can be held in one hand.

Put to another use: So far, you've designed the flask around individual commuters, but there are
many other groups of people who could also use the product. Take traveling couples, for example.
They won't want to carry a flask each, so think about redesigning the flask to include detachable
compartments which can be used as mugs. Then two people can share the drink from one flask.

Eliminate: You could eliminate the handle on the side of the bottle so that it fits more easily into a
work bag or backpack.

Reverse: If you tried to do the exact opposite, you'd end up with a cold drink rather than a hot one!
But this would be useful in summer months or hotter climates. So, explore ways of keeping liquid
cool in the flask instead of hot.

Mind Mapping
Have you ever studied a subject or brainstormed an idea, only to find yourself with pages of
information, but no clear view of how it fits together?

This is where Mind Mapping (also known as Mind Mapping, Concept Mapping, Spray Diagrams, and
Spider Diagrams) can help.

Mind Mapping is a useful technique that supports learning, improves information recording, shows
how different facts and ideas are related, and enhances creative problem solving. Read on to find
out more.

What Are Mind Maps?

Mind Maps were popularized by author and consultant, Tony Buzan. They use a two-dimensional
structure, instead of the list format conventionally used to take notes. This makes information easier
to remember, as it's held in a format that our minds find easy to recall and quick to review.
A good Mind Map shows the "shape" of the subject, the relative importance of individual points, and
the ways in which facts relate to one another. Research shows that this is of particular benefit when
dealing with complex information, such as during business planning and strategy development.

Mind Maps are more compact than conventional notes, and often take up just one side of paper.
This helps you to make associations and to generate new ideas. You can also add new information
easily, even to a Mind Map that you've already drawn.

Mind Mapping can also help you to break down large projects or topics into manageable chunks, so
that you can plan effectively without getting overwhelmed and without forgetting something
important.

What Can I Use Mind Maps For?

Mind Maps are useful for:
 Brainstorming – individually, and as a group.
 Summarizing information.
  Taking notes.
 Consolidating information from different sources.
 Thinking through complex problems.
 Presenting information clearly.
 Studying and memorizing information.

Mind Maps are also good for refreshing information in your mind. When you commit the shape and
structure of a Mind Map to memory, you can often get the cues you need to remember the
information it contains just by glancing quickly at the Map. Studies have shown that this makes them
highly valuable when you're learning a language, for example.

You can really get inventive with Mind Maps, so they are great for boosting creativity, too. When you
include colors, images or drawings, they can even resemble a work of art!

How to Draw a Basic Mind Map

To draw a Mind Map, follow these five steps:

Step 1. Write the title of the subject or project that you're exploring in the center of a page and draw
a circle around it, as shown in figure 1, below.

(Our simple example shows a Mind Map of the actions needed to deliver a successful presentation.)

Blue Circle containing the words " Making a Presentation", denoting the central theme of the Mind
Map

Step 2. Draw lines out from this circle as you think of subheadings of the topic or important facts or
tasks that relate to your subject. Label these lines with your subheadings. (See figure 2, below.)
Step 3. Dive deeper into the subject to uncover the next level of information (related sub-topics,
tasks or facts, for example). Then, link these to the relevant subheadings. (See figure 3, below.)

Step 4. Repeat the process for the next level of facts, tasks and ideas. Draw lines out from the
appropriate headings and label them, as shown in figure 4, below.
Step 5. As you discover new information or think of additional tasks, add them to your Mind Map in
the appropriate places.

A complete Mind Map may have main topic lines radiating in all directions from the center, with sub-
topics forking off these like branches and twigs from the trunk of a tree. You don't need to worry
about the structure you produce – this will evolve of its own accord.

Example 2
Analytical Thinking
Being able to think analytically was top in the World Economic Forum’s list of sought-after future
skills. In fact, the ability to problem solve effectively is a common theme across all the skills
mentioned in the list.

Employers look for employees with the ability to investigate a problem and find the ideal solution in
a timely, efficient manner. The skills required to solve problems are known as analytical skills.

You use analytical skills when detecting patterns, brainstorming, observing, interpreting data,
integrating new information, theorizing, and making decisions based on the multiple factors and
options available.

What is Analytical Thinking?

Analytical thinking is the ability to tackle complicated issues by evaluating information you’ve
gathered and organized. Analytical thinkers can detect patterns between datasets that often lead to
creative solutions.

They’re able to turn noisy data and information into action. As critical thinkers, they help teams
make informed decisions based on collected data and identified goals. Analytical thinkers also help
their team embrace new ideas and develop a growth mindset.
There are 7 Steps To Improve Your Analytical Thinking Skills
If you think your analytical thinking skills need some brushing up or you just want to improve it, here
are some strategies you can do:

1. Be Observant

Take a walk outside or observe people in your office. Use as many of your senses, see what’s
happening around you. Is there anything that interests you? Remember you have to actively engage
your mind.
2. Read Books

Once again, the key to improving your analytical thinking skill is to keep your mind active and
running. Read books and try to work on an active reading strategy: proactively read and digest and
question what you’re reading. You can highlight, raise questions, read aloud or make predictions to
stay engaged with your reading material.

3. Learn How Things Work

Don’t just find the solution but know how exactly certain things work. By scrutinizing how things
work, you will have a better understanding of the process which is vital in stimulating your analytical
skills.

4. Ask Questions

Did you know that curiosity makes us smarter? According to Neuroscientist Aracelli Carmago, “The
more curious we are about a subject, the more it engages our cognitive functions, such as attention
and memory.” With that said, asking more questions can help develop better problem-solving skills,
retention, and memory of a subject. So don’t be shy to ask questions, especially if your query is valid.

5. Play Brain Games

If you want to improve your analytical thinking skills, it may be time to play Sudoku or other brain
games like puzzles, chess, or crosswords. The best part of working on brain games to develop your
analytical skill set is it is fun and doesn’t require a lot of motivation to get started.

6. Practice Your Problem Solving Skills

Keep in mind that for every problem, there is a solution. Visualize and be articulate in the
presentation of a particular concept. Prepare two, three or even more solutions to a problem. And, if
possible, do test runs on those solutions. See which one is the best and the most logical.

7. Think About Your Decisions

Making important decisions at work is very common. Thus, think hard and rationalize your decisions.
What are the pros and cons of your decision? Ask for an expert opinion if available or do extensive
research. Ask yourself, is this the best solution for this problem? Take a step back to rethink it a bit
more, and then you can finally decide.

At the end of the day, like any skill development, you have to a lot of practice and application. Learn
from your everyday experiences. Then, practice your analytical skills until it comes naturally.
 Module -4
What is a prototype?
Long story short, a prototype is an early sample created to test a concept or process. They’re
typically created to evaluate the accuracy of assumptions made by the designers in the design
process.

Prototyping is a crucial part of the design process and is practiced widely across design
disciplines. Many designers make prototypes to test their designs before investing in the final
product. Because of this, creating a prototype is really the step between the formalization and
evaluation of an idea.

The point of a prototype is to have a tangible visual representation of the solutions discussed
throughout the design process. Instead of repeating the information discussed in the ideation
phase - a prototype acts as a model that takes into consideration everything discussed. This
way the design team can see the beginning of the ideas brought to life. Having this model
allows designers to validate their concepts by sharing their prototypes with users quickly - so
they can resolve any concerns that might still be present.
The feedback from users is crucial and often shows flaws in the prototype which can then be
reworked for a stronger final product. Rather than working off assumptions, the user testing
phase on the prototype gives the designer facts, so they can rework and alter their product.
Prototypes send designers “back to the drawing process” to refine their work and strengthen
their ideas. Because they fail early, prototypes are incredibly important. Creating and testing
a prototype can save a business energy and large costs.

Prototyping allows you to determine whether or not the design (or changes) work the way
you intended them to—before they’re out in the world and in the hands of your users.
Before releasing a product to market, you want to make sure that it works as intended. Does it
solve the user’s problem exactly as planned? Is it user-friendly and intuitive? Ideally, you’ll
find these things out before you spend time and money developing the final product.
*Put simply, a prototype is a scaled-down version of your product; a simulation or sample
version which enables you to test your ideas and designs *before investing time and money
into actually developing the product. *
So, if you’re designing an app, you might create a digital prototype and test it on real users
before handing it off to the developers.
Prototypes come in all different shapes and sizes, ranging from simple paper models to fully
functional, interactive digital prototypes. We’ll look at some of the different types of
prototype in section four. First, though, it’s important to understand the value of prototyping
—which brings us to section three.
Why use prototypes?
Prototyping is an extremely valuable step in the design thinking process. Putting the user at
the heart of the process requires you to test your designs on real users—and prototypes make
this possible without spending loads of time and money.
Why not test with a finished product?
It’s a valid question, but all in all it would be pretty pointless to produce a finished product
for the users to test. By the time a finished product is completed - a lot of time, money and
energy has been spent. If a designer were to test the completed product, and discovers
negative feedback, they would then be stuck with the very difficult task of implementing
these new findings.
Whereas, with a simple, scaled down version of the product, the designer can observe, record,
judge and measure the responses, behaviour and reactions of the user. If the observation is
not what the designer had hoped for, or there are flaws - the designer still has the ability to go
back, alter and fix, which would not be possible with an end product.
Prototypes allow designers to think about their solutions as a tangible product rather than an
abstract idea. Prototypes also encourage learning from failing, as failures are quick and
cheap. This also promotes excitement and risk as less time and money is invested into bad
ideas.
Prototypes can help you to:
Gain first-hand insights into how your users will interact with, and react to, the product
you’re designing. Seeing an early version of the product in action shows you if, and how, it’ll
work in the real world.
Identify any usability issues or design flaws before it’s too late. If an idea or design is
destined for failure, you’d rather find out in the early stages. Prototypes enable you to fail
early and cheaply; they’ll expose a weak or unsuitable approach before you’ve invested too
much time or money.
Make informed design decisions. Can’t decide where a certain button should go on your app
home screen? Torn between two different layouts for your website? Test a few versions in the
form of prototypes and see which works best.
No matter how thorough your UX research is, many people find it difficult to truly
conceptualize a product until they have it in front of them. Prototypes allow you to iterate,
refine, rework, and make improvements until you have a market-ready product.
How does a prototype help you create human-centred design solution?
Early research isn’t everything. While empathising with users by learning about the problem
and experimenting with ideation sessions may generate what seems like a world-class
solution, testing is still crucial for success.
Design teams can easily become fixated on the research they have conducted but this can
curse them with knowledge and create a bias towards their ideas. This means that they might
miss crucial information because they are so involved in what they are doing. A fresh pair of
eyes on the product - especially someone who would be the end user - can fill in most of the
gaps that a designer could experience when creating their product.
By prototyping and then testing, designers can reveal the assumptions that they have made
and uncover helpful insights that they can then use to improve their solution.
They can also use prototyping as a form of research earlier on in the process. By prototyping
earlier on, designers can explore problem areas, products, services and so much more.
Guidelines for Prototyping
It is important to remember that prototypes are supposed to be quick and easy tests of design
solutions. Here are a few guidelines that will help you in the Prototyping stage:
 Just start building
Design Thinking has a bias towards action: that means if you have any uncertainties about
what you are trying to achieve, your best bet is to just make something. Creating a prototype
will help you to think about your idea in a concrete manner, and potentially allow you to gain
insights into ways you can improve your idea.

 Don’t spend too much time

Prototyping is all about speed; the longer you spend building your prototype, the more
emotionally attached you can get with your idea, thus hampering your ability to objectively
judge its merits.
 Remember what you’re testing for
All prototypes should have a central testing issue. Do not lose sight of that issue, but at the
same time, do not get so bound to it so as to lose sight of other lessons you could learn from.
 Build with the user in mind
Test the prototype against your expected user behaviours and user needs. Then, learn from
the gaps in expectations and realities, and improve your ideas.

What is fidelity?
Prototypes don’t necessarily look like final products — they can have different fidelity. The
fidelity of a prototype refers to how it conveys the look-and-feel of the final product
(basically, its level of detail and realism).
  Fidelity can vary in the areas of:
 Visual design
 Content
 Interactivity
There are many types of prototypes, ranging anywhere between these two extremes:
1. Low-Fidelity
2. High-Fidelity
Product teams choose a prototype’s fidelity based on the goals of prototyping, completeness
of design, and available resources.
Low-fidelity prototyping
Low-fidelity (lo-fi) prototyping is a quick and easy way to translate high-level design
concepts into tangible and testable artifacts. The first and most important role of lo-fi
prototypes is to check and test functionality rather than the visual appearance of the product.

Here are the basic characteristics of low-fidelity prototyping:

Visual design: Only some of the visual attributes of the final product are presented (such as
shapes of elements, basic visual hierarchy, etc.).
Content: Only key elements of the content are included.
Interactivity: The prototype can be simulated by a real human_._ During a testing session, a
particular person who is familiar with design acts as a computer and manually changes the
design’s state in real-time. Interactivity can also be created from wireframes, also known as
“connected wireframes.” This type of prototype is basically wireframes linked to each other
inside an application like PowerPoint or Keynote, or by using a special digital prototyping
tool such as Adobe XD.
Pros
Inexpensive. The clear advantage of low-fidelity prototyping is its extremely low cost.
Fast. It’s possible to create a lo-fi paper prototype in just five to ten minutes. This allows
product teams to explore different ideas without too much effort.
Collaborative. This type of prototyping stimulates group work. Since lo-fi prototyping
doesn’t require special skills, more people can be involved in the design process. Even non-
designers can play an active part in the idea-formulation process.
Clarifying. Both team members and stakeholders will have a much clearer expectation about
an upcoming project.hgygh
Cons
Uncertainty during testing. With a lo-fi prototype, it might be unclear to test participants what
is supposed to work and what isn’t. A low-fidelity prototype requires a lot of imagination
from the user, limiting the outcome of user testing.
Limited interactivity. It’s impossible to convey complex animations or transitions using this
type of prototype.
Popular techniques
Paper prototyping and clickable wireframes are two popular low-fidelity prototyping
techniques. Both techniques are focused on providing the fastest-possible way to iterate
design ideas until both the project team and the stakeholders are happy with the basics.

Paper prototyping
Paper prototyping allows you to prototype a digital product interface without using digital
software. The technique is based on creating hand drawings of different screens that represent
user interfaces of a product. While this is a relatively simple technique, it can be useful when
a product team needs to explore different ideas and refine designs quickly. This is especially
true in the early stages of design when the team is trying different approaches.
A task list on paper.
Simple screens are drawn on paper. A common practice for testing these prototypes is to have
one person play ‘computer,’ switching the sketches around according to user choices. Image
source: UX Playground
The benefits of using this technique include:
Leverage common design skills. Everyone can sketch (even those who say they can’t) and
this means that everyone can build paper prototypes.
Allow early testing. Testing prototypes early lets product teams find big-picture problems —
such as unclear information architecture — before they become too difficult to handle.
Support rapid experimentation. Different user interface elements can be drawn, cut out,
copied to make extras, and then assembled on a new piece of paper. With paper prototypes,
it’s also possible to mimic complex interactions, such as scrolling.
User interface prototyped.
User interfaces can be quickly prototyped and tested. Image source: Vimeo
Serve as documentation. Unlike digital prototypes, paper prototypes can be used as a
reference for future iterations. Notes and revisions can be written either directly on the
prototype or on sticky notes attached to the pages.
Stack of paper prototypes.
Paper prototypes can assist in documentation. Notes and revisions will support designers and
developers when they will create an actual product. Image source: inesnorman
Facilitate adjustments. Using paper prototypes, it’s possible to make changes during the
testing session. If designers need to add a change to the prototype they can quickly sketch a
response or erase part of the design.
If you want to use paper prototyping for usability testing it’s important to consider the natural
limitations of this technique:
An additional person is required to conduct the test session. You’ll need at least two people to
conduct the test. One person will be the facilitator (‘computer’) that’s helping the test
participant walk through the design and the other person will be actually testing the app.
It’s hard to convey complicated operations. Paper prototypes are less suitable for visually-
complex or highly-interactive interfaces.
Considering the advantages and disadvantages, it’s recommended to use paper prototyping
during the early stages of design only, when a project is still abstract or in the process of
forming. The further the team gets into the design process, the more significant the gap
between paper prototypes and the final product will be.
Clickable wireframes
A wireframe is a visual representation of a product page that the designer can use to arrange
page elements. Wireframes can be used as a foundation for lo-fi prototypes. Clickable
wireframes are the simplest form of interactive prototype — created by linking static
wireframes together.
Just like paper prototypes, clickable wireframes often don’t look like the finished product, but
they do have one significant advantage over paper prototypes — they don’t require a separate
person to work as a facilitator during the testing session.
The benefits of using this technique include:
Existing design deliverables can be reused. During a particular phase of the design process
you’ll have wireframes or sketches that represent your product’s UI design. In most cases, it’s
possible to use them to create a clickable flow.
Layouts can be easily changed. Designers can easily adapt wireframes based on user
feedback and repeat the testing process. With the right tool, it’s easy to create or modify
click-through prototypes without spending a lot of extra time.
Low-fidelity prototypes can be created using tools for presentation (such as PowerPoint or
Keynote):
A basic prototype.
By linking together different pages, you can create a very basic prototype in software like
PowerPoint and Keynote.
They can also be created using tools made specifically for prototyping. Using such tools has
one crucial advantage: you can move from a low-fidelity to a high-fidelity prototype without
switching the prototyping tool.
Low-fidelity prototype made in Adobe XD.
An example of a low-fidelity prototype made in Adobe XD.
High-fidelity prototyping
High-fidelity (hi-fi) prototypes appear and function as similar as possible to the actual
product that will ship. Teams usually create high-fidelity prototypes when they have a solid
understanding of what they are going to build and they need to either test it with real users or
get final-design approval from stakeholders.
The basic characteristics of high-fidelity prototyping include:
Visual design: Realistic and detailed design — all interface elements, spacing, and graphics
look just like a real app or website.
Content: Designers use real or similar-to-real content. The prototype includes most or all of
the content that will appear in the final design.
Interactivity: Prototypes are highly realistic in their interactions.
Pros
Meaningful feedback during usability testing. High-fidelity prototypes often look like real
products to users. This means that during usability testing sessions, test participants will be
more likely to behave naturally — as if they were interacting with the real product.
Testability of specific UI elements or interactions. With hi-fi interactivity, it’s possible to test
graphical elements like affordance or specific interactions, such as animated transitions and
microinteractions.
Easy buy-in from clients and stakeholders. This type of prototype is also good for
demonstrations to stakeholders. It gives clients and potential investors a clear idea of how a
product is supposed to work. An excellent high-fidelity prototype gets people excited about
your design in ways a lo-fi, bare-bones prototype can’t.
Cons
Higher costs. In comparison with low-fidelity prototypes, creating high-fidelity prototypes
implies higher costs, both temporal and financial.
Popular techniques
A digital prototype created using a special tool

Digital prototypes are the most common form of hi-fi prototyping. Nowadays, the variety of
specialized software allows designers to create visually rich, powerful prototypes full of
interactive effects and complex animations.
High-fidelity prototype made in Adobe XD.
A high-fidelity interactive prototype created in Adobe XD and mirrored on an iPhone.
The benefits of using this technique include:
Optimization for devices. Specialized software allows designers to preview a prototype in a
web browser or on any desktop or mobile device. This helps UX and UI designers achieve
optimal layouts on different types of devices.
Less clarification during usability testing. High-fidelity interactivity frees the designer from
having to clarify concepts during testing, allowing the designer to focus on observation
instead.
Coded prototypes
A hi-fi, coded prototype is a solution that is pretty close to the ready-to-release version of a
product. An example of such prototype would be a rich interactive sandbox that allows test
participants to explore a product’s different features. This type of prototyping is
recommended for designers who are confident in their coding skills.
The benefits of using this technique include:
Familiarity with the platform’s constraints. Coding allows designers to understand the true
capabilities and constraints of the platform they’re designing for.
Efficiency. A coded prototype can be a good foundation for a fully-functioning app.
Assuming you’re not building a one-time throwaway prototype, what you build will provide
the groundwork for the final product. If it’s possible to use prototype code in the final
product, you’ll save a huge amount of time and energy down the road. At the same time, it’s
important to understand that prototyping is largely about speed — the goal is not to create
reusable code, it’s to implement a design in a way that people can interact with as quickly as
possible.
If delivering a good user experience is the goal of your project —and it should be — then
prototyping must be a part of your UX design process. It’s crucial to choose the most
effective method of prototyping — minimizing work and maximizing learning — based on
your product’s need. The end result will be overall improved design that is based on
prototype testing.
Different kinds of prototypes
Now let’s take a look at some of the different kinds of prototypes you might use. Prototypes
can vary in terms of their form, fidelity, interactivity, and lifecycle:
Form: Is it a hand-drawn prototype, or a digital one? Is it for mobile or desktop?
Fidelity: How detailed and polished is the prototype? You’ll often hear the terms high-fidelity
and low-fidelity in relation to prototypes.
Interactivity: How functional is the prototype? Can the user click on it or interact with it, or
is it view-only?
Lifecycle: Is the prototype a quick, disposable version that will be replaced with a new and
improved version? Or is it a more enduring creation that can be built and improved upon,
potentially ending up as the final product?
Generally, prototypes can be divided into low-fidelity and high-fidelity. Fidelity simply
describes how similar to the final product the prototype is; whether it’s an accurate
representation of the final product, or more of a basic, early-stage model. Here’s an example
of how a prototype for one screen would look from low to high fideltity:

Low- to mid-fidelity prototypes

Low-fidelity prototypes are ideal if you want to rapidly test broad concepts. They’re quick,
cheap, and highly collaborative; they don’t require advanced design skills, so different people
from different teams can easily be involved.
As a rule, low-fidelity prototypes keep content and visuals to a minimum, presenting only the
key elements as basic shapes in order to convey visual hierarchy. Their simplicity can lead to
uncertainty during testing; it’s not always easy for users to identify what and how the
prototype is supposed to work.
Low-fi prototypes are also limited in terms of interactivity, so it’s not possible to convey
animations or transitions.

Mid-fidelity prototypes can also be inexpensive to create (depending on the tools you
choose), and don’t require much design knowledge or experience. These are great if you want
to test broad functional features, such as the user flow for one particular use case (i.e., the
user taps this button, which leads them here, then here then here). This is a great approach to
take if you’re short on time and/or just need to get an overview across screens to be sure that
the solutions youve designed actually work and don’t overlook any key considerations.
Some of the most common low- and mid-fidelity prototyping techniques include paper
prototyping and clickable wireframes. These methods are particularly useful for iterating on
initial design ideas, and getting the designers and stakeholders aligned on basic design
elements. Let’s explore each of these techniques in more detail.
Paper prototyping
Believe it or not, you can create prototypes using nothing more than pen and paper. Paper
prototypes are usually low-fidelity. You simply draw different screens of a digital product
interface onto sheets of paper—no fancy software needed. You can even simulate
interactivity during testing by moving the screens (or sheets of paper) around based on how
the user navigates the paper prototype. Check out how Google does paper prototyping.
Paper prototyping does have its advantages—it’s quick and affordable, and can be used to
document the evolution of your design, giving you tangible artefacts to refer back to.
However, paper prototypes can be limited; you won’t be able to convey visually complex
interfaces, nor high levels of interactivity. They are best kept to the very early stages of the
design process when you need to quickly explore a variety of broader ideas or concepts.

Clickable wireframes
Clickable wireframes can also be used as low-fidelity prototypes. A clickable wireframe not
only represents the visual layout of a digital interface, but also offers a certain degree of
interactivity. You can simulate the journey a user might go through by including hyperlinked
buttons which lead to another wireframe.
Clickable wireframes are still very much a bare-bones representation of the finished product,
including things like image and text placeholders together with buttons and navigational
elements. They can be created using special wireframing software, or even with a
presentation tool like PowerPoint or Keynote.
The great thing about clickable wireframes is that they can be quickly and easily modified.
Unlike a paper prototype where you’ll need to redraw the entire screen if you want to make
changes, you can make minor edits without starting from scratch. Still, low-fidelity
wireframes are best suited for prototyping in the early stages of the project.
2 Types of prototyping
Prototyping is generally separated into 2 main categories. These categories are low-fidelity
prototyping and high-fidelity prototyping.
Low-fidelity prototyping
Low-fidelity prototyping can be considered the more basic of the two categories. The model
created might be incomplete or only incorporate a few of the features that the end product
would have. Low-fidelity prototypes quite often won't be made of the same material as the
finished product, instead they’ll be made of wood, paper or plastic. These prototypes are
cheaply and easily made or simply just visualisations of the end product.
Examples of low-fidelity prototypes:
 Storyboarding
 Sketching
 Wizard of Oz
Pros of low-fidelity prototypes
 Quick
 Cheap
 Can change them very quickly
 Disposable
 Allows the designer to see a whole overview with minimal effort
 Not resource heavy - anyone can make a low-fidelity prototype regardless of
experience level
 Fosters design thinking
Cons of low-fidelity prototypes
 Not realistic
 Prototypes that lack the look or feel of the product may lack validity
 May not be appropriate for what you are creating for
 May remove control from the user as the designer would probably have to explain
certain parts
High-fidelity prototyping
High-fidelity prototypes look much closer to the end result. An example of a high-fidelity
prototype could be a 3D plastic model that has moving parts and allows the users to feel the
function of the product. This would be considered high-fidelity rather than low-fidelity
because this would give the user a closer experience to the end product than let’s say, a block
of wood. As for software prototypes, a depiction of the product made in Sketch or Adobe
Illustrator would be considered high-fidelity rather than a storyboard.

Pros of high-fidelity prototypes

 More engaging for the user.
 Users are more likely to navigate the product alone without needing a step by step
explanation from the designer.
 The closer the prototype is to the finished product the more confidence the designer
can have as to how users will react to the final product.
 Stakeholders can instantly see the end product and will be able to judge more detail
aspects of the final article.
Cons of high-fidelity prototypes
 They take longer to produce
 Because of the realistic aspects - users will be more prone to asking questions about
characteristics that you don’t need observing as they won’t be in the final product (e.g
color)
 After spending so much time on the prototype, designers tend to want to not
implement changes that users mention due to a lack of time.
As you can see from both the pros and cons of low-fidelity prototypes and high-fidelity
prototypes, low-fidelity prototyping is usually the preferred method for the starting stages of
the design process.
Both prototype options are often used on the same product, with low-fidelity prototypes for
the beginning stages and high fidelity prototypes towards the end when testing questions
become more refined.
High-fidelity prototypes
Then there are high-fidelity prototypes: the more detailed, realistic prototypes that look and
operate much like the final product. You’ll move onto hi-fi prototypes once you have a good
idea of what you’re going to build. They’ll help you to fine-tune the design and get it ready
for market.
High-fidelity prototypes tend to include all the visual components, interactive elements, and
content that will be featured on the final product. In fact, they look just like a real app or
website—which is hugely beneficial when it comes to user testing. The user feels like they’re
interacting with a live product, so you can expect them to behave naturally and provide
meaningful feedback.
Of course, high-fidelity prototypes are more expensive and time-consuming to produce than
their low-fidelity equivalents. However, they are the most useful option when it comes to
testing your designs. With a high-fidelity prototype, you can test pretty much every single
element of your product before sending it off for development. Not only that: hi-fi prototypes
enable you to show your colleagues and stakeholders from other departments exactly how the
final product should look.
When it comes to high-fidelity prototypes, you’ll most likely create digital prototypes using
specialist software. Some of the most popular prototyping tools on the market include Sketch,
InVision, and Flinto. You can find a comprehensive list of prototyping tools here.
If you’d like to learn how to prototype with Adobe XD, check out this recording of a recent
event we held to walk through this process.

5. How to create a prototype: Tips and best practices

Now we know exactly what prototyping is, why it’s so valuable, and what kinds of
prototypes we might use throughout the design process. There’s only one thing left to do:
create your own!
Here are some pointers that will help you along the way:
Choose the right kind of prototype
Before you create a prototype, consider what stage you’re at in the design process, as well as
the time and resources available. Low-fidelity prototypes make sense in the early stages, but
you’ll want to move on to hi-fi prototypes as you get closer to shipping your product.
Set concrete goals
Have a clear idea of what you want your prototype to achieve. In other words, what do you
want to find out when you test your prototype? Remember to focus on user needs, keeping
your problem statement in mind at all times!
Use the right tools
If you’re new to digital prototyping, spend some time playing around with a few of the most
popular industry tools. Find the tool that meets your needs in terms of features and
functionality, and familiarize yourself with the interface before you start prototyping. When
the time comes, this will make the prototyping process much easier!
Design Thinking is all about generating ideas and testing them, so prototype as and when you
need to. Remember, the Design Thinking process isn’t strictly linear, so you can whip up a
prototype at any time.
What is rapid prototyping?
In order to understand rapid prototyping, it is useful to consider where the term comes from.
The term “rapid prototyping” actually originates from the manufacturing industry. In
manufacturing, rapid prototyping is used to create a 3D model of a product, or a single part of
a product. The prototype can be tested before the product or part is manufactured in larger
quantities.
In much the same way, designers in the digital world have adopted rapid prototyping as a
quick and cost-effective way to build and test a working version of their product. In digital
design, rapid prototyping is the process of iteratively mocking up an interface and validating
it with users, stakeholders, and even your teammates.
But what makes it rapid compared to standard prototyping?
In the manufacturing world, rapid prototyping is much quicker than traditional prototyping,
which may take months or even years. When it comes to building digital products, however,
it shouldn’t ever take designers months or years to build and test a prototype. So, in actual
fact, all prototyping in digital design can be considered rapid. Prototyping tools like InVision
and Prott showcase the nature of prototyping in the digital realm: they are designed to
expedite an already speedy process, allowing us to stitch together screens in just minutes.
In a relatively short space of time, we build a prototype of a section of a product we’d like to
validate. We then show it to users or our team to gather feedback, and make changes based
on this feedback. This process lets us gather feedback early and often, helping us “build
better products faster.”
3. The benefits of rapid prototyping
Better. Faster. Sounds pretty good, right? But what exactly does this mean for teams and
designers?
Well, for starters, rapid prototyping gives us a visual to make sure we’re all on the same page.
It isn’t the same thing to describe a product as it is to see it. And while we probably can get
away with descriptions within teams since we all speak the same language, they are no good
for stakeholders, investors, or users. A quick prototype eliminates miscommunication.
Rapid prototyping also helps us catch problems or pain-points early on in the design process.
This lets us address and solve the problem before it gets to development or further into the
process, saving us precious time and money.
Finally, continuously and quickly testing our work helps us validate that we’re building a
product tailored to fit real user needs and wants. We’ll be showing our rapid prototype to
them, and they’ll be able to let us know if it’s working or not.
4. How to build a rapid prototype: The rapid prototyping cycle
Now we know what a rapid prototype is, let’s consider how to go about building one.
It is quite simple:
Build what you’re testing
Test it on users, stakeholders, or your team
Adjust it to reflect feedback
Repeat the process
That is it! The process isn’t complicated and yet it’s hugely beneficial.
Creating a rapid prototype: How much do I build?
Prototyping an entire app over and over again is a ton of work! And even as a “master”
prototyper, it’s not a quick process. It is also not necessary to build an entire app right off the
bat. So what do we build?
We commonly prototype:
 Core functionality and features
 Novel interactions and patterns
 Core Functionality and Features
Where will your users spend the most time? Which features will they use the most? Start
prototyping here!
Hammer out critical areas of your app or website and make sure they are meeting user
expectations, needs, and wants.
Novel interactions and patterns
We’ve come a long way since the norm was seeing plenty of bad design like this around the
web. Both in apps and on websites, we now see conventional structures and experiences.
Users are familiar with these. When they see them, they know their way around them and
how to use them.
Any time we’re creating something novel that departs from what users expect, we need to
prototype and test. If you’re designing a crazy new login screen or a new, cool kind of
checkout process, make sure you develop a prototype of it early on to iron out any kinks that
will confuse users.
Prototyping isn’t limited to these two cases. You can prototype and test any section of your
app. However, tackle one part or feature at a time. Don’t try to address the whole product at
once or you’ll wind up with a prototype that is too big to let you be nimble.
5. Are rapid prototypes limited to low fidelity?
A student recently asked me if rapid prototyping was limited to low fidelity. It isn’t. You can
test at all different levels of fidelity. You’ll still work quickly, will still gather feedback, and
will still revise to reflect it. The difference lies in the kind of feedback you’ll receive.
Low-fidelity prototypes let users focus on how they’ll work their way through a product.
Does it make sense? Can you find everything? Do any steps feel off? They are common
during very early stages of product development and fleshed out with pencil and paper. Fast,
easy, and effective!
Mid-fidelity prototypes help us focus on interactivity. They help us validate the behavior of
elements and screens. These are commonly created in tools like Balsamiq.
High-fidelity prototypes look like the finished product and are created in tools like Sketch or
Figma. When users are presented with these, they tend to focus on their visual design, so they
aren’t ideal during the early stages. We’ll typically use them towards the end to validate that
our visual design decisions clearly communicate what they are meant to.
So which level of fidelity is appropriate? It depends on the stage of your project and what
you’re looking to measure or find out.

10 types of prototyping
Here are some of the most common ways that prototypes are created for both digital and
physical products:
1. Sketches and diagrams
Whether you're in a lunch meeting and sketch an initial idea on a napkin or make a more
formalized picture using a ruler and ink, a paper prototype can be useful for beginning the
process of conceptualizing and forming a new product. This is perhaps the most basic form of
prototyping, but using a paper drawing is still a widely used way to share a concept.
2. 3D printing or rapid model
Three-dimensional printing allows engineers to quickly create a realistic model of a design
using a computer and printing machine. This prototype allows businesses to move from
design to production phase quicker because they can use the 3D model to identify flaws or
areas that need adjustment. Once the design is complete, it can be easily modified based on
observations and testing. The prototype file simply needs to be digitally reprogrammed. 3D
prototypes are used to simplify big designs like engines and aircraft parts.
3. Physical model
A prototype model can be made with anything from building bricks to craft paper. It doesn't
need to have working parts—it just gives a rough idea of the design. This prototype works
well for creating scaled concepts before producing a large-scale model. Physical model
prototypes can be useful for smaller crafted objects or even architectural designs.
4. Wireframe
A wireframe acts as a digital diagram or layout of the product. This is a common prototype
used for websites, software or other digital tools. It can be used by anyone working on the
project — from copywriters to developers — to navigate the structure and placement of
different content.
5. Role-play through virtual or augmented reality
Certain designs benefit from a visualization tool like virtual or augmented reality. Imagine
presenting the initial design for a new theme park. You can test development by "walking"
through the park as if construction has already finished using VR goggles or even a
smartphone.
6. Feasibility
Feasibility prototypes are used to test certain features that are added at a later stage in the
design process. Used both digitally and for physical models, these allow designers to
augment a design after creating an initial prototype. If a designer suddenly realizes they are
missing an essential part of the product, a feasibility model is made to be adapted as new
ideas arise.
7. Working model
A working model prototype allows you to test the idea of a product to see if it actually
functions the way you intended. This is useful for mechanized inventions or other designs
with features that need to move or fit a certain way. The idea is to follow initial plans to see if
the design really works.
8. Video prototype
Video prototypes are often used to present a product in the form of an animated video or even
a simulation that explains and graphically represents a project. They often show films of
other prototypes to help others—like fellow designers, the management or even consumers—
visualize the product.
9. Horizontal
A horizontal prototype shows a design from the user end. It's used mostly in software design
to help engineers understand the human interface of a project. Horizontal prototypes show
menus, windows and screens on a computer to test how users interact with the product.
10. Vertical
These prototypes are digitally created to improve a database design. They are considered
"back end" models used to test important functions in software before it moves on to another
design phase.

Advantages of the Prototyping Model

Here, are important pros/benefits of using Prototyping models:
 Users are actively involved in development. Therefore, errors can be detected in the
initial stage of the software development process.
 Missing functionality can be identified, which helps to reduce the risk of failure as
Prototyping is also considered as a risk reduction activity.
  Helps team member to communicate effectively
 Customer satisfaction exists because the customer can feel the product at a very early
stage.
 There will be hardly any chance of software rejection.
 Quicker user feedback helps you to achieve better software development solutions.
 Allows the client to compare if the software code matches the software specification.
 It helps you to find out the missing functionality in the system.
 It also identifies the complex or difficult functions.
 Encourages innovation and flexible designing.
 It is a straightforward model, so it is easy to understand.
 No need for specialized experts to build the model
 The prototype serves as a basis for deriving a system specification.
 The prototype helps to gain a better understanding of the customer’s needs.
 Prototypes can be changed and even discarded.
 A prototype also serves as the basis for operational specifications.
 Prototypes may offer early training for future users of the software system.
Disadvantages of the Prototyping Model
Here, are important cons/drawbacks of prototyping model:
 Prototyping is a slow and time taking process.
 The cost of developing a prototype is a total waste as the prototype is ultimately
thrown away.
 Prototyping may encourage excessive change requests.
 Some times customers may not be willing to participate in the iteration cycle for the
longer time duration.
 There may be far too many variations in software requirements when each time the
prototype is evaluated by the customer.
 Poor documentation because the requirements of the customers are changing.
 It is very difficult for software developers to accommodate all the changes demanded
by the clients.
 After seeing an early prototype model, the customers may think that the actual
product will be delivered to him soon.
 The client may lose interest in the final product when he or she is not happy with the
initial prototype.
 Developers who want to build prototypes quickly may end up building sub-standard
development solutions.

How to design user scenarios: best practices and examples

User scenarios help you understand the user and how they interact with the product. But how
is a scenario different from a persona? Read on to find out!
Designers need to understand their users if they want to make products that people will use.
By understanding them, you can help create solutions that help them achieve their goals. And
when users are able to achieve their goals, they will want to use your product again – but for
that, you need to truly understand the user.
One way to understand the people you’re designing for better is to map out and create user
scenarios. User scenarios are an opportunity to learn, they invite us to put ourselves in the
shoes of the user. Since they take the form of a diagram and/or brief story, they’re perfect for
presentations,

What is a User scenario?

User scenarios are one of the many tools UX designers have in their arsenal. Like the others,
user scenarios are a way that we have to understand what users want, how they feel and what
they want from the product. It’s all about helping the design team put themselves in the user’s
shoes, encouraging empathy.
On a more practical side, a user scenario tends to include who the user is and what their goal
is at that moment. Generally, scenarios are concise and represent a snapshot of the user
experience.

What are user scenarios and why have them

An important aspect of user scenarios is that they can help the team understand more than
what the goals of the user are. Many design teams believe the main advantage of having user
scenarios is that once we establish what the user’s goal is, it becomes easier to define how the
user would go about reaching that goal. That is closely connected to other tools in the UX
game, like mental models and user personas.
There are different takes on user scenarios, with some designers going for more task-focused
scenarios while others prefer a more complete and detailed scenario. The right fit for you will
depend on how much you know about your users, and how you prefer to organize all that
information.
Some prefer short and sweet user scenarios that focus only one the user goal or task. Others
claim we can obtain even more benefits from a more complete scenario, with additional
information about users that adds value – like their main source of income. Like many
aspects of UX design, there’s plenty of wiggle room to make user scenarios that fit well for
your team and project.
The benefits of user scenarios
Like we mentioned before, the biggest plus of having user scenarios is that they can give us
quite a bit of insight into the user’s mind, needs and wants – but many different research tools
do that too. User scenarios are all about getting the context of use right and tailoring the
experience to the user’s needs and motivations.
Benefits of user scenarios in ux design
Unlike user stories, user scenarios don’t just point out the user goals. Our friends over at The
Interaction Design Foundation put it perfectly: “scenarios explicitly capture what users would
likely experience as they proceed toward using an ideal solution.” They are about tracing
user’s steps in order to complete a task and validating aspects of the design we might have
otherwise overlooked.
What does a user scenario look like?
User Scenarios are useful for designers because they can spark ideas, generate features and
help refine any requirements going forward. They are also crucial when it comes to usability
testing. With user scenarios and a professional wireframe tool, designers can make sure they
cover all their bases and validate every move users make in the product.
Another interesting characteristic of user scenarios is that they give us a bit of context related
to the user and how they would come to use the product. They tend to include a bit of a story
that could include something like this:
“Samantha is a student who has an important exam next week. She needs to find a platform
that helps her manage her time between studying for the test and her other assignments for
school, to reach her goal of passing all classes.”
A small observation: It’s unwise to try to create user scenarios that portray all users. Instead,
be specific and base yourself on one user persona per user scenario. Check out our post on
user persona templates for more details.
Another important distinction is that user scenarios, while often mistaken for user stories,
aren’t quite the same. You can check out the full story on our post: Personas, scenarios, user
stories and storyboards: what’s the difference?
How to write a user scenario
Like we mentioned before, user scenarios can vary from company to company. We’ve gone
through some of the things they can include and their main function within a design project –
but how can we write one from zero?

Before you can actually write anything about the possible scenario, there’s a fair amount of
user research needed. You’ll want to have a clear definition of who your users are by the time
you start wondering when they’ll use your product or what they’d do with it. Most teams tend
to have a clear user persona (or two) before they start creating user scenarios, for example.
Mapping out scenarios for ux design
Discover our list of presentation techniques to showcase your work in the best possible way.
The process of writing user scenarios can be described as scenario mapping. This means that
in order to have a realistic user scenario, the design team has to consider the possible goals
and tasks, along with what that means for the user experience. This process doesn’t have to
be complex but it does require a lot of consideration on possible scenarios and outcomes.
Here’s a few things you can find in user scenarios:
Who the user is
The situation that drives users to seek the product
A specific task or goal the user has
Information regarding user’s income and spending
The path to completion of a task
Points of friction or stress in daily life or in the user experience
User scenario examples to learn from
1. Social Security platform user scenario
This is a long and detailed user scenario that includes much more information than a user’s
identifying trait and final goal. Depending on the project, this type of user scenario can add a
lot of value in setting the right environment and context of use for the product. This from our
friends over at Usability.gov on user scenarios.

“Mr. and Mrs. Macomb are retired school teachers who are now in their 70s. Their Social
Security checks are an important part of their income. They’ve just sold their big house and
moved to a small apartment. They know that one of the many chores they need to do now is
tell the Social Security Administration that they have moved. They don’t know where the
nearest Social Security office is and it’s getting harder for them to do a lot of walking or
driving.
Scenario based Prototyping,User scenario example of social security

If it is easy and safe enough, they would like to use the computer to notify the Social Security
Administration of their move. However, they are somewhat nervous about doing a task like
this by computer. They never used computers in their jobs.
However, their son, Steve, gave them a computer last year, set it up for them, and showed
them how to use email and go to websites. They have never been to the Social Security
Administration’s website, so they don’t know how it is organized. Also, they are reluctant to
give out personal information online, so they want to know how safe it is to tell the agency
about their new address this way.”
2. Supply management user scenario example
This is another rather complete user scenario from our friends at IDF. It perfectly captures the
real-life struggles that motivate the user to seek a solution – as well as the main benefit he
would get from it.
“Jeremy, 52, a senior manager for a medical supplies company, needs constantly updated
information on purchasing-related issues while he travels between work and hospital sites so
he can use/allocate resources optimally. He’s highly skilled, organized and diligent.
However, with recent layoffs he now struggles to manage his workload and is too drained to
enjoy his career. He strains to handle tasks which his former assistant previously performed,
stays current with issues and investigates supply-chain problems, while he tries to find
alternatives that would be more economical in the financial climate.
He wants something convenient like an app to take him straight to only the most relevant
updates and industry news, including current information feeds about share prices, tariffs on
foreign suppliers, budget decisions in local hospitals and innovations in the medical devices
he handles (mostly lung and cardiovascular products).
Instead of continuing to liaise with three other managers and spending an hour generating one
end-of-day report through the company intranet, he’d love to have all the information he
needs securely on his smartphone and be able to easily send real-time screenshots for junior
staff to action and file and corporate heads to examine and advise him about.”
3. A user scenario within a user persona
Another fine user scenario example from IDF, but this one is much more visual and concise.
We love that this approach makes the scenario much easier to read while still delivering a lot
of detail. It covers a lot of ground and keeps things easy to take in.
4. User scenario mapping example
UX design may be an industry of the future, but it still allows for some things to be done by
hand. While we always encourage design teams to make use of software to both make the
writing process easier and pool all the information together – but scenario mapping doesn’t
need to be done in a fancy platform. It just needs to be done with care, attention to detail and
plenty of empathy.
5. Pete the avid reader: user scenario
This is a very complete user scenario created by Usabilla on Pete, an avid reader. It highlights
how users’ motivations and goals may change according to their daily life, and how that can
impact the website in question. Let’s check it out.
“Pete Haller (32, single) works for the corporate communication department of Daimler
Chrysler. He loved it in the beginning, but his job is no longer a challenge for him. However,
he is scared to reorient because his status and financial security is very important to him. Pete
is very organized and can’t stand chaos or inconvenience.
In his free time, he reads a lot of books. Books help him to keep his mind busy and especially
professional literature offers him the challenges he misses at work. The last couple of weeks,
Pete has really been into medical books. Because of a family history, he is especially
interested in kidney diseases.
Pete is looking for an easy to read book for non-professionals that explains different kidney
diseases including symptoms, methods of treatment, and possible long-term effects. He does
not want to spend more than $30 and if available he prefers used books to save money. He
visits Amazon.com to find the right book.

Pete is handy with computers but since working with them all day long, he wants to use them
as little as possible when he is at home. Convenience is very important for Pete. He knows
exactly what he wants and he expects to quickly find several options that he can choose from.
He does not expect the payment process to be difficult or the shipping to take longer than two
days. Pete likes to read expert statements and short recev ssions from other users to find out
which book is the right one.
Pete used to go to his local book dealer. He enjoys walking through town after work and pick
up his purchases. Lately a friend has recommended amazon.com to him. His friend was very
enthusiastic about all the features Amazon offers and above all how convenient it works. This
made Pete curious and he wanted to try it out. He also sees the advantages of going home
directly after work, and even if he likes going to the bookstore, ordering his books from his
desk at home is way more convenient. He wants to try and order his next book online.”

MVP V/s Prototype: Make the Right Choice for Your Project
MVP and prototype are considered as two effective approaches that you can opt for for
product launch; however, they work at different stages of development. Many a time people
get confused between both terms. When you will use both of them in the right manner you
will be able to ensure that your business concept is accepted well by the stakeholders and the
target audience. Additionally, this will even make sure that your product launch is a complete
success.

Here in this article we will try to know MVP and prototype approaches in a better way and
learn when you can use them in your product development.
What is the MVP?
MVP or Minimum Viable Product is the product with the basic features to get started with.
Here the further development takes place based on the feedback received.
Even if you are planning to come up with a product prototype, you need to understand its
worth first. This is where you need to come up with MVP as it will save you money and time
all the while coming up with a functional product in a cost-effective manner. Unlike the
prototype, MVP is a complete product that you can release in the market. By introducing
MVP in the market you will be able to know whether it seems to have value for the customers
or not. In the case of MVP, functionality can be added later as the requirement arises and so it
is open for technical development.
Features of MVP
 A low budget project with higher user retention.
 Developing a project with high value by learning from continuous user feedback.
 You can choose to have just the essential features that may attract users when
developing the product.
 It can save you a lot in terms of time and money during project development.
 It can be released in the market quickly.
 Less risky, when trying to know the market and user needs.
 It helps you verify the assumptions and the viability of the idea.
 Let’s you know the market demands better.
What is project prototyping?
In simple words, a prototype can be called a simple model of the product which is in its early
stage. It is normally build to test the idea before it can be developed for commercial purposes.
Once you have an idea about a product on the mind, you need to check its viability and
feasibility first. The best way to get it done fast is through product prototype. It is even the
cheapest way to know whether the product can go with further development or not. This will
give you an idea about how your future product will look like and how it will function.
This means that the prototype can be called as the basic version of the full-fledged product
that you will develop in the future. However, you need to understand that the prototype is not
functional and operational as MVP is. You can even state that the prototype is the sketch you
make to explain your idea to the investors in the live form. This will help the investors to
understand the idea in a better way with its technicalities.
Now based on the feedback from the clients and stakeholders, the development team can
make the needed changes in the prototype or altogether come up with a new one.
Features of project prototyping
 Business users get to validate the flow of the application.
 Can get early feedback on the developed product.
 Complex ideas can be presented in a format that is easy to understand.
 Issues in the design and development phase can be identified.
 It can work well when you are looking for seed funding.
 Compared to full-fledged development, it is less expensive and time-saving.
Benefits of MVP
Cost efficiency
Products with all the needed and extra features take years of effort, time and money. Here
development iteratively takes place for a longer period. So the revenue received from the
earlier version can be used by them to build newer versions.
Test the business concepts with a core set of functionalities
MVP helps you get a primitive version of your product which you can test first to ensure your
business concept is acceptable in the market. MVP is all about offering core features at first
rather than coming up with a product with full-fledged features. This helps the business to
quickly market the product and keep on making improvements based on the user information.
Moreover, it also helps to come up with a product in a cost-effective manner.
Product evolution is driven by the iterative process
MVP is all about coming up with a product that has core functionalities and features. This
helps to build a specific user base for you and then work further to know what clicks with
them and whatnot. Collecting such information is very crucial for the development team as it
lets them decide what to include in future iterations. They can decide which features to add in
and what to drop and accordingly plan out the development budget.
Benefits of project prototyping
Find new product ideas and work on improvements
You can validate a new idea with prototyping and even have opportunities to find new ideas
during the process of development. Any new areas of improvement can be found in the
product during the testing phase.
Involvement of stakeholders and client
When you are carrying out project prototyping, it would be wise enough that you involve the
presence of stakeholders in the planning process. This will make sure that the design ideas
and the decisions taken in there will have co-ownership of the stakeholders. Bringing the
right stakeholders in the designing process will broaden the perspective of the team and will
help to make decisions that are efficient and cost-effective for the project.
Cost-efficiency
When you go ahead with project prototyping, you will be working towards saving money in
the long run. When it comes to project development, it is wise enough to resolve the issues at
the earliest than getting it done in the end.
UX validation
It is not easy to come up with a product that works well in terms of user engagement. One of
the best ways to validate the UX and usability of the project is running the prototype through
a user test. Several users tend to leave the app after one use and it is important that users just
not stop at downloading the app. You need to provide continuous value to the users if you
want to retain them. This can only be accomplished when you excel at app engagement.
Reasons to use MVP
Reduces development costs: MVP development needs less amount of money unlike
developing a full-fledged project. So even if your MVP fails to impress the users and
stakeholders, you will end up losing only a small amount of money.
Gets you the first set of customers: Developing an MVP will help you interact with the first
set of users. Once they will like the app they will spread the word. So by the time your app is
completely developed, you will have your first set of customers ready to use them.
Test the business idea: Whether your business idea will work in the market or not can be
known by building an MVP. Building MVP will let you know whether the users are
interested to use it or not. This will help you plan your further development process.
Attract investors: Having a business idea is one thing but to make it happen, you need to have
enough budget. You should look for investors if you have no money to invest in your project.
You need to build an MVP to explain your idea to the investors in a better way. Building an
MVP will let you have a better chance to get noticed.
Don’t put in your efforts unnecessarily: Building MVP will save you a lot of money and time,
and at the same time, will save you from unnecessary efforts. MVP will help you scale your
project based on user feedback.
Save your time: What will be your response if you find that the app you developed by
spending all your years of effort and money does not mean anything? What if your app failed
drastically? There cannot be the worst nightmare, right? You can avoid this situation
completely by taking a different step. Build an MVP for your app and collect user feedback.
This will help you make the right changes and improvements.
Reasons to use the prototype
Helps you know the issue better: People generally skip prototyping just because they think
that they know the correct solution. So stop thinking that way and start working on your
prototype. Remember that your first developed prototype may not be the perfect solution but
it will lead to more questions for improvement.
Saves you money: Prototyping will help you save a lot of money during the development
process. This means you will have a shorter development cycle. Again, compared to complete
project designing and development, you will need fewer resources for project prototyping. In
the beginning, you can have a single person to build the prototype and later once it is
approved, you can have the whole team to work on project development.
Saves you time: When compared with the real-life implementation, prototyping is faster. So
try to stay in this mode as much as you can. Build your project in prototype and keep on
testing and evaluating it continuously. This will help you know more about the issues in
design and solve them quickly. This will lead to faster implementation later.
Start working quickly: When you are working on something at the organizational level it
involves a lot of ideas and many opinions. All such issues get resolved with prototyping.
They help you get started on the project quickly. Even if your first developed prototype may
not come out as expected, it will help you know what can’t work for your project. With
continuous prototyping, you will be able to get a good result.
Get feedback fast: For the success of any project, feedback plays a key role. Feedback can
be collected from clients, customers, and stakeholders. The sooner you will be able to collect
the feedback; you will be able to start implementing them in the project. It is important to
collect the feedback as you are developing the project for the users.
Build a better product through several iterations: It is true that the more you work on
something, you will make better changes. When you are developing a product you will have
to go through multiple iterations of “development-testing-improving”. The more you do that,
the better you will develop your project.
Difference between a prototype and a minimum viable product
Both of them are used by the development team before the development phase of the project
to decide its viability. The prototype is more like a draft while MVP is kind of a product
itself. MVP is a product with minimum features that you can release in the market directly.
On the other hand, you need to start working on a prototype once it has been approved by all
stakeholders.

When to use MVP?

 When you have to come up with a working product for the customers.
 When you are trying to get a higher retention rate at a very low budget.
 When you are planning to monetize your product.
 When you want to improvise the product by understanding the market well.
 When you want to have an error-free and bug-free application or website ready to be
used by the people.
When to use a prototype?
 When you need to come up with a design and look instantly.
 When you want to explain the functioning of the product visually.
 When technical availability is limited.
 When you have to show a product to the stakeholders within a very less budget and
time.
Final thoughts
It is a fact that you can validate and verify your mobile app startup idea using MVP and
prototype approaches. Both approaches can help you decide what to build and how you can
carry out the development. Still, in the design flow, both of them are said to play different
goals. A project prototype is used to show and explain the different functionality in the
project, and it cannot work on its own. On the other side, MVP is a complete product with
simple features and is ready to market.
You can keep adding more features to it later during development iterations. So, if you want
to be sure about the value of the product by introducing it into the market, you should go with
MVP. If you want to test the idea and present something new to the stakeholders, you should
go with the prototype.
Uber

Uber launched in 2009 as an MVP app called “Ubercab” that only worked on iPhones and
SMS in one location, San Francisco. The original idea from the founders was to pair drivers
with people who wanted a ride.
The MVP helped them test their ride-sharing idea in the market. As their user base grew, they
added more features like GPS integration, real-time driver tracking, ratings and reviews, and
more. The end result? Uber is now the #1 ride-sharing app in the world.

Dropbox
Dropbox founders had a great idea to create online storage for files. They wanted people to
get a feel of the app before the actual development process.
Instead of investing and building the hardware right away, they started as a demo video
MVP. The simple video explained how the first iteration of their product would look and
work.

It turned out to be a massive success as the number of signups increased overnight—all

without an actual product in place! The experience of seeing the video was enough to sell the
idea and collect feedback validating their product.
 Module-5
Test
You should conduct tests throughout the design thinking process. Tests go hand in hand with
prototypes, since you will most often test your prototypes with users. Given that, you should
constantly create prototypes—start with low-fidelity ones and move to higher-fidelity ones as
you progress—and test them with users. When you test your ideas and prototypes with users,
you gain a deeper understanding of your users and also gain their feedback to improve your
designs.
In fact, the Test stage of the design thinking process often feeds into other stages: your
findings allow you to empathize and gain a better understanding of your users; it may lead to
insights that change the way you define your problem statement; it may generate new ideas to
solve the user problem; and, finally, it helps you improve your prototype.

5 Guidelines for Conducting a Test

1. Show, don’t tell: let your users experience the prototype
Make sure to introduce yourself. Never, ever say you are the designer, even if you are. People
will be less honest with feedback if they think you are the author and won’t want to hurt your
feelings. Explain how long the session should take, what your expectations are for them and
what they are going to be doing. Always ask if they have any questions before starting.
Avoid over-explaining how your prototype works, or how it is supposed to solve your user’s
problems. Let the users’ experience in using the prototype speak for itself, and observe their
reactions.
2. Ask Participants to Talk Through Their Experience
When participants are exploring the prototype, ask them to tell you what they’re thinking. Let
them know that they should think out loud and speak what’s on their minds during the entire
test session. This doesn’t come naturally to people, so you may have to prompt the participant
during the test to remind them. In your intro to the test, make sure to let them know you are
expecting this and give an example. You want them to let you know what they expect to
happen when they select something or what they were expecting to see on the screen based
on the title or location.
3. Observe Your Participants
Be a neutral observer. Observe how your participants use your prototype and resist the urge
to correct them when they misinterpret how it’s supposed to be used. Mistakes are valuable
learning opportunities. Remember that you are testing the prototype, not the participant.
4. Ask Follow-Up Questions
Always follow up with questions, even if you think you know what the participant means.
Ask questions such as “What do you mean when you say ___?”, “How did that make you
feel?”, “What did you expect would happen?” and, most importantly, “Why?”.
5. Negative Feedback is Your Way to Learn and Improve
We employ a wide range of testing methods during the design thinking process, many of
which are also used in human-computer interaction (HCI) and user-centered design (UCD)
processes. At the heart of these methods is the need to test our solutions so that we can
improve them. User feedback is priceless—without it, the iterative design process will fail.
Therefore, you must seek feedback whenever possible, use real people in your tests and
analyze results to determine what is right (and wrong) with your design. That’s how you can
create a solution that is desirable to people, feasible to implement and viable for long-term
success.

When you test your ideas and prototypes, remember that negative feedback is an important
way to learn and improve. You might feel a sting in the moment when you hear a person
complain about how difficult your prototype is to use, but try to get used to the idea that such
feedback will help you in the long run. You will uncover problems that you and your team
might not have even considered. Always remember that:
What exactly is user testing and why is it so important?
Testing is, quite simply, the process of testing your prototype on real users. During the test
phase, you’ll see how your target users interact with your prototype, and gather valuable
feedback. You’ll learn where your prototype succeeds and where it needs to be improved.
The insights gathered during the testing phase will enable you to iterate on your prototype.

Why conduct user testing?

Together, prototyping and testing add huge value to the design process. Not only does user
testing help you to remain user-centric; it also makes good business sense. By testing your
ideas early and often, you are able to identify design flaws and usability issues before you
take the product to market. This has countless benefits for you, the user, and the business!

So why conduct user testing?

User testing saves time and money: By catching errors and usability issues early on, you
ensure that the product you eventually launch is the most bug-free, user-friendly product it
can be. What happens if you skip the testing phase in favor of getting the product developed
as soon as possible? You’ll spend considerable time and money correcting the product post-
launch. Not only is this frustrating—it’s also bad for the bottom line.
User testing reveals unexpected insights: No matter how thorough your initial user research
was, or how convinced you are that you’ve designed the optimal solution to your user’s
problem, there are always new insights to be uncovered. Effective usability testing questions
will highlight issues that you would not have noticed otherwise.

User testing improves user satisfaction: Design Thinking is all about putting the user first. By
gathering first-hand user feedback, you can make informed design decisions—improving user
satisfaction in the long run. As a designer, prototyping and testing will keep you focused on
the user at all times. Of course, satisfied customers are good for business, too!
As you can see, prototyping and testing makes sense for everyone involved! Now let’s
consider when might be the best time to conduct user tests.
When should you carry out user testing?
You’d be forgiven for thinking that user testing belongs right at the end of the design process,
just before you’re getting ready to launch. However, user testing should actually be
incorporated throughout. Be sure to test early and often!
In the early stages of the process, testing will help you to get feedback on your initial ideas.
At this point, you’ll use low-fidelity prototypes—such as a very basic paper model—to test
out a concept.
As your design starts to take shape, you’ll move onto digital prototypes. Low and mid-fidelity
clickable prototypes can be used to test things like layout and information architecture,
without distracting the user with too many visuals.

Towards the end of the process, you’ll seek to fine-tune the details of your design. You’ll test
the overall usability of the product with high-fidelity, fully functional digital prototypes that
look and behave just like the real thing.
Now we’ve covered the what, why, and when of user testing, let’s consider the how.
3. User testing methods
There are different methods and techniques you can use to test your prototypes. User tests can
be conducted in-person or remote, and they may be moderated or unmoderated. Before we
delve into specific user testing methods, let’s consider these differences.
Remote vs. in-person user testing
During in-person testing, you’ll be in the same room as the user while they test your
prototype. This has several advantages. Not only are you able to control the testing
environment and keep distractions to a minimum; you can also directly observe the user. You
are privy to facial expressions, body language, and any verbal commentary the user makes as
they interact with the product—giving you valuable, first-hand insight into their experience.
However, in-person testing can be expensive and time-consuming.
Remote user testing offers a less expensive, more convenient alternative, but you’ll have little
to no control over the user’s testing environment. However if you’re one of the growing
numbers now working as remote UX designers, this kind of user testing makes a lot of sense.
If you’re testing a digital prototype, you can conduct moderated or unmoderated remote user
tests. Let’s explore each of these options now.

Moderated vs. un moderated user testing

Moderated remote user testing is a good middle ground between in-person tests and
completely unmoderated remote tests. Live remote testing allows you to observe your users
over a video call, for example. You can use a screen recording app to capture the test, and
certain programs will also track and highlight where the user clicks in your digital prototype.
Unmoderated tests can be conducted via user testing platforms such as UserZoom, loop11,
and usertesting.com. If you’re short on time, such tools make it easy to conduct user tests
quickly and with minimal effort. However, you won’t have the opportunity to observe the
users or ask them questions.
Whether you choose to conduct in-person or remote user tests all depends on your budget,
time constraints, and the prototype you’re testing. Paper prototypes are best tested in person,
while digital prototypes can be tested both remotely and in-person.
What are some of the most common user testing methods used in Design Thinking?
So what methods can you use to test your prototypes?
Here are five of the most popular user testing techniques used by UX designers and design
thinkers!

1. Concept testing
In the very early stages of the design process, you’ll want to test out your initial concepts
before actually designing them. Low-fidelity prototypes—a simple sketch, or even static
images—can be used to communicate your idea to your target users. You’ll then interview
your users to gauge how they feel about the concept. Is it a product or feature they’d be
interested in using? Does it have the potential to solve the user’s problem?
2. A/B testing
A/B testing is used to compare two different versions of a design. This method can be used at
any stage of the design process, whether you have paper prototypes or fully clickable digital
ones. In A/B testing, you’ll create two different prototypes and test each version on a
different set of users. You might test two different layouts, for example, or different copy for
a certain CTA button on a certain screen. It’s important to only A/B test one variable at a
time so as not to skew the results. You’ll find a complete guide to A/B testing on prototypes
here.
3. Usability testing
A crucial user testing method that should be used repeatedly throughout the design process,
usability testing shows you how easy your design is to use. Usability testing is usually an
observational exercise: you’ll ask your users to complete certain tasks, and observe them as
they do so (this is part of a task analysis). Throughout the test, you’ll see which aspects of the
design caused problems for the user, as well as which aspects appear to be user-friendly. In
doing so, you’ll identify usability issues which you’ll seek to fix in the next iteration of your
prototype. You can learn more about how to conduct usability testing in this step-by-step
guide.
4. First-click testing
When designing an app or a website, you want to make sure that the user takes the intended
action whenever they land on a certain page or screen. First-click testing shows you what
your users first steps are when they encounter an interface; in other words, where do they
click first? This helps you to determine which visual elements and content should take
priority, where buttons, icons, and menu items should be located, as well as the kind of
language you should use for buttons and labels. First-click testing can be conducted using
both low and high-fidelity prototypes. You’ll find a comprehensive guide to first-click testing
here.
5. Tree testing
Once you’ve come up with the information architecture of your digital product, you can use
tree testing to see how user-friendly it really is. You’ll present the user with a “tree” of
information—representative of how your site menus would be laid out—and ask them to find
specific items. If users struggle to locate certain information, you’ll need to rethink your
information architecture—our guide to IA in UX design can help with this. Tree testing is
often conducted as a remote, unmoderated study, but it can also be done in person using
paper prototypes. The Nielsen Norman Group has put together an extensive guide to tree
testing here.

How is User-Testing conducted?

The Testing stage when conducted in an ideal setting (wherein a user is more likely to interact with
the product) does give ideal results, it isn’t always possible to do so. Thus, designers can opt to get
users to perform a task wherein they’re made to interact with the prototype. The idea behind
 conducting the testing stage on a prototype is to see how end-users might interact with a product in
real-time. However, in order to achieve the best possible results of a test, the following steps can be
considered -

o Let end-users analyse multiple prototypes - By creating multiple prototypes with different variables,
end-users are able to compare the prototypes and choose the one that suits their usability needs
best. Providing multiple prototypes makes it easier for users to compare and explain why they prefer
one prototype over another.
o Allow end-users to experience the prototypes in real-time - Observe how users interact with the
product. Instead of over-explaining what the user can expect from the product, let the user figure
out how to interact with the product. This will show whether the prototype has usability issues or is
easy to work with.
o Encourage users to be vocal through their experience - As users explore and interact with the
prototype, encourage them to talk about what they feel when using the product. This will provide
valuable insight into understanding if there are minor inconveniences present in the product that
may have gone unnoticed otherwise.
o Observe while the user interacts with the prototype - By noticing how the end-user correctly or
incorrectly interacts with the prototype, valuable insight can be gained. As this is a process of testing
the prototype, observing users in real-time can help to understand how high or low the prototype
ranks on usability.
o Have follow-up queries - By questioning what the user is trying to say, designers are able to let go of
their biases of the product. Even if you believe you’ve understood what the user is conveying, asking
follow-up questions will give better clarity on the issues being faced during interaction with the
prototype.

User Experience Basics

User Experience
Definition: User Experience refers to the feeling users experience when using a product,
application, system, or service. It is a broad term that can cover anything from how well the
user can navigate the product, how easy it is to use, how relevant the content displayed is etc.
What is User Experience?
User Experience (UX) is the holistic journey users traverse as they use a product. Not only
does it include their direct interactions with the product, but also how it fits in with their
overall task completion process.
Regardless of whether different aspects of the experience are under the direct control of the
product or are merely associated with the product, the total experience is considered part of
the UX from the user’s perspective. Every touchpoint between the customer and the company
is included in the total User Experience.

What is the difference between UI and UX?

UI and UX are often used interchangeably, but when the acronyms are actually spelled out
User Interface and User Experience are quite different.
The User Interface is literally what the user sees and interacts within the product: the buttons,
the layout, the navigation, the form fields, etc. Much like the cockpit of a plane or the buttons
on remote control, it is what a user sees, touches and clicks. “UI” can also sometimes be
shorthand for the “look and feel” of a product.
User Experience encompasses a far wider swath of elements than the User Interface, although
UI is definitely contained within this larger definition. The User Experience includes
everything an end-user does related to the product, including how it fits into their overall
workflow and the steps before and after the product is actually in use. Additionally, the User
Experience covers how those interactions will change over time as the customer’s usage
evolves and the product and company change.

What are UX design principles?

UX efforts concentrate on making the entire customer journey pleasant and productive. This
begins with highlighting the value of the solution so it is clear what capabilities and benefits
the product can offer potential and current customers—and that the value proposition is
clearly desirable to the target market.
To achieve this, UX aims to make this value discoverable and accessible. That includes clear
wording and imagery and a short and simple path to understand a product’s potential, as well
as accounting for users that may have physical limitations.
Next up is spurring engagement and usage of the product, which entails a smooth and clear
beginning experience and clear navigational hierarchy. Users must be able to start using the
product and realizing the value as quickly as possible, even when it’s a large enterprise
offering.
From here UX continues refining customer interactions, removing points of friction and
minimizing the required steps to complete various tasks. As the product itself matures, UX
can extend beyond the bounds of the product by assisting with related tasks that directly
impact the value proposition and satisfaction for the actual product experience. This
refinement can also include building consistency in the product and providing as much
contextual guidance as possible.
All of these goals are accomplished by using a variety of tactics aimed at better
understanding real-world user needs. One of the most critical is consistently challenging
internal assumptions about what customers are trying to do and how they’re actually using
the product versus what the product and UX teams think customers want and do. Confirming
assumptions and theories—or discovering their flaws—will dictate further improvements.
What does a UX designer do?
A UX designer leverages a toolset spanning user research and testing, graphic design, layout,
language, and wording. They may do some coding (usually in the HTML/CSS realm), create
wireframes and mockups, design logos and buttons or even write the text that appears in the
product.
To understand the customer experience, UX designers may perform or participate in
customer interviews to get a better picture of what matters to customers and how they
perform critical tasks (either with the product or using alternative methods). Once the product
is ready, UX will often take the lead on usability testing, designing the scripts, analyzing the
results or even conducting the tests themselves.
Once the product is shipping, UX designers will leverage analytics to dive deeper into the
customer journey and trying to identify what workflows are successful and what narratives
are hitting roadblocks where.
UX designers will also define the “visual grammar” for a product, either creating or selecting
icons and typography that communicate the brand and provide visual cues to users, which
they will grow familiar with overtime. They will also ensure the language used on the site is
relevant and clear to the audience while also being consistent and familiar throughout the
entire customer journey.
What is the value of UX design for product managers?
UX design and product management are two sides of the same coin; UX covers the user end
and product management takes care of the business side of the house. But unlike a coin, there
is plenty of overlap between the two disciplines.
Product managers essentially focus on the “what” part of the equation: What is the target
market, what problems are the product trying to solve, what capabilities must be in place to
solve those problems, what is the business model and value proposition, etc. Meanwhile, UX
concentrates on the “how” component of product development, namely, how is the user going
to complete their tasks.
By leaving the “how” to UX design, product management is able to spend their limited time
on the many other aspects of the product to people with a more acute focus and expertise on
the customer journey, usability and user interface. And by teaming up with UX design instead
of trying to do it all themselves, product managers get the benefit of additional perspectives
and viewpoints on creating an overall winning experience.

The best relationships between product management and UX design start by performing user
research and developing use cases collaboratively. This creates a unified foundation as each
party goes off to work on their own areas of focus and ensures that the user experience is
fully informed by the business objectives and customer needs.
Product managers can also benefit from increasing their UX education and incorporating UX
design into their overall approach. This ensures the strategy they set and vision they paint
takes the user experience into full account, which is essential to the product’s ultimate
success or failure.
User experience (UX) focuses on having a deep understanding of users, what they need, what
they value, their abilities, and also their limitations. It also takes into account the business
goals and objectives of the group managing the project. UX best practices promote improving
the quality of the user’s interaction with and perceptions of your product and any related
services.
Factors that Influence UX
At the core of UX is ensuring that users find value in what you are providing to them. Peter
Morville represents this through his User Experience Honeycomb Site exit disclaimer.
Peter Morville’s User Experience Honeycomb notes in order for there to be a meaningful and
valuable user experience, information must be useful, usable, desirable, findable, accessible,
and credible.

He notes that in order for there to be a meaningful and valuable user experience, information
must be:
 Useful: Your content should be original and fulfill a need
 Usable: Site must be easy to use
 Desirable: Image, identity, brand, and other design elements are used to evoke
emotion and appreciation
  Findable: Content needs to be navigable and locatable onsite and offsite
 Accessible: Content needs to be accessible to people with disabilities
 Credible: Users must trust and believe what you tell them
Areas Related to Building the User Experience
UX is a growing field that is very much still being defined. Creating a successful user-
centered design encompasses the principles of human-computer interaction (HCI) and goes
further to include the following disciplines:
 Project Management focuses on planning and organizing a project and its resources.
This includes identifying and managing the lifecycle to be used, applying it to the
user-centered design process, formulating the project team, and efficiently guiding the
team through all phases until project completion.
 User Research focuses on understanding user behaviors, needs, and motivations
through observation techniques, task analysis, and other feedback methodologies.
 Usability Evaluation focuses on how well users can learn and use a product to achieve
their goals. It also refers to how satisfied users are with that process.
 Information Architecture (IA) focuses on how information is organized, structured,
and presented to users.
 User Interface Design focuses on anticipating what users might need to do and
ensuring that the interface has elements that are easy to access, understand, and use to
facilitate those actions.
 Interaction Design (IxD) focuses on creating engaging interactive systems with well
thought out behaviors.
 Visual Design focuses on ensuring an aesthetically pleasing interface that is in line
with brand goals.
 Content Strategy focuses on writing and curating useful content by planning the
creation, delivery and governance behind it.
 Accessibility focuses on how a disabled individual accesses or benefits from a site,
system or application. Section 508 is the governing principal for accessibility.
 Web Analytics focuses on the collection, reporting, and analysis of website data.
The first requirement for an exemplary user experience is to meet the exact needs of the
customer, without fuss or bother. Next comes simplicity and elegance that produce products
that are a joy to own, a joy to use. True user experience goes far beyond giving customers
what they say they want, or providing checklist features. In order to achieve high-quality user
experience in a company's offerings there must be a seamless merging of the services of
multiple disciplines, including engineering, marketing, graphical and industrial design, and
interface design.
It's important to distinguish the total user experience from the user interface (UI), even
though the UI is obviously an extremely important part of the design. As an example,
consider a website with movie reviews. Even if the UI for finding a film is perfect, the UX
will be poor for a user who wants information about a small independent release if the
underlying database only contains movies from the major studios.
User experience for websites
What about websites? User experience in web design and why it is so important.
Web design plays an important role in user experience. Nowadays a lot of companies interact
with clients on their website or app. Sometimes users complete the entire customer journey
on websites without even going to a brick and mortar store. All of this shows web design is
an important part of user experience. It is then definitely worth spending resources on it.

What are the best practices in website user experience?

Many aspects matter in websites user experience but here is a selection we made with the top
5:
1. Navigation through the site must be fast and logical. Customers don’t have time to
wait or to think too much where to click next. Find those broken links and fix them!
2. Update contents frequently. Nothing is worse than finding out outdated info.
3. Mobile optimization is mandatory. The migration from desktop to mobile is going fast
and not all websites are keeping up.
4. Use images. All text websites are boring and ineffective.
5. Test. Every now and then you should test your website. Make A/B tests, or use heat
maps but make sure you’re keeping the user and her needs at the core.

User Experience examples

Some great examples of user experience design: get inspired!
We selected three websites with a remarkably good user experience. These can serve both
as a guide and as a source of inspiration.
 Just Eat features an handy search function. It allows customers to find within seconds
all restaurants that can potentially deliver food at their homes. Just Eat filters are also
super useful to quickly find the dinner take in you are craving for.

 Skyscanner is a travel fare aggregator website. It makes it intuitive and simple for
users to look for cheapest flights and then buy them.
  Zalando is another great example. On the famous eCommerce website, the user is
guided through a very well designed experience. Any user can get as much info,
pictures, and videos about clothes as they need without any difficulty.

Bad user experience examples: learn from other people mistakes!

We think it is also important looking at some websites which provide quite a bad experience
to users. You can learn from the worst as much as you can learn from the best!
 Forbes: although this business magazine offers high-quality content, the user
experience on the website is awful. As a matter of fact, the high number of banner ads
and pop-ups makes it almost difficult to read a whole article.
  Arngren e-commerce website makes it almost impossible for users to look for a
product and this, of course, does not make a good user experience.

 Pacific Northwest X-Ray Inc. landing page is a mix of colours, fonts and patterns that
make it almost impossible for users to read the content.

Examples of products with good user experience…enough with the web already!
We thought to give you also some examples of products with good user experience. This can
help you better understand user experience.
 Revolut is a digital banking alternative. Its user experience is amazing and extremely
usable. It allows users to exchange money with others and to change currencies in just
a few swipes.

 Apple’s iPod is an old but gold example of perfect user experience. People would buy
the iPod in Apple stores, then they would synchronize it to iTunes and keep uploading
new music from there. Both the iPod and iTunes offered a very easy to use design and
were very well integrated.

A good user experience, as you have seen, is made of many different factors. What matters
the most is keeping the customer at the center of the designing process. At the end of the
day, it is the customers’ needs and feedback that push products towards improvement and
innovation.
5 Guidelines for Conducting a Test
1. Show, don’t tell: let your users experience the prototype
Make sure to introduce yourself. Never, ever say you are the designer, even if you are. People
will be less honest with feedback if they think you are the author and won’t want to hurt your
feelings. Explain how long the session should take, what your expectations are for them and
what they are going to be doing. Always ask if they have any questions before starting.

Avoid over-explaining how your prototype works, or how it is supposed to solve your user’s
problems. Let the users’ experience in using the prototype speak for itself, and observe their
reactions.

2. Ask Participants to Talk Through Their Experience

When participants are exploring the prototype, ask them to tell you what they’re thinking. Let
them know that they should think out loud and speak what’s on their minds during the entire
test session. This doesn’t come naturally to people, so you may have to prompt the participant
during the test to remind them. In your intro to the test, make sure to let them know you are
expecting this and give an example. You want them to let you know what they expect to
happen when they select something or what they were expecting to see on the screen based
on the title or location.

3. Observe Your Participants

Be a neutral observer. Observe how your participants use your prototype and resist the urge
to correct them when they misinterpret how it’s supposed to be used. Mistakes are valuable
learning opportunities. Remember that you are testing the prototype, not the participant.

4. Ask Follow-Up Questions

Always follow up with questions, even if you think you know what the participant means.
Ask questions such as “What do you mean when you say ___?”, “How did that make you
feel?”, “What did you expect would happen?” and, most importantly, “Why?”.

5. Negative Feedback is Your Way to Learn and Improve

When you test your ideas and prototypes, remember that negative feedback is an important
way to learn and improve. You might feel a sting in the moment when you hear a person
complain about how difficult your prototype is to use, but try to get used to the idea that such
feedback will help you in the long run. You will uncover problems that you and your team
might not have even considered. Always remember that:

Testing is the fifth stage in the five-stage design thinking process. You often perform tests
together with the prototyping stage. Through testing, you can learn more about your users,
improve your prototype and even refine your problem statement. To help you plan a test,
there are a number of guidelines you can follow:

1. Show, don’t tell: let your people experience the prototype.

2. Ask test participants to talk through their experience.

3. Observe your users.

4. Ask follow-up questions.

5. Negative feedback is your way to learn and improve.

And, last but not least, the design thinking process is fluid, iterative and flexible: the different
stages often feed into one another and don’t necessarily follow any fixed sequence. That said,
the ideal end point of design thinking (when you know you’ve done a great job) is when the
product or service is desirable, feasible and viable.

Popular Design Thinking Frameworks

Design thinking is an iterative, non-linear design methodology that is particularly useful in
solving complex or poorly defined problems.
Understanding design thinking 
Many informed individuals consider design thinking to be the holy grail of innovation and by
extension, the cure for company stagnation.
In fact, design thinking has been credited with turning Airbnb from an ailing start-up into a
billion-dollar business.
Apple, Uber, and the countless new companies they inspired also owe much of their success
to innovation.
Despite its obvious association with success, however, innovation remains a somewhat
esoteric concept.
The origins of design thinking can be traced back to the work of John E. Arnold in 1959.
Arnold, a Stanford University engineering professor, taught engineers to approach problems
as creatively as designers do.
However, design thinking did not enter the world of business until 2005 when Stanford began
teaching it as a means of technical and social innovation.
Today, design thinking is both an ideology and a process that endeavors to solve complex
problems in a user-centric fashion. Generated solutions must be:
Technically feasible
Is the solution able to be turned into functional products and processes in the near future?
Economically viable
Can the organization afford to implement the solution as part of a sustainable
business model? 
Desirable for the user
Does the solution meet a real human need? Is it for the people?
1. The five stages of the design thinking
process
The design thinking process outlines five steps that help the team adopt a designer’s mindset
and approach a problem from the user’s perspective.

The five steps of the design thinking process include:

Empathize
In the first step, it is important to observe and engage with the target audience.
Who are the end-users and what are the challenges they face? What expectations and needs
must be met?
Empathy is built by conducting interviews, surveys, and observation sessions.
Define
Based on the information gathered in the first step, define a clear problem statement that
details the specific problem to be addressed.
A good problem statement is human-centric and prioritizes user needs above all else.
The statement also guides the rest of the process and helps the business keep the user in mind
at all times.
Ideate
With the problem made clear, brainstorm ways to address unmet needs by identifying novel
solutions and approaching the problem from a different perspective.
Ideation should be done quickly using any number of different brainstorming frameworks.
Here, the idea is to generate as many ideas as possible with less regard for how feasible the
idea may be in reality.
The team should then collaboratively discuss and evaluate each idea ready for the next step.
Prototype

A prototype is a sample version or simulation of a product that is used to evaluate a process

or concept. The intention of creating a prototype is to test and validate ideas before they are
communicated to stakeholders and ultimately, the product development team. Prototypes can
be as simple as a storyboard sketch drawn on paper that captures the user experience or as
detailed as a full-scale mock-up.
The team should then create tangible products or prototypes of the concept ideas they want to
test.
A tangible product is something that can be tested by users and is crucial in maintaining a
user-centric approach.
Prototypes are basic representations of the intended solution and can take the form of simple
paper models or more complex digital products.
Test

Business experiments help entrepreneurs test their hypotheses. Rather than define the
problem by making too many hypotheses, a digital entrepreneur can formulate a few
assumptions, design experiments, and check them against the actions of potential customers.
Once measured, the impact, the entrepreneur, will be closer to define the problem.
The prototype must then be tested and improved via user feedback.

Though this is the final step in design thinking, it is an iterative process where the problem is
often redefined multiple times to develop a deeper understanding and empathy for the
customer.
The team should then revisit the problem statement and ensure the solution is meeting user
needs or addressing frustrations.

Key takeaways
 Design thinking is an iterative, non-linear design methodology that is particularly useful in
solving complex or poorly defined problems.
 Design thinking is an ideology and a process that endeavors to solve complex problems in
a user-centric fashion. Solutions must be technically feasible, economically viable, and
desirable from the point of view of the user.
 Design thinking occurs via five steps: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test.
Teams should cycle through the fifth step until they arrive at a solution that addresses the
original problem statement.

Design Thinking
Tim Brown, Executive Chair of IDEO, defined design thinking as “a human-centered
approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people,
the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.” Therefore,
desirability, feasibility, and viability are balanced to solve critical problems.

2. Jobs-to-be Done

The jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) framework defines, categorizes, captures, and organizes

consumer needs. The jobs-to-be-done framework is based on the premise that consumers buy
products and services to get jobs done. While products tend to come and go, the consumer
need to get jobs done endures indefinitely. This theory was popularized by Tony Ulwick, who
also detailed his book Jobs To Be Done: Theory to Practice.

3. Business Model Canvas

The business model canvas is a framework proposed by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves

Pigneur in Busines Model Generation enabling the design of business models through nine
building blocks comprising: key partners, key activities, value propositions, customer
relationships, customer segments, critical resources, channels, cost structure, and revenue
streams.
4. Lean Startup Canvas

The lean startup canvas is an adaptation by Ash Maurya of the business model canvas by

Alexander Osterwalder, which adds a layer that focuses on problems, solutions, key metrics,
unfair advantage based, and a unique value proposition. Thus, starting from mastering the
problem rather than the solution.

5. Blitzscaling Canvas

The
Blitzscaling business model canvas is a model based on the concept of Blitzscaling, which is
a particular process of massive growth under uncertainty, and that prioritizes speed over
efficiency and focuses on market domination to create a first-scaler advantage in a scenario of
uncertainty.
6. VTDF Framework

A tech business model is made of four main components: value model (value

propositions, mission, vision), technological model (R&D
management), distribution model (sales and marketing organizational structure), and
financial model (revenue modeling, cost structure, profitability and cash
generation/management). Those elements coming together can serve as the basis to build a
solid tech business model.

7. UI Design Pattern

Design patterns were originally used in architecture and programming to optimize solutions
known to work within specific contexts. Solutions occurring frequently enough then morphed
into formulas that could be reused as necessary. Some of the design patterns people encounter
daily include apps with tab bars, websites with top navigation, and login screens with two
input fields and a submit button.  User interface (UI) design patterns are proven and reusable
solutions to commonly occurring user interface problems.
8. Business Scaling

Business scaling is the process of transformation of a business as the product is validated by

wider and wider market segments. Business scaling is about creating traction for a product
that fits a small market segment. As the product is validated it becomes critical to build a
viable business model. And as the product is offered at wider and wider market segments, it’s
important to align product, business model, and organizational design, to enable wider and
wider scale.
9.Design Strategy

Design strategy is a framework applying the tactical thinking of a business strategy to the

needs of the user to create the most effective products and services.
10. Business Process Re-engineering

Business Process Reengineering became popular in the 1990s after the publishing of a
Harvard Business School article titled Reengineering Work: Don’t Automate, Obliterate.
Business Process Reengineering (BPR) describes the redesign of core business processes to
improve productivity, quality, cost reduction, or cycle times.
 11. Design Sprint

A design sprin
t is a proven five-day process where critical business questions are answered through
speedy design and prototyping, focusing on the end-user. A design sprint starts with a weekly
challenge that should finish with a prototype, test at the end, and therefore a lesson learned to
be iterated.

5 Insightful Design Thinking Frameworks

1 IDEO
In 2009, IDEO’s Tim Brown published what I call a ‘comprehensive textbook’ titled Change
By Design on the impact of human-centric design on industrialization and social innovation,
in which, he provides his framework based upon the principles of Viability (business),
Desirability (human), and Feasibility (technical). IDEO’s model has always been considered
as a traditional design thinking process.
Thinking like a designer can transform the way organizations develop products, services,
processes, and strategy. This approach, which IDEO calls design thinking, brings together
what is desirable from a human point of view with what is technologically feasible and
economically viable. It also allows people who aren’t trained as designers to use creative
tools to address a vast range of challenges.
IDEO is amongst a handful of companies which consider ‘design’ to be a human process
outlined by an active collaboration and observation of people, in that, it takes an integrated
approach to design thinking as a process which has a system of overlapping spaces instead of
an orderly sequence of activities dividing the framework into 3 spaces: inspiration, ideation,
and implementation.
In their article titled Design Thinking for Social Innovation on the impact of design thinking
on the social sector, Tim Brown & Jocelyn Wyatt provide a detailed description of IDEO’s
three-pronged approach that includes inspiration, ideation, and implementation. In
the inspiration phase, designers distil their ideas into insights from on-field observations and
design research conducted on human behaviours which would lead to tangible solutions. In
the ideation phase, a diverse group of multidisciplinary people get involved to create
experiences and test contending ideas against the insights which have been drawn from
the inspiration phase. Ideally, an interdisciplinary group would involve “’T’-shaped”
individuals who possess a depth of specific skill set in their fields – MBA, engineers,
architects, and so on on the vertical axis, and at the same time, play the role of a design
thinker on the top axis by empathizing with a broad set of a divergent population. Finally, in
the implementation phase, the ideas which generated favourable concepts would be
transformed into viable prototypes, in other words, turning ideas into actual products and
services which can be tested with users, iterated and refined further. The prototyping process
seeks to uncover unforeseen implementation challenges and consequences. This clear-sighted
methodology of DT by IDEO has been widely popular and promoted by many in the industry.
Think of inspiration as the problem or opportunity that motivates the search for
solutions; ideation as the process of generating, developing, and testing ideas;
and implementation as the path that leads from the project stage into people’s lives.
IDEO has also created the Human-Centered Design Toolkit or HCD Toolkit and a
comprehensive framework on how DT could impact the social sector called The Field Guide
to Human-Centered Design. If you’re interested, IDEO.org’s DesignKit website provides a
great resource for learning on IDEO’s DT activities and phases for design co-creation.

2. Stanford d.school / The Hasso Plattner Institute of Design

The Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford is more commonly known as the ‘Stanford
d.school’ and was founded by David Kelley IDEO’s co-founder and an electrical engineering
professor at Stanford, along with other professors in 2004. It’s a one-of-a-kind design school
that does not award any degrees for graduating from the program. In fact, it was Steve Jobs
who talked David Kelley out of handing out degrees because he thought degrees are “flaky”.
The d.school offers programs with the aim to bring together students from across Stanford
 University and business leaders from the industry into exploring their creative confidence and
its DT framework has a 5-level journey.

1. Empathize – in this phase, a team of individuals would conduct observation and interview
exercises to empathize with the behaviour in order to discover unmet user needs.
2. Define – after gaining a fair amount of empathy from observing/interviewing users, teams are
encouraged to capture stories of the actual tasks which would contain the user description,
the need and an insight which you may have gathered in the first phase.
3. Ideate – this is the phase where the actual brainstorming of solutions begins in earnest. You
reframe the problem based on the previous two phases and brainstorm on the possibilities and
go as wide as you could (divergent thinking). There are rules to using positive expressions in
encouraging more ideas.
4. Prototype – prototyping is about creating a minimum viable product (MVP) and to capture
the basics of experience, interactions, etc. This is the stage to produce a tangible solution that
would address the customer’s needs.
5. Test – and finally, it’s time to test that prototype with the customers and get early feedback
on the interaction and the experience, this is part of the ‘fail fast fail often’ strategy in
building user-centric products.
For more information on the process and the exercise templates for each of the 5 stages, you
could refer to this post on Medium.

3 Idea Couture
Through some patient researching, I was able to get some insight into Idea Couture’s (IC) DT
framework, a strategic design consulting firm, which draws an integrated approach. Unlike
other frameworks that I have studied, combines DT with futures thinking and applies that
wholesome methodology as a means to achieve a business strategy for customer experience
innovation. In that context alone, IC has come up with a game called ‘IMPACT – A Foresight
Game‘ for learning the basics of strategic foresight 1 thinking. Idea Couture’s DT framework
is largely derived from market research and analysis, using storytelling & observational
research to articulate unmet customer needs, and then processing that data into visuals
through rapid prototyping in visualizing tangible versions of the future. IC has branded its
distinct framework as “D-School + B-School”, in other words, a strategy which integrates the
multidisciplinary capabilities of design schools (D-School) with the strategic & analytical
thinking of business schools (B-School), in deriving a humanistic approach for creating
business value for its customers. To sum things up, Idea Couture’s DT framework combines
the fields of System Thinking, Business Strategy and Design, while also blending Futures
Thinking to make sense of tomorrow’s market for customer experience. Idea Couture was
acquired by Cognizant in 2016.

1
 Strategic foresight is a process of establishing well-informed and future-oriented
perspectives that help fuel, guide, and inspire innovation, strategic planning, and critical
decision-making. Applied to product innovation, service design, or organizational
transformation, foresight helps organizations better anticipate change by equipping them with
the tools and resources needed to ask provocative questions, challenge dominant logics, test
assumptions, rethink opportunities, and reset goals. – Idea Couture

4 Frog Design
Frog has an interesting DT methodology which is fluid and allows exploration of ideas in a
non-linear fashion. It’s been dubbed the ‘Collective Action Toolkit’ or shortened as CAT and
its goal, like other DT frameworks, is to bring diverse groups of people together to
accomplish a shared vision but what makes the CAT methodology unique is its assumption
that teams might start with a shared vision but the goals would change each time they learn
and grow from an activity. Hence, the participants will continue to revisit the ‘Clarify’
portion lying at the centre of the CAT model which allows time for the team to reflect on
the shared vision and insights. From my understanding of CAT’s non-linear strategy, where
each phase ends with a confirmation on what was learned and how the new goals align with
the overarching vision of the project, it’d be interesting to apply the CAT framework to an
actual software development process that mirrors an Agile framework.

The framework is outlined in 6 steps: Clarify (Your Goal), Build (Your Group), Seek (New

Understanding), Imagine (More Ideas), Make (Something Real) and Plan (For Action).
The Collective Action Toolkit (CAT) uses an action map with activities arranged into six
areas. All you need is motivation and enthusiasm to get started. From here, you can use the
action map to focus your path and help you balance the time needed to both act and reflect.
You can work alone or with a group, and there is no wrong place to start. Every activity will
help you learn something.

5.Darden Graduate School of Business – University of Virginia

American strategist Jeanne Liedtka has authored several books on DT, in particular, one of
my favourites called ‘Solving Problems with Design Thinking: Ten Stories of What
Works’ through which she provides 10 case studies of companies which have successfully
transformed their product development and sales using design thinking by producing
innovative solutions. In that book, Jeanne advocates a four-staged DT framework, a toolkit
for enabling design managers to think like designers in establishing empathy with their
customers2. Subsequently, she also introduced this framework in a business innovation course
on Coursera, again, as a toolkit for designing for growth for managers. This framework is
divided into 4 categories — What Is?, What if?, What Wows?, and What Works? as
illustrated below.
1. What is? – The first phase is about taking a deep dive into understanding what’s going on
today. The dissatisfaction that customer’s face today is a good starting point to help create a
better future.
2. What if? – Having developed an understanding of the present situation the ‘what if’ question
raises the possibility of generating numerous creative ideas which satisfy the needs of the
customer’s pain points. The second stage activities undertake a series of ideas which are
captured in what’s termed as a “napkin pitch”, basically, a simple description that could fit on
a paper napkin.
3. What Wows? – In the third stage, the napkin pitches which were created in the previous
phase are tested using rapid prototyping models. Through the prototypes, we test our
assumptions to meet customer needs as well as our ability as an organization to execute it,
and with it, also test the viability of a business model that brings us profitability through
building a sustainable business.
4. What Works? – And finally, the fourth question of “What works?” deals with moving
forward with the ideas that have made it successfully through the previous three stages and
launching them into the marketplace for small-scale experiments with real, live customers
that would give us some quick feedback which we can use to iterate and improve our
solutions.
Correspondingly, managers are encouraged to use 10 design tools during the process of
exploring the creative opportunities and innovation, which are — Visualization, Journey
Mapping, Value Chain Analysis, Mind Mapping, Rapid Concept Development, Assumption
Testing, Rapid Prototyping, Customer Co-Creation, Learning Launches, and Storytelling.
You can get detailed information on using the tools in this article.
2
 Finally, design insists that we prepare ourselves to iterate our way to a solution, so
managers who thought like designers would view themselves as learners. Most managers are
taught a linear problem-solving methodology: define the problem, identify various solutions,
analyze each, and choose the best one. Designers aren’t nearly so impatient – or optimistic;
they understand that successful invention takes experimentation and that empathy is hard
won. The task, first and foremost, is always one of learning.
– from ‘Designing for Growth: A Tool Kit For Managers’ by Jeanne Liedtka and Tim Ogilvie

Closing Remarks

There’s an insightful pattern visible in the design frameworks throughout this compilation,
for instance, both IDEO and Frog have a methodology that is inclined in gaining insights for
social innovation. Subsequently, Stanford’s d.school has a more linear framework which
could be easily comprehensible by beginners and experts alike. Eventually, the ultimate goal
of these frameworks is to get a diverse group of individuals together in a co-creation effort
for realizing a common vision through empathy & learning. The DT frameworks which I
outlined here only signifies the journey and the phases through a process in a design lifecycle,
but each phase might use a combination of tools in order to synthesize the ideas required to
move to the next level. For instance, the activity of ‘Ethnographic Research’ might use a
combination of tools such as ‘user interviews’, ‘data analysis’, ‘contextual inquiry’, or
employ them individually. I am hoping this article might have provided a foundational
approach towards implementing a design thinking framework for your projects.
 Case studies
40 Design Thinking Success Stories
Collection of design thinking success stories that have helped reinforce my conviction that
design thinking can deliver incredibly powerful results and be applicable to everyone.

1 Consumer Packaged Goods

 Braun – Creating a Better Oral B Toothbrush
 Designing a Simplified IoT Electric Toothbrush
 PepsiCo – How Indra Nooyi Tured Design Thinking Into Strategy
 Indra Nooyi HBR Design Thinking Interview
 Procter & Gamble – Classic Oil of Olay + DT Case, often Cited by A.G.
Lafley
 Using Design Thinking to Guide Product Development for Oil of Olay
Brand
2 Education
 Design Thinking Success Stories for Educators – Good collection of K-
12 DT Cases
 Design Thinking for K-12 Educators
 Teaching Kids Design Thinking – Enable Kids to Solve the Worlds
Biggest Problems
 Great Fast Co Design Article on Teaching Kids DT
 Riverpoint Academy – Small school that achieved real results through DT
 Design Thinking STEAM School Case Study
 Alpha Public Schools – Designing a High School Through Design
Thinking
  Awesome Case of Designing an Entire High School Via Design
Thinking
 One School District’s Approach to Innovation For the 21st Century
 Dense but Rich Dissertation of Use of Design Thinking in a School
District
 Memorial School – Design Thinking in a Medford, MA Elementary
School
 The Power of Empathy in the Elementary Classroom
3 Financial Services
 Bank of America – “Keep the Change” Program
 Click Link & Scroll Down for Bank of America Case Profile
 ABN AMRO – Design Thinking As Competitive Advantage in the World
of Banking
 How ABN AMRO Leverages Design Thinking
 BBVA / USAA / Citi – Design Thinking Success Stories at 3 Large Banks
 3 Banks Integrating Design Into Customer Experience
 Deutsche Bank – Design Thinking to Achieve Customer Proximity
 Evolution of Design Thinking in Deutsche Bank’s IT Division
 Bank of Ireland – 20 Minute Podcast with Bank of Ireland’s Head of DT
 Bank of Ireland’s Lesley Tully on the Value of Design Thinking
4 Healthcare
 GE Healthcare – Building a better MR scanner experience for children by
using paintings and storytelling
 GE Healthcare – From Terrifying to Terrific
 Thomas Jefferson University, University of Michigan, University of
Minnesota, University of Montreal – Design Thinking Success Stories at
University Hospitals
 NY Times – Design Thinking for Doctors & Nurses
 UCSF & IDEO – Applying Design Thinking to Schizophrenia Care
 Design Thinking in Healthcare – Schizophrenia
 Mayo Clinic – Design Thinking at Mayo Clinic’s Center for Innovation
 Design Thinking Lessons from Mayo Clinic
 Stanford Healthcare – Design Thinking to Improve Patient Experience
 Design Thinking at Stanford University Medicine
5 Journalism
 Voice of San Diego & OrbitaLAB – 2 news media outlets that apply DT
principles
 Design Thinking Case Studies in Journalism
 Hearken – How Design Thinking is Being Applied to Journalism
 Why Design Thinking & Journalism Go Together
6 Non-Profit/NGOs
 Golden Gate Regional Center – Design thinking to provide better, faster
service to support people with developmental disabilities
 Design Thinking & Winnebago at GGRC for Better Service
 Design Thinking in Museums – Stories from DT practitioners
specializing in museums
 Collection of Design Thinking Case Studies from Museums
 Municipality of Holstebro, Denmark – Designing “The Good Kitchen”
 Improving Quality of Life for the Elderly Via Better Food Service
 Mobisol, Reinventing Solar Energy Supply for Rural Africa
 Mobisol’s Use of Design Thinking for Solar Energy
 IDEO & Cambodia – Using DT principles to bring sanitation systems to
Cambodia
 Leveraging Design Thinking in Cambodia Video
7 Retail
 Nike – Design Thinking Infuses Everything Nike Does (It All Starts with
the CEO)
 How Nike Became a Fashion Powerhouse Through Design
 Nordstrom – Building a Better Experience Shopping for Sunglasses
 Nordstrom Innovation Lab Video Profile
8 Tech
 Airbnb – Using DT to Avoid Bankruptcy & Develop a Winning Business
Model
 Popular Airbnb Design Thinking Success Story
 Apple – Think Different about Innovation through Design Thinking
 Innovation at Apple – Design Thinking Case Study
 IBM – I Love That IBM Has An Entire Section of its Website Dedicated
to DT!
 IBMs Design Centered Strategy
 Design Thinking at IBM
 Google – How To Brainstorm Like a Googler
 Google’s 3 Step Process for Generating Innovative Ideas
 Intuit – Measuring & Communicating the Impact of a Design Thinking
Program
 Intuit’s Designing for Delight
 Uber –  Creating the Future of Food Delivery through Design Thinking
 How the Uber Eats Team Designs
 SAP – Speeding Up Development & Tech Solutions Designed to Delight
Customers
 Design Thinking in Action at SAP
9 Transportation
 Airports (in general) – DT to Make Airport Waiting Time More Pleasant
  Cool Step by Step Case of Applying DT to a Common Challenge for
Travelers
 Makassar, Indonesia – Using DT to Improve Traffic Congestion in a City
 How Makassar Plans To Use Design Thinking to Improve Transport

10 Self-Improvement
 Designing Your Life Through Design Thinking – My Personal Story
 NY Times – Design Thinking for a Better You
 Stanford professor’s Take on How DT Can Help You Lose Weight, Stop
Worrying, & Change Your Life
 Designing Your Life – Insight into the Most Popular Class at Stanford!

THE DESIGN THINKING CASE STUDY INDEX

BANKING

1. Bank of America Helps Customers Keep the Change - IDEO

2. Bank of America: Keep the Change - an HBR Case Study
3. Bank of America Keep the Change - thisisdesignthinking.com
4. How to Use Design Thinking to Make Great Things Actually Happen
5. Co-designing OTP Bank's Strategic Plan for Success
6. Société Générale's Time Tracking Nightmare Solved - Design Thinking
Society

CONSULTING

1. The Total Economic Impact of IBM's Design Thinking Practice - IBM/Forrester

2. The Strategic Importance of Design - Fjord
3. IDEO: Journey to Mastery - IDEO

EDUCATION

1. Improving School Experiences and Helping Teachers

2. Transforming Constructivist Learning into Action: Design Thinking in
Education
 3. Design Thinking in the Classroom: What can we do about Bullying? - Dr.
Maureen Carroll
4. Design Thinking in Education: Perspectives, Opportunities and Challenges -
Stefanie Panke
5. Building Cape Town's Resilience Qualities - GreenCape
6. Applying Design Thinking Internally - Meredith James

FAST MOVING CONSUMER GOODS (FMCG)

1. The Features of Design Thinking in Fast Moving Consumer Goods Branding

Development
2. A Chain of Innovation the Creation of Swiffer
3. Oral B: Putting the User at the Center of Innovation - Future Facility

FINANCE

1. Design for Action: Mass Mutual and Intercorp Group (Peru) - Tim Brown and
Roger Martin
2. E*Trade: From Idea to Investment in 5 Minutes.

GOVERNMENT/PUBLIC SERVICES

1. Failure to Launch: Learning About Design the Hard Way - Australian Taxation
Office
2. The US Tax Forms Simplification Project - US Government
3. Redesigning The Employment Pass Application in Singapore - Government of
Singapore
4. How is Design Thinking Reshaping Singapore - Government of Singapore
5. Design Thinking in Public Engagement: Two Case Studies in British
Columbia - Dave Roberston
6. India: Using Design Thinking to Enhance Urban Redevelopment - Indian
Government
7. Making Calgary's Downtown a more Welcoming Place - City of Calgary,
Canada
8. Capitalism Needs Design Thinking - Tim Brown and Roger Martin
9. Making Government Work Better-  The White House Office of Science and
Technology Policy (OSTP)
10. Better Service Faster, a Design Case Study - The Golden Gate Regional
Center
11. Better Foodservice for the Elderly in Denmark - Hatch & Bloom
12. Applying Design Thinking to Public Service Delivery - IBM
13. The Lab at US Government, Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Field
Guide - US Government
14. The Right Way to Lead Design Thinking - Denmark
 15. Design Thinking and Participation in Switzerland - Swiss Government
16. How to Stimulate Innovation in Your Organization with Design Thinking -
Municipalities of Aalborg and Rotterdam, Netherlands

 HEALTHCARE

1. How SwipeSense Makes Hand Cleaning Easy - Northwestern University

2. Using Design Thinking in Healthcare to Create an Emergency Pediatric
Department - Philips
3. Design Thinking can Help Improve Care for the Elderly - IDEO
4. How can a People Focus Bring Value to Healthcare? - Philips
5. Philips: Improving the Patient Experience
6. Developing an App for Diabetes Type II
7. Developing Environmental Sustainability Strategies
8. 4 Case Studies in Healthcare: Nursing
9. Mayo Clinic: Design Thinking in Healthcare
10. The Use of Design Thinking in MNCH Programs in Ghana - Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation
11. Tackling the Opioid Crisis at the Human and Systems Level - Stanford
Business School

HUMAN RESOURCES

1. Design thinking disrupts HR, re-defines the HR function

2. Design Thinking in HR at Deutche Telekom

INSURANCE

1. Transforming Life Insurance: McKinsey

2. Bringing Design Thinking to the Insurance World

K-12 EDUCATION

1. Design is to Doing as Learning is to Thinking - Design Learning Network

2. Following One School District's Approach to Innovation for the 21st Century -
Loraine Rossi de Campos

MEDIA & JOURNALISM

1. The Guardian Using Design to Reaffirming Values

2. Journalism Case Studies that Apply Design Thinking - Poynter
3. The Guardian: Benefits of Design Thinking - The Design Council
 

RETAIL

1. Selling the 'Smart Home' with an Immersive Retail Experience

2. Using Design Thinking to help traditional German Butchers
3. Self-Checkout: Improving Scan Accuracy through Design Thinking
4. Designing Waste Out of the Food System

SERVICES

1. Design Thinking in our Digital Product Creation Process

2. Better Service Faster, A Design Thinking Case Study
3. How we Design on the UberEATS Team

SOCIAL IMPACT

1. IMPACT: A case study about Design Thinking for helping who help! - Mattia
Tamborini
2. Clean Team In-Home Toilets for Ghana’s Urban Poor - IDEO
3. Reinventing Solar Energy Supply for Rural Africa
4. Asili: Addressing an Entire Ecosystem of Need in a Rural Community -
IDEO.org

SOFTWARE

1. Saving Product X – A Design Thinking Case Study - Paul Clayton Smith

TECHNOLOGY

1. Scaling Design Thinking in the Enterprise: a 5 Year Case Study at Citrix

2. B2B Design Thinking: Product Innovation when the User is a Network

TRANSPORTATION

1. How we Design on the UberEATS Team

2. Improving UX in Public Transportation
3. IDEO: Using Design Thinking to Create a Better Car
4. Design Thinking at Innogy: eCarSharing
5. The Impact of Design Thinking on Innovation: A Case Studty at Scania IT
 References
https://www.creativityatwork.com/design-thinking-strategy-for-innovation/

https://www.designkit.org/methods

https://tutorials.one/design-thinking/#Design_Thinking_as_a_Game_Changer

https://careerfoundry.com/en/blog/ux-design/user-testing-design-thinking/
https://careerfoundry.com/en/blog/ux-design/design-thinking-stage-four-prototyping/
https://www.mindtools.com/ahlezc4/mind-maps
https://www.workshopper.com/post/guide-to-design-thinking
https://www.mindtools.com/ahlezc4/mind-maps

https://www.innovationtraining.org/online-templates-for-brainstorming/

http://gcseproductdesign.weebly.com/evaluating-ideas.html

https://www.toptal.com/designers/product-design/design-problem-statement

https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-mapping-cheat-sheet/

https://www.nngroup.com/articles/design-thinking-study-guide/?lm=how-might-we-
questions&pt=article

https://www.design-thinking-association.org/explore-design-thinking-topics/external-links/design-
thinking-methodology-and-examples
 Quiz-1
1. Design Thinking supports in
a. Developing the product
b. Developing the strategy
c. Developing the process
d. All of the above
2. What is design considerations are not linked with?
a. Products
b. Services
c. Business
d. Computers
3. Design Thinker in an organization are
a. People
b. Employees
c. Managers
d. All of the above
4. Design thinking supports in developing product features to improve the services to the
customers
a. Yes
b. No
5. Comprehensive Principle of Design Thinking does not include
a. Relationship
b. Collaboration
c. Communication
d. Suppliers
6. Communication Skills includes
a. Speaking
b. Writing
c. Visual
d. All of the above
7. In the stages of design thinking empathy means
a. Identifying areas of concern in the business
b. Identifying from the perspective of the employees
c. Identifying from the perspective of the product
d. All of the above
8. What are the steps of Design Thinking Process?
a. Understand > Draw > Ideate > Create > Test
b. Empathize > Define > Ideate > Prototype > Test
c. Empathize > Design > Implement > Produce > Test
d. Understand > Define > Ideate > Produce > Try
9. Design Thinking is a Linear Process. True or False
a. True
b. False
10. Design Thinking typically helps in _______
a. Innovation
b. Data Analysis
c. Marketing Management
d. Operation Management
11. Which of the following well known consulting firms are offering Design Thinking as a
solution?
a. McKinsey & Co
b. BCG
c. Bain & Co
d. All of the above
12. Which one of these statements is TRUE about the Prototype?
a. Your prototype has to be exactly like the final product
b. You must not make it online
c. The objective is to have people interacting with your product
d. You can consider anyone as a potential user of your product
13. Which one of these statements is NOT a good interview practice for user testing in the
Empathy step?
a. Encourage interviewees to share personal experiences
b. Encourage interviewees to provide concise answers going straight to the point
c. Interview your target audience in their usage environment
d. Depending on interviewees, diverge from the Interview Guide to ask additional
unplanned questions
14. A Brainstorming session is____________
a. There is no rule, it is up to the Brainstorming facilitator to decide
b. A mix of individual & collective activities
c. A collective activity only
d. An individual activity only
15. The objective of a low-fidelity prototype is to…
a. Test fast and fail cheap
b. Validate final concepts among your target audience
c. Test more concepts at an early stage
d. Assess the technical feasibility of the solution
16. You can interview your target users at any step of the Design Thinking approach.
a. Yes
b. No
17. When testing a new prototype, how many people do you need to interview per
Persona to detect the main usability issues?
a. The more persons per Persona the better
b. 20 persons per Persona
c. 10 persons per Persona
d. Five persons per Persona
18. You are an Innovation Consultant helping a Team apply the Design Thinking approach.
This team is working on the Ideation step and have produced more than 100 ideas. What
would you suggest they do first?
a. To prototype some of these ideas
b. To categorise their ideas
c. To continue iterating on ideas
d. To vote for their preferred ideas
19. As an Innovation Consultant, what should you do to help a team struggling to think
outside the box during a Brainstorming session?
a. Propose to them new brainstorming techniques (e.g. Mash-up)
b. Remind the team about the Problem Statement(s) to help guide the ideation process
c. Remind the team about the Brainstorming rules
d. Give them feedback about the ideas like highlighting the good ones already proposed
20. Who bought a collaborative design philosophy?
a. Henry Ford
b. Henry Ford and Steve Jobs
c. Steve Jobs
d. None of the above
21. One needs to have professional training in design to become a design thinker. True or
False?
a. True
b. False
 Quiz- 2

1. Who or what is at the center of the design thinking model?

1. The concept of innovation

2. The customer
3. The company
4. The product

2. Companies can learn to empathize with customers in design thinking through all of these
options EXCEPT which?

1. Making assumptions
2. Focus groups
3. Questionnaires
4. Social media

3. Arrange the following events into an appropriate sequence of define phase.

1. 1 Collect information from the personas

2. 2 Share inspiring stories & learnings with the team
3. 3 Cluster the data into themes
4. 4 Define insights.
5. 5 Create "How Might We" (HMW) questions

4. Design Thinking is:

1. Thinking about design

2. Designing ways in which people think
3. Asking users to solve problems
4. Defining, framing and solving problems from users' perspectives

5. What are the steps of Design Thinking Process?

1. Understand > Draw > Ideate > Create > Test

2. Empathise > Define > Ideate > Prototype > Test
3. Empathise > Design > Implement > Produce > Test
4. Understand > Define > Ideate > Produce > Try

6. Design Thinking is a Linear Process. True or False?

1. True
2. False

7. Aravind Eye Care System (AECS), an Indian eye care provider for millions of low income people
has been using design thinking in its approach since a long time. Which of the below statements
are examples of design thinking at AECS?
 1. AECS provides buses from remote locations to the AEC centre to provide transportation to
its users, the poor people as they can't afford these
2. AECS has developed a manufacturing facility which enables providing lenses at a fraction of
cost than the market price
3. AECS has been using telemedicine trucks to enable expert advice of doctors at hospital
4. All of the above

8. Which of the below firm is associated the most with Design Thinking?

1. Ikea
2. Ideo
3. Idea
4. Ikei

9. Design Thinking typically helps in _______

1. Innovation
2. Data analytics
3. Financial planning
4. Operational efficiency

10. One needs to have professional training in design to become a design thinker. True or False?

1. True
2. False
 Quiz 3
1. Which statements are true? (2 statements)

A. Design thinking should only take place when there is a problem you are passionate to solve.
B. Design thinking can start with any part of the process because is an iterative cycle.
C. Design thinking is a methodology that focuses on users as an anchor throughout the problem
solving process.
D. You should always start design thinking with Empathy because it is the core process.

2. What is Empathy?

A. To experience a person's situation so you can tell others what it was like
B. To listen to their problems and then give them advice
C. To understand a person's situation and to pity them
D. To have a deeper appreciation and understanding of people's needs

3. Name three types of empathy approach you can do to understand your user's needs better and
gather insights.

A. Engage users in interview (engage),Experience what your user goes through(immerse), Observe
users in their natural environment (observation)
B. Engage users in debate (engage),Experience what your user goes through(immerse) Observe users
in a controlled environment (observation)
C. Engage users in opinion based discussions (engage), Assume what your user goes through
(immerse), Observe users in their natural environment(observation)

4. Which one of the following is false?

A. When observing during empathy, we should not give the user a heads up and introduce ourselves
before observing them, to ensure we observe their natural behaviour.
B. We do immersion in empathy to allow ourselves to experience the similar journey faced by the
user to help us understand better.
C. While interviewing during empathy, we should always make sure we introduce ourselves and the
intention of the interview.
D. During empathy, we should only ask questions that would validate our answers in order to get the
answers we are looking for.

5. Among the benefit of _______ is that we are able to see and pay attention to our users'
experience and interaction with the service/product, and the surrounding environment.

A. Empathy
B. Immerse
C. Interview
D. Observe
6. What should we do during Empathy: Engage? (There is more than one correct answer.)

A. Introduce yourself and make the user feel comfortable

B. Simplify the interview questions to "Yes and No" types to ease the user's understanding.
C Always ask Why to dig deeper
D Talk to 2 users at the same time to maximize our time