Design

Thinking

Dr. Fatema Qaed

Insta:@fatemaqaed
2024-2025
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 Participator
y design

Designing For
Aesthetics

Focused on

Its style
Form base
User
s center
design

Style base Process base

 Its about process not about form or style
Biophilic
Design
Design for
sustainabilit
y

Co-
Design Service
Participato

Design approaches
ry design Design

Designing with
Designing For

Inclusiv
e
Design
User Co-
center Creation
design
UX
Design
Social
innovatio
n Design
Process base Design Thinking
Design
Thinking

Dr. Fatema Qaed

Insta:@fatemaqaed
2024-2025
4
In Class activity

◉ During listening to the lecture capture

key words, nots, visuals, ideas and
thoughts that you found interesting and
beneficial

I will tell you at the end of the

class what to do with them

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An introduction to design
thinking

What? Why? How?

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What it is
design thinking?
“Design is not just what it
looks and feels like.

Design is how it
works.”
Herbert Alexander Simon, Nobel Prize winner (1969)

Herbert Simon was the founding father of artificial intelligence. He

was the first one who mentioned that

“Design is a way of
thinking”
So, design thinking is not only about designing a product,
or service, experience, interior space

It is how are you thinking about designing

those things
There are many variants of the Design Thinking process in use today, and they have
from three to seven phases, stages, or modes. However, all variants of Design Thinking
are very similar.
What it is
design thinking?
Design Thinking is a process in which we
seek to understand the user, provides a
solution-based approach to solving
problems. It is a way of thinking and
working.

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 Design thinking is …….

Its rooted in Unlock insights It’s a way of

people and in and encourage thinking and
place. creativity working
Its user centred

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Design Thinking is broader and more
holistic and is not limited to live within the
design discipline alone.

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Design Thinking stretches
across disciplines. The true
potential of Design Thinking
is its collaborative force of
bringing the disciplines
together to create a holistic
product vision.

The Design Thinker makes

empathy for business needs
part of a broader context
together with human needs
and desires.
Source:
https://medium.muz.li/how-design-thinking-will-fix-design-thi
nking-5ce735b4c029

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Why
design thinking?
 Why Design thinking …….

Immersive users hands-on thinking outside

research methods leads the box
to innovative
answers
(Design thinking tools)

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 Why design thinking?

Though ostensibly geared to understanding and molding the

experiences of customers, design thinking also profoundly
reshapes the experiences of the innovators themselves. For
example:

◉ Immersive users research helps them set aside their own

views and recognize needs users haven’t expressed.

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Can your product be bought from anywhere, grocery
store, gas station?

The ink cartage runout are we going to through your

pen out?

What are the feeling of people who are using your

product? If I gave some one your pen, how does he
feel, is it the same feeling when I give them the
normal big yellow pen?
Dear Parker you are not
manufacturing pens, you are
manufacturing gifts because your
target who receive your pen as a gift

After that Parker redesigned their

packaging
 Science, Artist (artwork,
mathematician, poems, novels..):
Engineers is it aesthetics, effect
reliable, safe, emotions, enhance
proven feelings

Design Thinking is the result of combining analytical thinking and intuitive thinking
How
design thinking
works?
Here, we will focus on the five-phase
model proposed by d.school Institute of
Design at Stanford, I choose D.School’s
approach because they’re at the
forefront of applying and teaching
Design Thinking.

The five phases of Design Thinking,

according to d.school, are as follows:

David Kelley, co-founder

Ideo
1 2 3 4 5

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 Understand Explore Materialize

Empathize Define Ideate Prototype Test

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Empathize Define Ideate Prototype Test

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 Mood board,
concept
visualization

Planning
Aim Three-
Research aim dimensional
drawing

Literature
review
chapter

Similar
projects case
studies

Users

Juries
Project concept
Studio tutoring

Design thinking for interior designers

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Think about your
graduation project

Share with us the aim of

your graduation project

https://padlet.com/fatemaqaed/share-with-us-
your-project-aim-uvv77om7zolnnksd

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32

“
 What is Empathize?

Empathy is the foundation of a

human-centered design process.

Design Thinking cannot begin without a

deeper understanding of the people
you are designing for.

To gain those insights, it is important for

design thinkers to empathize with the
people they’re designing for to
understand their needs, thoughts,
emotions and motivations.

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What is Empathize?

View users
and their Experience
behavior in what users
the context of experience
their lives.

0
2
Immers
Observe Engage.
e.
0 0
1 3

Interact with
and interview
users

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How to Empathize?

Observe how users interact with

their environment.
Watching users gives you clues as to what they
think and feel— what they need.

Engage users directly—interact with and

interview
Engaging them.
users reveals deeper insights into
their beliefs and values.

Immerse yourself in your users’

experience.
1-Discover the emotions that drive user behavior.
2-Uncover user needs (which they may or may not be aware of).
3-Identify the right users to design for.
4-Use your insights to design innovative solutions.
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Thoughtless acts Put your self in
your user's shoe

Empathiz
e

Immersive user
research

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Back to your project

Think about information gathered

during your empathy process, think
how can you Immerse your self in
users’ experience, think about their
biggest needs and how it can be a
design insight

https://padlet.com/fatemaqaed/share-with-us-
your-project-aim-uvv77om7zolnnksd

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 Why?

As a human-centered designer you need to

understand the people for whom you are
designing.

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 Why?

The problems you are trying to solve are rarely

your own—they are those of particular users; in
order to design for your users, you must build
empathy for who they are and what is important
to them.

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 Why?

By watching people, you can capture physical

manifestations of their experiences, what they do and
say. This will allow you to interpret intangible meaning of
those experiences in order to uncover insights.

These insights will lead you to the

innovative solutions. The best solutions
come out of the best insights into
human behavior.

Watching what people do and how they

interact with their environment gives you
clues about what they think and feel. It
helps you to learn about what they need.

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 Why?

But learning to recognize those insights is

harder than you might think. Why?
Because our minds automatically filter out
a lot of information in ways, we aren’t
even aware of.

We need to learn to see things “with a

fresh set of eyes” tools for empathy, along
with a human-centered mindset, is what
gives us those new eyes

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 Why?

Ways that we adapt to the world without

thinking. Coined by Jane Fulton Suri of
IDEO, including her nifty book with a ton
of examples. Typically, great inspiration
for design.

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Back to your project

Think about one thoughtless act

about your project user

https://padlet.com/fatemaqaed/share-with-us-
your-project-aim-uvv77om7zolnnksd

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Capture 5 thoughtless
acts people do when they
drink, or order karak chai
tea

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 Why?

Engaging with people directly reveals a tremendous

amount about the way they think and the values they
hold.

Sometimes these thoughts and values are not obvious

to the people who hold them.

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 Why?

A deep engagement can surprise both the designer and

the designee by the unanticipated insights that are
revealed.

The stories that people tell and the things that people
say they do—even if they are different from what they
actually do—are strong indicators of their deeply held
beliefs about the way the world is.

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Corey Ford
[email protected] 50
u
 THINK — what might the user be thinking? What are their
beliefs? What are they worried or happy about? What thoughts
Empathy map or aspects might influence their behavior?

IDENTIFY
SAY — what are NEEDS — why is he/she
the key messages using this service? Why
and the quotes would they like to
that the user is change?
saying?

DO — what
actions and IDENTIFY INSIGHTS
behavior did you would the user like to
notice? accomplish?

FEEL — what emotions

might the user feel?
SAY — what are the key messages and the quotes that the user is saying?
External communication is one of the first impressions we receive from a person. Even before meeting, we can
check how a user communicates in social media or with other people (in case the communication is public).
During the observation, quotes can be collected as well.

DO — what actions and behaviour did you notice?

During the observation, we can see how a user is acting physically. We can check whether they are buying a
product or a service, or whether it is clear for them what to do with a certain product.

THINK — what might the user be thinking? What are their beliefs? What are they worried or happy about? What
thoughts or aspects might influence their behaviour?
In order to avoid misunderstandings and biases, feel free to ask what the user is thinking. Although in some cases
it is hard to express feelings, if we are patient, ask good questions, listen to the users and show trust and
discretion, users may share their honest thoughts with us. The point here to observe their internal thinking
process — the reasons behind their behaviour, including the role of their influencers. It is better if we can identify
the user’s own thoughts.

FEEL — what emotions might the user feel?

Feelings also can only be inferred based on a user’s non-verbal communication signs. If we have a presumption of
feeling, we can ask the user to validate it (e.g. “Do I feel correctly that this makes you upset?”). If we are
empathic enough, they will share their feelings with us.

After carefully observing the users, we can draw insights and conclusions:
IDENTIFY NEEDS — why is he/she using this service? Why would they like to change?
Necessities can arise due to events, life situations, different occasions, etc. Needs are necessities and not goals or
solutions; you can express them with verbs. It can be very interesting to draw needs when there is a contradiction
on your empathy map. For example, there can be a disconnection between what someone says and they do or
think.
IDENTIFY INSIGHTS would the user like to accomplish?
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Be open to
people stories

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https://www.instagram.com/p/CUsQFijq
Dg0/

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Name a place

Name a place that placed in your memories,

And You want to go back or relive it again

Let's think loud

 the sensory nature of the materials,
smells, textures, sounds

Childhood memories

Case Study: Ice-cream

Interactive displays Museum

Location: Singapore
Childhood memories

Case Study: Ice-cream

Museum

Interactive displays
Location: Singapore
Now think How can your project empathize with
your user to design a memorable interior space

Let's think loud

In Class activity

◉ Now turn what you gathered during the

lecture into a visual poster
◉ Attach this poster to your first
assignment (LIY loop) and submit it
with it
◉ Please note that student who submit
and interesting visual poster of the
lecture will be given extra 1 mark that
will be added to the first assignment.
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A kind reminder that
LIY submission is on
20/2/2025 at 8:00 am

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Empathize Define Ideate Prototype Test

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“
Define

unpack your Empathy findings

+ + = Defi
ne
Based on your understanding of users and their
environments, create an actionable problem
statement

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How to Define?

1 2 3

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 72

Define

Process and synthesize the findings in order

to form a user Point Of View

“
 Point Of View (POV) will address three main things:

Needs: synthesize and User: develop an

select a limited set of understanding of the
needs that you think are type of person you are
important to fulfil designing for

Define

Insights: express insights

you developed and
define principles 73
The Define stage will help the designers in your team gather great ideas
to establish features, functions, and any other elements that will
allow them to solve the problems or, at the very least, allow users to
resolve issues themselves with the minimum of difficulty.

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What does he
need?

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 What does he need?

Instead of thinking of needs as a noun

ladder, information, adult

He needs to reach something, then you

can think about different ways of
helping him to reach

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 What does he need?

Think about what are some of the needs that

you cover from the interview
Insights that you got from the interview, their
feelings, stories ….other things

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 so, remember in to define your user you need to create what
we call Point Of View (POV) and it will address three main
things:

Needs: synthesize and User: develop an

select a limited set of understanding of the
needs that you think are type of person you are
important to fulfil designing for

Define

Insights: express insights

you developed and
define principles 79
Make a point of view
sheet for your project
articulate a POV by combining these three
elements:
user, need, and insight.

[User . . . (descriptive)]

[need . . . (verb)]

[insight. . . (evoking interest, attention)]

share it on the same Padlet link

https://padlet.com/fatemaqaed/share-with-us-
your-project-aim-uvv77om7zolnnksd
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Its important to know that there are many
tools to use for each phase, some of
them are explained in the Bootleg

Exploring and designing

Understanding and the solution
defining the problem

Empathize Define Ideate Prototype Test

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Extra Resources
https://en.dt-toolbook.com/tools

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My friend house
story
The value of using design thinking tools

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 Engaging users in these
three phases is
important,
designing with users…

Prototype

Ideate Test

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 Ideate

The goal of ideation is:

• to explore a wide solution space

• large quantity and broad diversity of ideas.
• you can build prototypes to test with users.
• exploring solutions for your users.

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 Ideate

Idea generation is a moment to go wide

Evaluation/selection of ideas is a time for narrowing-

in.
Curtailing “bad” behaviors, such as evaluating during idea generation

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Ideate

1
2
3
4

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90
 Ideation is the third step in the design-
thinking process, which is a user-focused
method of solving problems.

People often use ideation techniques to

create a list of as many solutions as
possible, which they can then narrow to
the most viable options.

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 Idea Generation
You translate problems into solutions,
Explore a wide variety and large
quantity of ideas to go beyond the
obvious solutions to a problem.
How to Ideate?
Ideation Tools

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 94

Brain storming

“
Brainstorming is a well-known technique that leverages the
interaction between a group of people to create solutions by
building on one another's ideas.
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96
Extra Resources
25 Brainstorming Techniques for Team
Inspiration
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-dev
elopment/brainstorming-techniques

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 98

Storyboarding

“
Storyboarding is a helpful technique when designing or improving processes.
Participants create a visual story that presents their ideas allowing them to
understand what works and what needs improvement.
 99

Storyboarding

Think of a storyboard as a comic strip, but do not

worry about artistic abilities—represent each step
in the process using squares filled with either text
or images describing the user's journey, and
arrows between them.

When looking at each step in the process, think

about how you want your users to feel about or
interact with that step, then determine what
solutions or ideas will enable that.

“ Storyboarding each step of your process can also

be helpful because you may realize you missed
an essential step.
 100

Kingdom University asked Mazj

studio to design Design a
promoting video for Bahrain
National day

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scenes from
Bahrainies’ life

imaginary
endings

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scenes from
Bahrainies’ life

imaginary
endings

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Simulation restaurant

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Extra Resources
UX Storyboard Creation: A Complete Guide For
Beginners
https://uxstudioteam.com/ux-blog/ux-storyboard/

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Body Storming

“
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Mind mapping

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Sketching
Sketching with materials

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Ideation tips

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Add constraints

Don’t jump to an easy, direct solution

Surround yourself with inspiring materials
The Lego
house

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Different ways
for Ideation

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Lesson 2 and 3

https://www.masterclass.com/s/ab76332f

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Lesson 2

https://www.masterclass.com/s/7f3958ef

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Using AI tools to
ideate

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Share with us your
graduation concept
ideation images done by
AI

How did the use of AI to ideate your concept

impacted your project? What do you think?

share it on the same Padlet link

https://padlet.com/fatemaqaed/share-with-us-
your-project-aim-uvv77om7zolnnksd

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“
 Prototype

Gets ideas out of your head and into the world

Prototype can be anything that takes a
physical form
Prototypes are most successful when people can experience and interact
with them.

keep prototypes inexpensive and low resolution to learn quickly and

explore possibilities
drives deeper empathy and
What you learn from interactions with prototypes
shapes successful solutions.

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“
How to Prototype?

1
1 2
2 3
3 4
4
Empathy Explorati Inspiratio
gaining.
Testing
Prototyping
on n
Develop multiple Create Inspire others by
deepens your concepts to test prototypes to showcasing your
understanding of in parallel. test and refine vision.
users and the solutions.
design space.

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Examples

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Examples

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 Storyboard and story
telling are strong
prototyping tools

• Here are some references that explain

how to use different AI tools to tell, and
present a story :

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwuiosSt7rc
• https://youtu.be/DsqFKTQjljI?si=cZiRzMrdWDwknSqZ
• https://youtu.be/kmL74nHxPOQ?si=RORTSddeIO58Uuo7
• https://youtu.be/VioQDgkXYpc?si=6ViqFRNPvvb8hoWU

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AI tools offers a group of
tools that can help in
prototyping

• https://zapier.com/blog/best-ai-productivit
y-tools/

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“
Test
“Prototype as if you know you’re right, but test as
if you know you’re wrong.”

Testing is your
chance to:
:
• gather feedback

• refine solutions

• continue to learn about your

users.
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Test

1 2 3 4

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Design thinking implementation

Empathize Define Ideate Prototype Test

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Design thinking might sound like
something only designer would use,
but it’s a powerful to solve problems

And it really can help you shape the

future

Because design thinking offers you

innovators toolbox.

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Extra Resources
Cave man Design Thinking

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Extra Resources
Design Thinking in 90 Seconds

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Extra Resources
Fun Theory - Drinko

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Thanks!
Any questions ?
You can find me at
◉ @fatemaqaed

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