Introduction
Some of the world’s leading brands, such as Apple, Google, Samsung and GE, have rapidly adopted the Design Thinking approach, and Design Thinking is being taught at leading universities around the world, including Stanford, Harvard and MIT.
Design Thinking is an iterative process in which we seek to understand the user, challenge assumptions, and redefine problems in an attempt to identify alternative strategies and solutions that might not be instantly apparent with our initial level of understanding. At the same time, Design Thinking provides a solution-based approach to solving problems. It is a way of thinking and working as well as a collection of hands-on methods.
Thinking outside of the box can provide an innovative solution to a sticky problem. However, thinking outside of the box can be a real challenge as we naturally develop patterns of thinking that are modeled on the repetitive activities and commonly accessed knowledge we surround ourselves with.
There are five phases of design thinking which are empathize, define, ideate, prototype and lastly test. It is important to note that the five phases, stages, or modes are not always sequential. They do not have to follow any specific order and can often occur in parallel and repeat iteratively.
The Design Thinking
On Saturday 24 November, my friends and I had the talk about design making, the speaker teach us how to design a building with our own imagination. We have to design a future part school in the University Technology Malaysia, everyone has to design some building with the future technology that make the school become the future school. Firstly, we be given some knowledge about design making intuitive learning approach. Design making is an essential component in the design thinking process. Design making enables practitioners to create valuable outcomes that can solve real world problem. Value is created when the prototypes have been put through rigorous cycles of feedback and testing, resulting in functional products that serve as practical solutions. There is some important step before starting the project, first understand the design making as a key in value creation. Second apply design making to friends to capture friend curiosity build shared understanding and sharpen their understanding of design thinking. Last step has fun through hands-on intuitive making.
In addition, 5 important step really need to follow to complete the design making project. The main thing is to empathize the project, try to understand every detail of the part that comes in mind and state the problem my caused in the future. Next define every detail of the project, the purpose of creating the buildings. Every building has the reason why it been creating. After that, ideate the idea to solve the problem with the way to create future building. The following step is prototype, creating a prototype is important for the first step of creating real building, with provided material and imagination prototype are created. Last step is test, we have to test whether the building that we create are work perfectly or need an improvement.
After the briefing, all the participants was divided into several groups and was tasked to create our own prototype and we will need to implement it based on what we had learned. We have to imagine what would the school look like in the future. The materials for creating the prototype was provide by the organizer. For the first step, all the group members will be discussing about what to do. The brainstorms process included the problems, ways to solve and the needs. Problems was the most important part as it was the cause to why we build something. So, our group found that most of the school don’t have attractive or interesting place to studying. We decide to design it and add some future technology into it. From our discussions, a study place need to be place at the outdoor because it can give a good mood to the students. For that, we build our prototype with a roof that have a futuristic technology which is can be controlled at will. The roof was needed as it can protect students from unpredictable weather. The prototype also included with a big screen with virtual reality (VR) surrounded the place. The function of the screen is to give a good scene for the students so they will be more productive when studying. Our next idea is to have a drainage system at that location. The system will use a technology that turn the water in the drain into a fountain to give a good view there. We also thought of an idea which is to produce and use a modern desks and chair. The desks and chairs there have a technology that can be fold based on the students desired by using a switch. By using this technology, it will provide and save more space at the location. The results from this brainstorming will be use to create a prototype to checked whether our idea is relevant or not to be implement for our future school.
After the brainstorming, we start to build the prototype based on what we discussed. First, we use a cardboard that was provided to create a base. Then we use another cardboard to create the desk and the chairs. We also create a fountain and the drain system like we discuss before. For the final step, we decorate our prototype to give it a good scene. We applied some tree that we made from color papers and also a LED.
For the test part, each group was asked to gather all the prototype. One representative from each group was required to explain to everyone the function for each part in the prototype and the needs for it. The explanation also includes the technology that we applied into the prototype. Then the speaker will comment all the prototype whether it is relevant or not.
Reflection
There are many people and also many problems they have to counter in this world. As the technologies arise, many problems can be solve easily with the help of the one who professional in this field. We are software engineering students and our goal is to help people to solve their problems using technology and also give benefits to the world. The example of the problems is the problems regarding education.
Design thinking plays a big role in our goal as it is the way to solve the problems effectively. All of the phases in design thinking are needed in order to solve problems. The phases are empathy, define, ideate, prototype and test. We have to list all the problems from users and all the possible solutions for the problems. Also, we have to list the pros and cons too. This is because we need to minimize the percentage of failure and maximize the benefits. Then, after the brainstorm, we have to develop the prototype and the user will have to test it. Finally, the real project will be develop if the user satisfied with the prototype.
As we know, we are in 4.0 industrial revolution which need us to be more competitive in this field. In order to be more competitive in this field, we have to take the chances to learn everything. As the maker philosophy, a maker need to have a growth mindset which believes that he/she can learn to do anything. Then, we have to maintain the highest standard for ourselves even when no one is looking. Lastly, we need to share our ideas and build upon the works of others to achieve collective brilliance.