A few design thinking methods I thought were interesting concepts were Story Share & Capture and the use of an Empathy Map. An overview of both methods is below:
Story Share and Capture – Allows members to get on the same page about what people saw or heard in the field. This allows for multiple observations to be heard and brought into the ‘light’. With this meeting, all team members can draw meanings from the experiences that may not have been realized at first glance, which creates synthesis and saturation.
Empathy Map – Helps generate a deep understanding of the person(s) you are design for. An empathy map helps you synthesis and draw out insights that may be unexpected. When using an empathy map one can populate different traits that a user may have as well as a place to review notes, audio and video from fieldwork studies. With an empathy map – identify needs that will help your design and identify insights that will create leverage to better respond to design challenges.
Many of the design-thinking methods presented by the Stanford d.school help designers think about what is next. The next step, the missing puzzle piece, the ability to push their design one step further by designing better and more innovative. By using more than one of the design methods, designers can not only answer or solve the design problem but focus on the character, and disposition of who they are designing for, asking What, How and Why throughout the design process.
I would like to think that I ask myself questions and use some of the methods that are listed throughout my design process. However, I feel that much of the time the main goal is to solve a problem based on the goals of the client and not looking beyond their goals but bettering the design for future uses. The research in this Bootcamp will be something that I turn to often when I am having difficulty and need a different approach to design thinking.