Education sector: Think of a classroom where the students can create meaningful solutions with absolute freedom (think tangible prototypes of products) that make a big difference in the world.

This is the central premise behind Design Thinking, an initiative that encourages the students and the teachers to find real-world problems.

Wait, are we talking about maker spaces?

Let’s talk about Design Thinking. Design Thinking isn’t a curriculum. It is a framework and mindset that allows educators to use a human-centered way to teach the students core problem-solving.

This blog will provide details about design thinking, its usefulness in classrooms, and how to make the most of design thinkers.

What is Design Thinking?

Neil Stevenson IDEO Chicago’s most well-known proponent of design thinking, says that “Design Thinking doesn’t exist as a single thing.” He says it is a “bundle of mindsets and philosophy all wrapped up into one term.”

Design thinking is all about skills, and students will learn the most in-demand skills through the design thinking course.

Empathy is the first step. Students must consider the needs of those who will be using the energy to impact on their neighbours. Also, they must think about practical considerations such as budget and location when designing a renewable energy plant. Stevenson explained that design-thinking requires students to forget about their egos and focus on the needs of the end-users.

Design Thinking emphasises imagination, which means that you need to generate many ideas. Students must be taught to be open-minded and think about problems. After that, they can create prototypes and refine them through iterations until they develop a solution. Frustration and failure are part of the learning process. Through the concept of “failing forward,” students learn resilience.

According to Stanford University’s recent presentation, Design Thinking helps children understand that they have the power and ability to change the world now instead of waiting until later.

How to Implement Design Thinking Five Key Steps

• Empathize: Empathizing means understanding and empathizing with the user, making the design process more oriented towards the user and allowing for solutions and results to be derived. Designers who use design thinking employ user-based research. They have to try to be mindful of users’ wants and needs. They also hold user interviews to establish their project goals.
• Define: This stage is where the problem and user needs are identified and analyzed. It gives direction for the entire design process. The second phase of the Design Thinking process uses the information practitioners have gathered in the first stage. It allows them to identify the best way to design the problem.
• Ideate: This is the most critical stage of the design cycle. It involves brainstorming and coming up with various solutions to users’ problems. This third stage is about generating meaningful ideas. Brainstorming, 4-step sketching, and modeling are some of the most popular methods for ideation.
• Prototype: Designers can create and build practical prototypes and test the ideas and solutions they have developed in the final stages. This provides a clear indication of the success or failure of the process. This stage allows you to make informed decisions, considering both the goodness and the meaning.
• The final stage in the design cycle is called testing. Users are allowed to use the prototypes and provide feedback. The user’s likes and dislikes are clearly defined during the testing phase. They can also guide the entire design process.

Design Thinking is essential for school students

You may be asking yourself why Design Thinking skills are essential. This question can be answered by looking at the changing work environment, and the direction work is heading. You will need to be flexible and have good skills to succeed and thrive. It would be best to adapt to situations you haven’t seen before. To be creative, design thinking is a crucial part of your life.

Design thinking is about asking questions

Design Thinking begins with challenging the status quo. It allows you to stay in the story’s center, using various creative methods to generate suggestions, ideas, and solutions for multiple problems, situations, or questions.

Queries such as: How do I approach a problem? How do I interpret something I just learned? I have an idea, but how do you build it? I tried something new. How should it evolve? It changes the way you see the world and gives you the freedom to imagine and create new solutions.

Design thinking allows you to empathize and relate with users

Design Thinking is based on empathy. It will enable students to understand users better and gain deeper insight into their behavior.

Students must understand the needs of people using renewable energy sources to design a farm. They also need to know how it will affect neighbors and the cost. Students will learn to empathize with the product’s people before moving on.

How do school students attain benefits through design thinking courses?

Let’s look at these key points to understand the benefits that Design Thinking Course offers students:

• Students learn to be creatively confident in adapting to and overcoming new challenges.
• Students can become optimistic, compassionate, and intelligent working members of society that can solve complex problems in the upcoming time.
• Design thinking skills enable students to find creative and innovative solutions to their problems.
• Students can use design thinking skills to solve real-world problems.
• Learn from industry professionals how to problem solve, make decisions, and think creatively.
• The design thinking course is designed to help students learn, not just get a Great Learning’s design thinking courses.
• Students get the opportunity to learn the best skills and be ready for the future by becoming job-ready.
• Students learn the basics of Design Thinking and Problem-Solving.

Conclusion

These 21st-century Design Thinking skills will not only help you stay alert for your future job, but they will also allow you to apply creative thinking in your academics. You must be excited to learn design thinking skills.

If you’ve concluded that solving creative problems is your passion, you should learn design thinking!