Summary: Reverse brainstorming is an effective approach based on brainstorming that makes problems worse before identifying solutions, opening the opportunity to observe problems from different perspectives and reducing judgmental attitudes within the team. Several techniques are utilised in the design thinking process to explore problems and potential solutions, such as brainstorming, reverse brainstorming, Six Thinking Hats […]
About Dr Rafiq Elmansy
Six Thinking Hats Technique: A Complete Practical Guide
Summary: During brainstorming and discussions, some thoughts bubble up while others are buried. De Bono's Six Thinking Hats technique provides a systematic solution to sharing and improving ideas by eliminating idea-destructive elements during brainstorming meetings. Our thinking can be unstructured and reinforced, leading individuals and groups to think irrationally and be biased toward specific ideas, which […]
UX Dark Patterns and Social Media Addiction
SummaryUX Dark patterns (also known as deceptive patterns) in the digital world are design strategies that manipulate user behaviour and desires to encourage users to interact with the system in ways that prioritise business interests over the user's best interests. Deceptive patterns lead to digital excess usage and addiction (e.g. in online shopping, games and […]
Build Behavioural Design Strategy Using Journey Mapping
Consumer journey mapping is a practical tool to use in behavioural design to understand user behaviour and develop effective strategies to change behaviour for habit formation. During the design thinking process, many factors interact together, and at the core of these factors is the user's behaviour as they interact with the design artefact. Eventually, to […]
Design Thinking Books You Must Read (updated)
Can you think that following a design thinking process with five steps turns you into a creative innovator?! Believe me, it isn’t and never has been this way. The spread of the term design thinking is aligned with a significant amount of misleading criticism. The doubts about the effectiveness of design thinking are influenced by […]
Using the MPPF Method in the Double Diamond Design Process
We explored the design thinking process and introduced various models, including the Double Diamond Design process, which reflected several characteristics of design thinking, although it still shows some linearity in its flow through the four stages: Discover, Define, Develop, and Deliver. As you may notice when looking at the Double Diamond model, the centricity around […]
Applying the Delphi Method in Design Research
Design research is a core practice in design and when applying the design thinking process professionally. However, in some situations, we seek agreement from experts around one question, decision, or strategy while exploring problems before jumping to prototyping solutions. While there are several tools to explore problems from the user perspective, I would like to […]
What is this Thing Called Design Management?
Managing the design process is always a challenging task. Have you ever wondered the reason behind the lack of designers' ability to understand how to manage the creative process and the similar lack of managers' knowledge of the creative process presents one of the significant barriers that stand against driving innovation and building design culture […]
What is Strategic Design and its Role inside the Organisation?
While teaching design classes at several universities, I got to explore the design thinking process with the students and highlight the role of design and creativity during the different process stages. For example, the Double Diamond design thinking process helps us to explore the problem/solution space of the problem to identify innovative solutions (check Why […]
Design Thinking Examples of Driving Creativity
For many, design thinking reflects several outcomes of the design value, and creativity and innovation are among them. When we dig deeper into design thinking examples, we see the applications of design characteristics in solving different problems creatively and innovatively. We face increasingly challenging obstacles like climate change, pollution, poverty, lack of resources and other […]
The Ergonomics Principles and Their Applications
The user experience is the core of the design process, and we, as designers, apply existing design processes such as the Double Diamond Design Thinking to improve our user's experience and achieve the so-called empathic design. But the process is not that straightforward as we need to consider several human and non-human factors during the […]
Types of Innovation: The Complete Guide with Examples
Innovation is widely acknowledged as important for companies seeking market success in various industries or accessing new markets. This perception is supported by case studies and by observation of companies and their implementation of the different types of innovation as part of their organizational strategy to gain competitive advantage. In the middle of aggressive competition […]
SCAMPER Technique Examples and Applications
The SCAMPER technique is one of the brainstorming tools that allows us to explore solutions to problems by altering the current product through seven different approaches: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put in Another Use, Eliminate, and Rearrange. My previous article, A Guide to the SCAMPER Technique for Creative Thinking, explored these seven approaches and the questions […]
Four Must-Know Behavioural Design Strategies
In user experience design, we use HCI theories to study and improve the usability of design solutions. Yet, the context of use extends to the user environment and behaviour that changes over time. Therefore, behavioural design merges design expertise and psychology theories to improve users' experience by studying and changing their behaviour to improve their […]
Behavioural Design: Using Habit Loop in mHealth
Behavioural design is not only about designing the mobile health solution but also extending its role to understand how users behave and drive users to change their habits toward healthier ones, such as adhering to their medications or better managing their health. Think of how different social media platforms use behavioural science to alter user […]
How to Create a Professional Creative Brief?
Through my years of working as a designer, I understood two factors: the most crucial document that paves the way through the design process is the creative brief, and there is no single agreement on what should be included in the creative brief. You agree with me as each project has its creative brief, and […]
What are Design Research Types and Applications?
Let’s think of the design practice and how design research contributes to the development of different design solutions, products, services, and systems. Both design and research are human activities, and in his book, Craftsmanship, Richard Sennett describes design as a craftsman practice that involves using different materials and elements to provide a final design solution. […]
Minimum Viable Product Examples and Applications
When we have a new product idea, it is always surrounded by uncertainty regarding its future success and market acceptability. During the design processes, such as the Double Diamond Design Thinking, we could collect user feedback and use it to iterate our product prototype. Still, this limited cycle doesn't give us the chance to have […]
The Affinity Diagram: A Practical Case Study
During the design process, several parameters bubble during the research and ideation sessions that you need to organise, analyse and prioritise, such as application features, project tasks or organise application menus to improve user experience. Having a large amount of data collected during the research phase makes it hard for a design team to build […]
The Blue Ocean Strategy: Guide and Examples
One of the biggest challenges that face today's companies is market competency. The challenge factor is magnified for new companies as they try to find a value proposition that allows them to have a place in the market. As such companies have limited financial and human resources, these conditions leave them a limited window to […]