Summary: The design thinking process is a mindset grounded in the core characteristics of design and used to solve problems and drive innovation. The Double Diamond design thinking process consists of four key stages: Discover, Define, Develop, and Deliver, and provides a practical model to apply design thinking. We explored design thinking and various frameworks […]
How to use Card Sorting to Improve Service Design
Service design follows the same design thinking processes that we highlighted in previous articles about design thinking. However, when it comes to the prototyping stage, there should be a coherent structure for the information structure provided to the consumers during their product or service usage. Organising the information can be represented in the tagging system in […]
Starbursting Technique: Evaluating New Ideas
Starbursting is another creative brainstorming tool with a different approach from other brainstorming techniques. When the team inside the organisation brainstorms new ideas using mind mapping and brainstorming tools, the focus is on generating ideas and accepting all ideas. This approach aims to expand the problem exploration in an early stage of the design thinking […]
Exploring IKEA’s Sustainable Design Strategy: Part One
The design adds various values inside any company. At the top of these values is building a company-wide strategy such as IKEA sustainable design strategy. Strategic design and good design management are essential for any organization to achieve innovation, which subsequently leads to a more exceptional ability to compete in the market. “Tomorrow’s business must […]
30+ Distance Learning Tools And Advices for Design Educators
In response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, many educational institutions have recommended their students to switch to distance learning or online learning to reduce the chances to get infected and reduce physical contact. This action is challenging because of 1) we have not seen such outbreak before, and 2) because many of the design educators […]
PESTLE Analysis and When to Use it
Finding a creative idea is only the first step in every innovation process, understanding the whole picture about business and forecast both internal and external factors that may affect it is critically required before releasing to the market. At this point, tools like the PESTLE analysis and SWOT analysis come into action. In a previous […]
The Role of Storytelling in the Design Process
Storytelling is in the heart of our DNA as a human being, it helps us connect events is a holistic experience through time. This unique nature of stories makes it one of the essential tools during the design process of both products and services. Previously, we explored the nature of the design thinking process and […]
Guerrilla User Experience for Quick, Low-Budget Research
Building a user-centered design requires a deep understanding of consumer experience, which can be only achieved through an in-depth research process prior to building the first product prototype. However, as a designer, one of the common challenges when conducting user experience (UX) research is the project managers themselves. Although they never say no to user […]
Applying Design Thinking for Strategic Innovation
Summary: Design thinking can have a significant impact when utilised as a strategic asset within the organisation to shift toward a consumer-centric, innovation-driven culture. Examples of companies that adopted a design thinking mindset are IKEA, Apple, and Starbucks. Many companies still lack an understanding of design thinking. I believe this may be a result of two main […]
Why Brainstorming is a Waste of Time and What is the Alternative
The notion of brainstorming was first introduced by the advertising executive Alex Osborn in 1939 and was published in his book, How to Think Up, in 1942. The basic idea behind the group brainstorming sessions is that privilege the diversity expertise inside the organization to develop innovative ideas and solutions for problems. it aims to […]
Unpacking Design Thinking Futures: GK VanPatter in conversation with Rafiq Elmansy Part 2
Last week, we got the chance to discuss with GK VanPatter, co-founder of Humantific, his vision about design thinking futures as part of this series of interviews with design leaders. Our purpose is to gain a better understanding of the present and future of the design industry. In the previous interview, Unpacking Design Thinking Futures […]
Unpacking Design Thinking Futures: GK VanPatter in conversation with Rafiq Elmansy Part 1
Design is now taking broader perspective than before. It's now used by large companies such as Google, Apple, IKEA, Nike, and others as a strategic and business tool to lead business to a new innovative level. Design thinking is widely used by various companies to achieve business advantages such as innovation, market competitiveness, and profitability. […]
What is Market Segmentation? Why is it Important?
The understanding of the target audience is crucial for building a viable product or service. Companies use the market segmentation in order to focus their production and marketing campaign on a specific niche of audiences. The market segmentation is defined as the process to divide the large market into smaller and clearly identified segments or […]
Why Do Companies Need the Creative Brief More Than Before?
In order to have a clear vision about the new product development process, companies today are in greater need to write a creative brief. This is due to the nature of global markets in terms of infrastructure, teams, and competition. Companies are now able to connect through new communication methods that allow them to reach clients […]
Five Reasons to Move to Lean UX
The lean UX allows us to escape the barrier of the traditional UX process to a more agile process. Instead of waiting for a full details UX specifications, the team moves directly to building the digital product while focusing on the user needs. Then, the team iterates the prototype in order to improve it over […]
Freelance vs Full-time Design Jobs: Making the Right Decision
Many designers ask me the common question; is it better to search for design jobs or become freelance designers? Many of the design projects can run remotely without restricting to a specific workplace. this encourages companies to outsource their projects to freelance designers. Designers on the other side see the freelance as a way to […]
Why Some Companies Reject Design Thinking and How to Handle it
As designers, the design thinking is part of our daily habits even if we don’t have any background about its different stages. We research for information about the project before jumping into the design process. We tend to sketch or prototype to visualize our ideas. For us, the design thinking process fills the gaps with […]
Critical Thinking as a Catalyst of Change in Design
In almost every design project, we find ourselves trapped in a number of mindset obstacles that stands between us and building an innovative outcome. These barriers include presumptions, biased ideas, and limited understanding of the consumer’s needs. Applying the critical thinking may help us to escape these barriers toward innovative solutions and products. The critical […]
Creative Problem Solving: How to Turn Challenges into Opportunities
What if we can turn problems faced in projects into opportunities? There are various examples show that understanding the problem and provide a creative solution for it can lead to successful products such as the Apple iPods and e-book readers. These products have implemented the Creative Problem Solving approach to see their consumers’ needs as […]
Design Schools Should Teach Systems Thinking and This is Why
In simple words, system thinking means understanding the big picture of the current situation through recognizing its different elements, how they interact with each other from one side and external systems from another. For example, the car is considered a system which consists of many elements that interact with each other to achieve its main […]