Everything gets designed - clothes, chairs, cars, buildings, pens. Designers have to understand user needs in order to design something, this is a fundamental design philosophy.
Simple enough if you’re creating the next generation refrigerator or this season’s new running shoe. But how does this work when designing tools for work, in industries that traditionally have thrived without these concepts – manufacturing, energy, logistics, construction?
Design Thinking
Design Thinking is a process in which we seek to re-define problems in an attempt to identify solutions that might not be instantly apparent based on what we know.
User Experience Is the overall experience one has with a product, system, or service. UX is the focus of design thinking philosophies.
Below is a real-life example where architects, planners, builders, and engineers designed an environment without taking into account user needs and behaviors in that environment (if it’s hot or raining or I’m late, I’m finding the quickest way in).
The sidewalk is software designed in the board room. The grass is the user creating their optimal experience accordingly (using their own custom Excel spreadsheets probably).
Design Thinking Workshops
Design thinking and a design thinking workshop are two different things. Most of our clients consider design thinking to be a room full of 30-40 supervisors shouting out the requirements they need for the new system.
In reality, workshops are a structured affair where creativity is embraced and informed with data. They involve not only supervisors and executives, but SME’s and end-users. Design thinking is effective in a workshop setting when:
So what should you do next to roll out these best practices within your organization? Identify your next initiative and reach out to a design thinking vendor. Make sure they employ experts that are trained in behavioral science, psychology, cognitive neuroscience, etc – these roles are essential to gather data with users through interviews and observations. Remember to into the design thinking room with the big 3 identified, or you may just be re-deploying your same application with a new UI.
Written by: Stephen Johnson, Head of Client Partnerships at ChaiOne
About ChaiOne Corporation
ChaiOne is a pioneer in industrial digitalization. Reimagining plant, field, supply chain processes with design thinking led solutions that reduce cost, increase adoption and elevate the customer experience. The complete strategy-to-solution expertise sets ChaiOne apart to help industrial customers achieve exponential outcomes across their logistics, supply chain, field, and plant operations. To learn more, please visit www.chaione.com.
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