Design thinking is a process, mindset, and approach to solving complex problems.
Human-Centered Design is about approaching practical and creative problem-solving techniques, aimed at finding and empathizing with your users to find actions and solutions, using practical and creative problem-solving techniques.
It is based on a philosophy that empowers an individual or team to design products, services, systems, and experiences that address the core needs of those who experience a problem.
This is explained by the use of the Design Council’s design methodology, the Double Diamond. It’s a clear, comprehensive and visual description of the design process.
The original Double Diamond design process model was based on research on how designers work. Before the Double Diamond, the design process seemed like an unstructured chaotic mess. The Design Council found some structure while analyzing the way designers worked. They identified four phases in a design process.
Using the Double Diamond process
The two diamonds represent a process of exploring an issue more widely or deeply (divergent thinking) and then taking focused action (convergent thinking).
- Discover: a deep dive into the problem we are trying to solve.
- Define: synthesizing the information from the discovery phase into a problem definition.
- Develop: think up solutions to the problem.
- Deliver: pick the best solution and build that.
A model is not reality, that is the definition of a model. It’s a representation of reality to explain something. It explained that there is some structure to be found in design processes. It showed that it’s necessary to do some research in the first diamond to get to better solutions in the second. It made it clear that when designers design, they do lots of things not just making stuff. I think it helped to make many a design process more rigorous.
The 2 diamonds is a classic. But the Design Council thought it was time for an update. Recently, they published a new model in 2019 .
They don’t call it Double Diamond anymore but the Framework for Innovation. The Design Council likes to hear how you have may used the Double Diamond to solve a product. Because of this reflection they added additional tools and techniques to achieve even greater results. What they have added is:
