How to apply design thinking to your own life

Design Thinking is one of those terms that have been out there for quite a bit now and is being used rather frequently in tech and creative meetups. That’s probably why lots of people are afraid to ask what Design Thinking actually means as it looks like everybody and their grandma know it. If you have some doubts on what design thinking means, feel free to get in touch with us as we’re always happy to discuss all things Design Thinking. We will also quickly introduce the idea here in this article and then look into how we can apply this idea into the real life.

Quick intro / recap: What is Design Thinking

Design thinking is a non-linear, iterative process that teams use to understand users, challenge assumptions, redefine problems and create innovative solutions to prototype and test. The design thinking process itself consists of five phases: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test – it is most useful to tackle problems that are ill-defined or unknown.

Those five design thinking steps mentioned above can be visualized as follows.

Now let’s go into detail! If you’re in a hurry, you can simply click on “How to apply the design thinking to real life – cheat sheet’ – as that’s where we tried to compile a list of what you can do to turn your a life a bit more towards design thinking. Below we will go into a bit more detail and actually break down how we think we could apply Design Thinking to real life.

1. Empathize.

Design thinking puts individuals and their needs first. In this manner, the initial step of the procedure is to comprehend the issue from the point of view of the end-client.

You’re attempting to comprehend the manner in which the user gets things done and why, their necessities, and what is important to them. The best approach to find out about the end-client is through perception and meetings (discussions and commitment). It’s a very involved encounter.

How to apply Empathy to your life: 

The initial step to structuring your life is by investigating yourself. You have to comprehend where you are at the present time — expertly, intellectually, genuinely, relationship-wise — to then observe where you’re going straightaway. You have to pose yourself some hard inquiries, similar to when was the last time you felt genuinely cheerful? What makes you grin and snicker? What do you wish you’d never need to do again? You have to dive profound into yourself and survey your encounters, employments, connections, and extracurricular exercises up until this point. Be careful with broken reasoning — don’t stall out in the mannerisms old enough old profession guidance like “what is your obsession?”. Frequently you can’t be enthusiastic about something until you’ve had a lifetime of experience!

2. Define.

With the data assembled during the “empathize” phase, the difficult solver is better prepared to figure out what the genuine issue or challenge is. During the “define” stage, the necessities and the bits of knowledge that were revealed in the past advance are indexed and stocked and the genuine issue rises to the top.

It’s critical to remember that surrounding the correct issue is the best way to make the correct arrangement. The “define” step is finished up once a difficult articulation has been drafted.

How to add the define stage to your life: 

The subsequent stage is tied in with characterizing what it is that you want as a result of your life. It is just through fundamentally getting yourself — what you do, what your identity is, and what you accept — that you can start to draw an obvious conclusion and see a way for where you’re going. It is frequently useful to make a rundown of things you want to be a piece of your life; think about these as the elements for progress. Some portion of this stage is re-confining, one of my preferred instruments as a creator. You flip customary reasoning and presumptions on their head dependent on the sympathy work you’ve done. Furthermore, don’t stall out attempting to comprehend “gravity issues” — the things you can’t change! Rather than reprimanding gravity for making it difficult to bicycle up a slope, perhaps re-outline this test as how to make a lighter bike or possibly overlook bicycles through and through and consider different methods of transportation like an individual fly packs (absolutely conceivable in the course of our life).

3. Ideate.

In this progression the difficult solver utilizes an imaginative mentality to produce whatever number thoughts as could reasonably be expected to take care of the issue, without the requirement of existing arrangements. The goal isn’t to attempt to locate the “right” answer–which is something that doesn’t exist. Rather, numerous prospects and options are investigated.

A portion of the instruments accessible for ideation incorporate conceptualizing, mind planning, doodling, etc. Nothing is beyond reach.

How to add ideation to your life: 

Here comes the great part! You get the opportunity to envision diverse five and ten-year situations for your life. Start with three choices—from one that might be quite customary to your experience to one that is something you’d do if cash wasn’t a factor and on the off chance that you couldn’t have cared less what others believed (that is an entire other issue not for this post). Be cautious about having such a large number of decisions however, as examination has demonstrated that an excessive number of choices can make decision over-burden where you bring about altogether less joy due to the “yet consider the possibility that… ” or FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) outlooks.

4. Prototyping.

Since structure scholars learn by doing, and they construct their way forward, the best thoughts from the “ideate” stage are picked to be transformed into basic models (pick somewhere in the range of three and five plans to model). That is, a physical or unmistakable arrangement is made.

One of the key components of this progression is speed. The thought isn’t to concocted something great, however something that you can test rapidly. The target in this progression is to get the thoughts out there even before the difficult solver may believe they’re prepared, and to bomb rapidly and inexpensively.

How to add prototyping to your life: 

Presently, you get to model these future lives. What does a model of your life resemble? All things considered, they can be discussions and meetings, shadowing of positions, or short or long haul encounters. On the off chance that you need to be a carnival entertainer, at that point you better converse with a couple of entertainers to get familiar with the intricate details of the activity and industry. It probably won’t be as stylish as you suspected, or possibly you’ll discover that there are viewpoints that are better than you envisioned. Discussions are simple and free, so have the greatest number possible! To end your life models another above and beyond, you could shadow positions or pursue a momentary course. On the off chance that you need to be a cake gourmet expert, at that point you should attempt a sweet cooking class to perceive the amount you appreciate cooking, in actuality, as opposed to viewing the Food Network and slobbering at home.

5. Test.

When you have your models, go out into this present reality and test them. Acknowledge that disappointment is a piece of the structure thinking process. Indeed, your objective at the testing stage isn’t to be informed that your models are a triumph, yet to get criticism so you can make modifications and refinements and construct a superior model.

The procedure of ideate, model, and test is rehashed until the model addresses the issues of the end client. Surely, you can experience the whole procedure from the initial step to the last stage a few times. Emphasis is a basic piece of configuration thinking. Here’s a picture of the procedure:

Test (and iterate) in real life:

Recall that every one of these models — regardless of whether discussions or encounters — need to occur in reality! You can’t simply stay here and consider what those occupations might resemble. You have to see direct. On the off chance that you don’t care for these encounters, at that point head back to arrange one and start from the very beginning once more. Structure, and life, are not direct procedures. It is uncommon that you’ll secure the ideal position after the principal meet. Rather, set aside the effort to think about your encounters and archive what you enjoyed and didn’t care for. This may help to re-outline a few objectives for your life pushing ahead.

Having seen that process it becomes rather clear that it is very helpful for all things related to usability. Designing and solving user problems. The question that arises now however is: Can we also apply Design Thinking to our actual life? Here at KITE we think: Yes, Yes, we can. We think you can apply Design Thinking to your life, job, and career.

Let’s take that even further and adjust the concept.

At the point when individuals request help in recognizing which vocation way to seek after, they’re frequently advised to distinguish their enthusiasm. Anyway considers show that solitary 20% of the populace can recognize a particular enthusiasm.

The other 80% of the populace is either enthusiastic about various things, or there’s nobody thing that ascents to the degree of “that is the thing that I need to accomplish for an amazing remainder”. For that 80%, enthusiasm isn’t something that they have or find, yet something that they work into.

That is, these individuals should give something new a shot, perceive how it’s working, change it, and test further. Also, that is the thing that structure believing is about. Building a future with configuration thinking implies taking an improvisational perspective on life, and pushing ahead by “wayfinding”.

Steps to Follow to Apply Design Thinking to Design Your Career

Here are the steps you should follow in order to apply design thinking to design your job or career:

1. Keep a Good Time Journal.

We should expect that you’re feeling unfulfilled at work. So as to decide how to improve this circumstance, begin keeping a “Great Time Journal”. You’re going to monitor your day by day exercises for seven days to figure out which exercises you appreciate the most. Ask yourself inquiries like the accompanying:

• When do you feel completely involved in the activity you’re carrying out? When are you most mindful?
• Which activities make you happy?
• When are you working at your peak level?
• Which activities make you feel calm and serene?
• When do you feel that you’re in the state of flow?
• What are you doing when you feel the most animated and the most present?

Then, use the rest of the design thinking process to redesign your current or next task so you do more of what you love.

2. Track Your Energy.

A few exercises are invigorating, while others are vitality depleting. Log your significant exercises for half a month and note how empowered every movement causes you to feel. Likewise with the past exercise, the reason for this activity is to see how your exercises influence you. Experiencing your log will give you thoughts on the most proficient method to improve your schedules.

3. Create Three Odyssey Plans.

In this activity, you’re going to think about a few situations, or ways, for the following five years of your life. These are directions which you could reasonably seek after. Take a gander at the accompanying:

• One scenario is your current life if it simply continues as it is.
• The second scenario is what you would do if your current life were suddenly gone.
• For more scenarios, think of what you may want to do with your life. The truth is that most people don’t know what they want, so simply create several different scenarios involving different alternatives that sound interesting to you. Have you ever considered selling all of your possessions and traveling around the world? Did you think you may want to become a lawyer at any point in your life? Has becoming a chef ever crossed your mind?

Remember vocation as well as close to home objectives for your Odyssey Plan, for example, composing a novel, venturing out to South America, figuring out how to play an instrument, etc.

The purpose of this activity is to understand that your life could go in a wide range of bearings, and you could be glad in every one. That is, there isn’t one ideal way for you, so quit reasoning that on the off chance that you made an off-base turn some place you’ll never lead your “optimal life”.

4. Define Your Problem.

The three activities you finished in stages 1 to 3 above gave you more data about yourself and your life—what your identity is and what you need. Presently you’re going to take that data to characterize your concern. Here are a few different ways you could characterize your concern:

• How can I rework my day so I can do more of what makes me happy and less of what I dislike doing?
• How can I do more things throughout my day that are more energy positive?
• What does my job need more of so that I can feel more fulfilled?
• Which skills should I learn to start moving in a new direction?
• What do I want to do next?
• Looking honestly at my circumstances, what room do I have to maneuver?
• Now that I’ve examined the way things are, how can I make them better?
• How can I create the next version of myself?
• What do I most need to change?
• How can I reinvent myself?

5. Ideate.

There’s a distinction among route and wayfinding. Route is the point at which you know your goal and afterward you design and follow a course to arrive. That is, since you know your precise goal, there are express bearings you can follow to arrive.

The issue with planning your life is that you don’t know precisely where you’re going. You may simply have a general thought of “I like this sort of stuff” and “I don’t care for that sort of stuff”, and the sort of things that give you vitality instead of depleting you of vitality. In any case, very little more than that.

At the point when you realize that you need to head off to some place, yet you’re not actually sure where, you utilize a procedure called wayfinding; This is the manner in which trackers discover game in nature. Here’s the procedure:

• There’s an antelope or a deer out there, but the hunters don’t know where.
• However, they know how to track for it.
• So, they go around from point to point looking for clues that will direct them toward the animal.
• Each clue that they find leads them to the next one.
• They move forward in this way–from clue to clue–until they find the animal that they’re looking for.

At the point when you ideate, you think of conceivable outcomes or choices to start wayfinding by utilizing thought age procedures, for example, conceptualizing. At that point, you pick the best thoughts you think of and start prototyping and testing those thoughts.

6. Prototype and Test.

A model is a fast, modest experience that is promptly accessible that will permit you to pick up something you don’t know corresponding to the difficult that you’re attempting to explain.

Rather than just unendingly breaking down things in your mind or on paper, you’re getting out there quick and having a go at something so as to learn. That is, the thought is to assemble your way forward by doing little investigations, or models.

Consider programming planners. They’re continually discharging programs with insignificant highlights so as to get input as quick conceivable. This tells them whether what they’re building is something that the market needs. Assuming this is the case, they continue building models until they’ve assembled something that sells well.

You ought to do something very similar: send your thoughts out into the world and perceive how they perform. At the end of the day, test them. At that point, return, emphasize, and send something different out into the world to perceive how it does.