Integrating Design Thinking Research Articles

Exploring Challenges and Opportunities for Entrepreneurs in India: Integrating Design Thinking and the PESTLE Framework

India's entrepreneurship is at a crossroads, with a mix of problems and opportunities necessitating innovative approaches to tasks in order to achieve long-term success. This research dives into the terrain in depth, with an emphasis on combining Design Thinking with the PESTLE (Political, Economic, Sociocultural, Technological, Legal, and Environmental) framework. The study used a qualitative technique to investigate common themes through content analysis of secondary sources. Based on the findings, three key challenges are highlighted, including financial, social, and technological difficulties, and solutions are presented utilising the PESTLE framework. Therefore, this research provides Indian entrepreneurs the benefit to overcome difficulties and create the road for long-term success and societal impact by incorporating Design Thinking and the PESTLE framework as fundamental components of their entrepreneurial journey.

Driving Organizational Transformation through Integrated Design Thinking and Data Analytics

This article presents a case study of a 3-day Design Thinking workshop for an expanded operations team, demonstrating the power of integrating Design Thinking and Data Analytics to drive organizational change. Through a combination of pre-workshop data collection and analysis, human-centered design principles, and participatory exercises, the workshop fostered increased team cohesiveness, a shared understanding of challenges, and a renewed sense of purpose. The resulting actionable playbook and lessons learned provide a roadmap for organizations seeking to harness the potential of Design Thinking and data analytics to empower teams and foster a data-driven, human-centered culture. The success of this case study invites organizations across industries to embrace the transformative potential of these approaches and invest in building the capabilities needed to thrive in an ever-evolving business landscape.

Integrating design thinking and anthropology as enablers in addressing responsible innovation

This work explores the integration of design thinking (DT) and anthropology as enablers in addressing responsible innovation in a real-world project. We used a problem and project-based learning (PPBL) approach with transdisciplinary research to explore such integration. We implemented design thinking as a reflective practice, process and mindset and postmodern anthropology as an approach and interpretative anthropology as an instrument. The objective is to integrate both when teaching strategic innovation as they help secure profitability while being responsible for the negative implications of innovation and its hidden un(der)costed flows. We designed a project-based learning approach embedded in a problem-based learning approach to expose students to the complexity of responsible innovation and distinguish its different elements through a sustained period. We documented a semester-long project where an interdisciplinary undergraduate group (non-designers) and community members partnered to face a societal challenge. Students submitted reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action assignments throughout the semester, and we triangulated them with participative observation and physical artefacts to document their learning experiences. We used thematic analysis addressing recurrent themes, topics and relationships towards the experiential learning approach and instructional methodologies that facilitated learning DT, anthropology and responsible innovation. Students perceived that anthropology and DT helped them visualize unforeseen consequences, make the normative within the technical explicit, acknowledge plural viewpoints and promote collective learning. Second, they recognized human perspective, participatory tools, intentional actions and functional outcomes as approaches to attend to those external factors that discourage responsible innovation. Third, they discerned that a PPBL approach using transdisciplinary research enabled them to have a greater understanding of the topic, deeper learning and increased motivation to learn. It also facilitated taming ill-defined problems while producing new understandings and feasible solution-oriented outcomes. This work discusses the need for theories and pedagogies to teach contemporary innovation in business education. First, we contributed to the former by embedding anthropology and DT to discuss responsible innovation as an essential element in devising strategic innovation. It emphasizes the need for academics and non-academic participants to reflect on their role and power in developing integrated knowledge for science and society. Second, we explore the practical implications of integrating a PPBL approach in business education pedagogy. It allows students to work in real-world settings and produce workable contributions to (and with) society. This project provides a detailed and descriptive analysis of a PPBL approach that aims to address responsible innovation in a public project while documenting students learning experiences. This work contributes to empirical research addressing pedagogies and advancing new theories in business education.

Improving Design Project Management in Remote Learning

Design Thinking has the potential to train the soft skills of preservice teachers who will need to continuously design their future towards sustainable education. However, Design Thinking is intrinsically complex, and managing its learning and projects with large groups is not straightforward, especially in remote situations such as COVID-19. From collaborative work among disciplines, this study introduces a Design Thinking-based board to improve the implementation and management of remote design projects. This board was applied with university-level preservice teachers who worked in teams to design instructional materials for preschool. We assessed the perception of the usefulness of the board by the preservice teachers and the teachers responsible for their training, using mixed methods in two consecutive courses. The board was perceived as helpful in developing design projects and improving collaborative learning. It was beneficial for the management, monitoring, and communication, enriching the project process and outcomes. From the achieved learning, we provide guidelines for designing and using these boards to aid educators and researchers in integrating Design Thinking and developing practical and sustainable solutions. This study contributes to the natural integration of Design Thinking and technology in preservice teachers’ education with a replicable and flexible process, improving the quality of education for future generations.

Using Kansei Engineering for the Design Thinking Framework: Bamboo Pen Holder Product Design

Recently, as a potential source of stationery products, bamboo has been continuously excavated for its commercial value in sustainable development. The research on the design of the bamboo pen holder, based on the concept of sustainable design, is not only a symbol of Chinese culture but also a reflection of perceptual factors underlying college students’ preferences. This study aims at user-centered product design by integrating Design Thinking (DT) and Kansei Engineering (KE). We proposed the KE–DT framework which allows designers to coordinate the user’s feelings as design elements. With various college student questionnaires, expert interviews, and cluster analysis, 7 Kansei words were selected to describe the sentimental value first. Using statistical analysis, the users’ emotional preference for each Kansei word was determined. Finally, the best shape of the pen holder was obtained by Sequential Quadratic Programming (SQP), and the stereoscopic product was displayed. A new round of questionnaire surveys was conducted with the optimized pen container and the previous group. The results indicated that curvature had a significant effect on the preference for bamboo stationery in terms of user and designer cognitive differences. Furthermore, the bamboo pen holder designed by the KE–DT framework proved widely popular.

Successful implementation of discrete event simulation: integrating design thinking and simulation approach in an emergency department

We address the overcrowding problem in an emergency department (ED) by designing and developing a hybrid methodology that combines design thinking with discrete event simulation. The case study shows how the tested methodology led to a successful implementation of the proposed organizational change in less than 18 months, improving system KPIs (such as patients’ waiting time) and ED professionals’ quality of work. The results confirm a successful combination of the two approaches in practice, by showing (i) how to combine design thinking tools and simulation tools in different design phases (comprehension, abstraction, ideation, and testing), and (ii) how the two tools nurture each other reciprocally. The paper concludes with some final considerations regarding the use of simulation in organizational processes design.

Revitalizing the communication classroom: A case of design thinking

ABSTRACT Originally developed in the field of design, design thinking is widely used as a pedagogical tool to help non-designer students cultivate creative thinking and problem-solving skills. Despite its positive effects on student learning via increased motivation, openness to new ideas, and creative thinking, the understanding of design thinking is limited in the field of communication. Using an exploratory case-study methodology, this study aims to examine the effects of using design thinking on students’ learning experience in the communication classroom. The thematic analysis of student self-reflection essays revealed that students had very positive experiences with the design-thinking framework. More specifically, design thinking provided students with a toolkit for creative problem solving, helped students create practical knowledge, and allowed them to engage in deeper learning and harness the benefits of collaborative creativity. The findings are discussed to advance pedagogical implications for integrating design thinking as a creative learning tool in the instruction of communication classes in higher education.

Integrating Design Thinking in Service Design Process: A Conceptual Review

This paper is based on a theoretical approach to service design, Design Thinking and the integration between the two concepts. The evolution of the traditional service design process was argued and its limitations critically examined. Furthermore, the adoption of Design Thinking in the service design process was discussed so that it helps organizations overcome the existing limitations in service design. This was aided graphically by comparing the differences and similarities between the service design process, with and without the Design Thinking approach. It was argued that Design Thinking has the ability to plug gaps in traditional service design methods due to its human-centric core and co-design shell. This paper shall help service designers and managers decide on the adoption of Design Thinking for service design process based on the slated arguments. Finally, a set of organizational challenges that may influence the application of Design Thinking were listed for managers to be cognizant of while trying to integrate Design Thinking in their existing service design process.

Integrating Design Thinking in Teacher Education: Student Teachers Develop Learning Scenarios for Elementary Schools

This article describes the concept and the implementation of an interdisciplinary seminar that was held at the University of Education in Freiburg, Germany. Student teachers for elementary school subjects were first taught in Design Thinking. Then they used their acquired knowledge to create learning scenarios for the subjects Art/Crafts and General Science and Social Studies. The article highlights the results and offers the opportunity to discuss the potentials of Design Thinking with regard to its transfer to classroom and teacher education against the background of fostering children’s creativity, problem-solving skills, and collaborative work.

R&D approach based on multiple partners and Design Thinking, Lean Startup, and Agile concepts: A case study in the electricity sector

Goal: The paper aims to increase the understanding of the results and challenges that arise when running R&D projects based on multiple partners and the integration of Design Thinking, Lean Startup, and Agile concepts.
 Design / Methodology / Approach: We followed a case study approach in the electricity sector. Two project cases were studied, using triangulated data from interviews, internal documents, and non-participant observations.
 Results: The results of the Design Thinking, Lean Startup, and Agile concepts application in R&D projects show improvements in knowledge absorption, solution improvement through collaborative insights between partners, and identification of short-term opportunities. Some challenges, however, were identified, such as noisy integration, the role of the project manager requiring a sophisticated skillset, and complicated decision-making processes.
 Limitations of the investigation: The conclusions have the inherent limitations of a case study conducted in one industrial sector and two projects led by one company.
 Practical implications: The evolving competitive landscape demands more effective pathways to foster innovation. Recent approaches to innovation have challenged R&D practices. This study discusses a new way of addressing R&D efforts with multiple partners by integrating Design Thinking, Lean Startup, and Agile concepts.
 Originality / Value: The combined and coherent application of concepts derived from Design Thinking, Lean Startup, and Agile in R&D practices in the electricity sector is new. The high volume of R&D activity in the electricity sector makes this in-depth analysis both relevant and valuable.

Statewide School Redesign: Integrating Design Thinking and the Four Disciplines of Execution as a Continuous School Improvement Process

Sixty-six school districts and more than 150 schools in the state of Kansas are participating in the Kansans Can Redesign Project. In this article, we present a case study of using Design Thinking as a systemic process to structure continuous school improvement. The collage of real-life scenarios presented in our case shows the integration of Design Thinking and the Four Disciplines of Execution and highlights the nuances and delicacies involved in the process as the major change agents work together and engage theory-to-practice applications of design thinking for change. Also illustrated in the case are the struggles and successes experienced by schools as they venture into the unfamiliar terrains of the design thinking process and enact on the integrated principles to school redesign.

Improving new product development innovation effectiveness by using problem solving tools during the conceptual development phase: Integrating Design Thinking and TRIZ

The objective of this research is to improve innovation effectiveness during new product development (NPD) processes in industry by using problem‐solving techniques during the conceptual development phase. The concept phase of physical NPDs is widely recognized in the literature as the time when the target market is identified, alternative product concepts are created and evaluated for further development and testing, also called the “fuzzy front end” or “discovery stage”. Design Thinking (DT) and TRIZ were the chosen problem‐solving techniques to support this stage because of their complementariness. While DT is most recognized as an approach that drives project teams toward the end‐users, TRIZ has its main strength during idea generation and selection processes where it has a robust set of analytical tools to drive NPD teams to a final product concept. After conducting a literature review to understand the strengths and limitations of both techniques, a framework is proposed by integrating them into the conceptual development phase of an industrial NPD process. The proposed framework is then tested and validated after being applied successfully in an NPD process in the automotive industry. The automotive industry is a good example of an incremental type of industry when designing its components for new vehicle models, and is therefore a very appropriate laboratory for validating the proposed framework.

E-LAHOK: An e-Participatory Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction and Management

The study aimed to design, develop and determine the extent of user acceptability of e-LAHOK (Legazpi Alisto at Handang magbigay ng Opinyon para sa Kaligtasan), an electronic and participatory Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Platform for the City of Legazpi that fosters civic engagement and open participatory governance by soliciting Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) strategies and incident reports from the local populations. An integrated Design Thinking (DT) and Extreme Programming (XP) framework (DT@XP) was utilized in the design and development of e-LAHOK whereas, a user’s evaluation based on ISO 9126 software quality metrics was conducted to determine the extent of user acceptability. Significant findings showed that e-LAHOK facilitated orderly solicitation and submission of DRR strategies and incident reports from the local populations by allowing the creation, management, consolidation, analysis and visualization of survey responses as well as submission, verification and acceptance of submitted incident reports for analysis. These results could serve as basis to concerned agencies in the development and implementation of DRR plans and policies to ensure preparedness and effective response by the barangays and its citizens in the event of a disaster. Further, evaluation results show that the system was rated highly acceptable in terms of functionality and usability. This concluded that the features of e-LAHOK provided an organized way of gathering inputs from the local communities of Legazpi City, fostering civic engagement and open, participatory governance. Thus, utilization of the proposed system is recommended.

Using Design Thinking to Teach Creative Problem Solving in Writing Courses

Integrating design thinking methodology into writing courses can help students to develop creative approaches to problem definition and solution development. Tracing how students work with and through written genres common to design thinking reveals the possibilities and potential of learning new patterns of inquiry and argumentation. Developing these creative habits of mind empowers students to explore and invent solutions to complex, multidimensional problems across the broad range of their disciplinary, professional, and civic lives.

Application of linguistic modelling to systems and product design

Design thinking is an integral part of problem solving which is an incessant activity in the living sphere for survival and achievement of ambitions, the alternative is extinction. There is a variety of problem solving or design methods usually pursued separately for systems and product in business, management, in engineering and fashion design otherwise the activity is carried out instinctively, it is innate. The aim of this paper is to introduce an integrated design thinking procedure which is supported by the 'new science of systems' in particular by linguistic modelling. Thus, design thinking has acquired a theoretical support with clearly different functions of the systems and component designers. Parts of 'science of systems' relevant to design thinking are described which serve as guidance for design activity. Problematic issues and expectations of those affected can be elucidated by managers, designers and individuals leading to emergence of a scheme intended to aid systemic thinking for solving problems and to detailed design of prototype models while admitting creativity and innovation.

Application of linguistic modelling to systems and product design

Design thinking is an integral part of problem solving which is an incessant activity in the living sphere for survival and achievement of ambitions, the alternative is extinction. There is a variety of problem solving or design methods usually pursued separately for systems and product in business, management, in engineering and fashion design otherwise the activity is carried out instinctively, it is innate. The aim of this paper is to introduce an integrated design thinking procedure which is supported by the 'new science of systems' in particular by linguistic modelling. Thus, design thinking has acquired a theoretical support with clearly different functions of the systems and component designers. Parts of 'science of systems' relevant to design thinking are described which serve as guidance for design activity. Problematic issues and expectations of those affected can be elucidated by managers, designers and individuals leading to emergence of a scheme intended to aid systemic thinking for solving problems and to detailed design of prototype models while admitting creativity and innovation.

Promoting Empathy Using Design Thinking in Project-Based Learning and as a Classroom Culture

This paper explores the benefits of empathy skill for school students. The encouragement of empathy skill in school was discussed in two situations: 1. Using design thinking approach for project-based learning and 2. Promoting as a classroom culture. Empathy is an act of understanding, being conscious and experiencing the feeling and thoughts of other people. It is the key to inspire social innovation and diminishing prejudice against others. Empathy skill has affected our feeling of wellbeing and human centeredness to provide an understanding of people’s needs. By integrating design thinking process in school, students will equip themselves with empathy-related skills such as communication, observation, decision-making and positive relationship with others as part of their active learning process. Adapting design thinking in project-based learning requires students to be aware and concern in exploring human-driven design which leads to user satisfaction for any problem’s solution. Empathy also has the advantage of forming a positive classroom culture and sustaining a good teacher-student relationship. This paper discussed how the design thinking process can promote empathy skill during project-based learning for humanizing decision-making and the opportunity for empathy integration in the classroom to engage in positive collaboration and teamwork.
 
 KEYWORDS: Classroom Culture, Design Thinking, Empathy, Project-Based Learning

Enhanced Capabilities through Design-Based Approaches

Design Thinking is often referred to as a valuable addition for educational models to promote a way of learning that encourages collaborations with people who work, think and act differently. Despite being used in multiple situations and described by numerous lists with characteristics, little is known about how it could affect people’s lives beyond the professional environment. The Capability Approach was used as an inspiration to explore with designers how it has influenced their lives through an interactive installation and in-depth interviews. Respondents reported better imagination, reasoning, thinking, using of skills and talents, freedom of expression, and ability to imagine another’s situation as a result of their designerly attitude. It is argued that integrating design thinking in educational models potentially transforms how people interact in society.

On Integrating Design Thinking for Human-Centered Requirements Engineering

We elaborate on the possibilities and needs to integrate design thinking into requirements engineering, drawing from our research and project experiences. We suggest three approaches for tailoring and integrating design thinking and requirements engineering with complementary synergies and point at open challenges for research and practice.

LO41: Disrupting quality improvement: integrating design thinking in the emergency department

Introduction/Innovation Concept: Quality Improvement (QI) remains a challenge and has been identified as a key competency by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons. Hospitals can be dehumanized environments, both for patients and the staff working there. The distant understandings of each other’s expectations during their health care encounter often create a sense of futility, frustration, and moral distress in therapeutic relationships. The transient nature of interactions and workplace culture in emergency departments (ED) enhances this distress. Methods: Working in a cross-disciplinary fashion, we explored how residents could develop quality improvement initiatives as a way to engage personal interests for QI measures. Key goals for developing these tools were 1) Learn cross-disciplinary tools for observation, inquiry, and improvement, 2) Develop reflective practice for residents, and 3) create ownership for the work and ongoing areas for improvement in local EDs for learners. Curriculum, Tool, or Material: We developed a process that would connect designers, residents, and content experts to an area of QI. Residents will be asked to identify an area in the ED that they field would benefit from a QI project (examples include: trauma team activation, waiting room anxiety, and referral delays from the ED). Working with designers and stakeholders (including patient representatives), learners would map the experience of a particular project. Strengths and opportunities for improvements would be identified at each step of the project. The team would then prototype solutions which will be presented to site chiefs for implementation and evaluation. Conclusion: Working with designers offers a practical and powerful approach to undertaking QI projects in the ED. We hope that this process allows residents to undertake projects that they are personally invested in and helps build longitudinal relationships beyond direct clinical work with the local ED they are working in