4 Principles of Design Thinking You Can’t Ignore

At Noble Studios, we understand a solution to solving complex problems is through good design. Now, good design goes beyond just visually appealing elements. Great UX design requires design thinking and the use of innovative problem solving methodology.

In a recent article from Think With Google, Dr. Frederik G. Pferdt details the importance of implementing a culture of innovation through design thinking. His three principles of design thinking are a great foundation.

Key Design Thinking Principles

Empathy

Design that is intended to be empathetic to the needs, feelings and motivations of users will always surpass design that fails to take these crucial factors into consideration. Empathizing with users, discussing and interviewing those who will actually use your product or service turns actual problems into meaningful solutions. As we like to say, it’s all about designing with intent.

Expansive Thinking

Expansive thinking, or in other words, really big brainstorming, is about reframing the obstacle at hand. It’s about challenging the status quo in effort to come up with ideas that are even better than the ones you had previously. For example, a Google team applied what they call 10x thinking when developing an initiative to provide internet to unconnected communities around the world. Rather than installing more fibers, the Google team implemented a totally original idea, the use of a traveling balloon network on the edge of space to deliver internet connectivity.

Experimentation

Once you’ve done the brainwork of developing the ideas, it’s time to test them to learn what works and what doesn’t. Hypothesizing and testing will determine what changes will lead to an easier, frictionless or more intuitive path. Great design thinking means constant testing and iteration to go from best practices to better practices.

Our Fourth E: Empowering

Our creative team had one more principle to add that ties into our creative digital performance approach: Empowerment. Like we said, design thinking isn’t just for designers. Empowering writers, marketing managers, SEO specialists, CEOs, executive assistants and everyone else on the team to embrace design thinking and collaboration will lead to better ideas. As explained by the HPI Academy, “Innovations and answers to complex questions are best generated in a heterogeneous team of five to six people.” So grab your dreamers and doers, and develop your next big idea.

Designing the Human Experience

Design thinking is more than just a buzzword — it is embedded into our culture here at Noble Studios. It’s conducting research through data informed decisions and testing those design decisions to ensure optimal experiences for our clients.

Interested in collaborating together? Contact us.