Design thinking for innovation

Course Description

This course introduces design thinking as a human-centered approach to problem-solving, focusing on fostering creativity and innovation. Students will learn how to apply design thinking principles to generate ideas, prototype solutions, and iterate on designs to meet user needs. Emphasis is placed on collaboration, user empathy, and testing ideas quickly to refine innovations. Case studies will showcase how design thinking has been successfully applied across industries, from product design to urban planning.

Learning Outcomes

• Understand the role of empathy in design thinking and how it helps uncover users' needs and challenges.
• Utilize different methods (interviews, observations, and immersive research) to gain insights into user needs and challenges.
• Synthesize observations from the empathy stage to articulate a clear and actionable problem statement.
• Use techniques like affinity diagrams and empathy mapping to organize insights and frame the problem for ideation.