Within Product Design, User Experience (UX) focuses on the overall feeling users get when interacting with a digital product.
As it’s vital for success, teams are constantly seeking to improve experiences, and that’s when Design Thinking enters the room!
Let’s dive in to fully comprehend the role Design Thinking plays in enhancing UX!
What is Design Thinking?
Design Thinking is a creative and iterative process that seeks a deep understanding of users' needs to develop digital solutions that resonate with them.
The main idea is to put users at the forefront of all stages and operations and make wireframes, prototypes, and tests based on their needs.
The 5 Steps of Design Thinking
While it may be seen as a universal approach, several experts and institutions have developed their Design Thinking frameworks over the years.
One of the most accepted approaches is the Stanford Design Thinking Process, which encompasses five main stages: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test.
1. Empathizing
The first step focuses on understanding target users’ needs, emotions, and experiences with different methods to validate assumptions and gain a fresh perspective.
Design teams can harness User Research and Empathy Mapping to comprehend who their users are, what they are looking for, and why a digital solution could solve their needs.
Suppose you want to design a native mobile app to help users with their grocery shopping. At this stage, you should pay attention to their shopping behavior and habits to understand their current preferences and pain points.
2. Defining
After empathizing with your users, you should articulate a problem statement based on gathered insights.
This statement should be clear and user-focused to set the basis of the problem you’ll address correctly. An example of defining a problem can be:
"People often struggle with when they trying to pay for what’s on their carts as there are not many payment options, and user journeys can be complex. They need a user-friendly app to help them when paying for their groceries."
3. Ideating
The ideation phase is about letting your creativity flow to generate innovative ideas that can lead to a wide range of creative solutions that address the user's needs.
For our grocery shopping app, the ideation stage could explore payment methods like Apple Pay, Paypal, and Stripe or offer "Buy now, pay later" options such as Klarna or Affirm.
Regarding the complex checkout process, the team could cut the number of steps and simplify the flow by eliminating unnecessary information.
4. Prototyping
The stage of prototyping allows teams to understand how users will interact with the ideated solution.
Digital prototypes are powerful tools to measure feasibility and make more informed decisions.
Building a prototype for the grocery shopping app can include core functionalities like creating a catalog, browsing products, and adding elements to the shopping cart.
5. Testing
Lastly, testing involves gathering customer feedback and user insights through techniques such as A/B Testing, User Testing, and Usability Testing.
Although this is the last stage, it’s not per sé the end of the Design Thinking process, as it enables a non-linear, iterative process.
Gathering valuable insights into users’ needs and frustrations can lead to solutions that meet and exceed their expectations for higher Customer Satisfaction and adoption rates.
For our mobile app, after designing and developing a prototype, teams would need to test it to gain a comprehensive understanding of how it performs.
This stage is crucial as it lets you iterate the design to provide users with the best experience possible.
How Can Design Thinking Improve User Experience?
- User-Centricity: By always considering user needs, motivations, and pain points, you can approach the creative process in a way that truly resonates with them.
- Collaboration: Design Thinking methodology encourages cross-team collaboration among UX/UI Designers, Product Developers, and Project Managers to acknowledge all edges when testing potential solutions to deliver the best outcome.
- Innovation: This problem-solving approach fosters a culture of innovation, allowing members and teams to explore design ideas with no constraints
- Iteration: The Design Thinking approach allows teams to go back to previous stages of the design process to address issues and improve performance to avoid costly mistakes.
Why is Design Thinking Important in User Experience?
When you work on a digital product, like a mobile app for grocery shopping, you're not just building a tool; you're developing an experience.
To successfully do that, you must consider all its users— the young adults who just moved out of their parents' house, the not-so-tech-savvy elders, and the busy businesspeople looking to simplify the process of buying dinner ingredients after a long day.
In fact, according to research, 13% of customers who have had a bad User Experience can tell around 15 or more people about it!
If they’re the ones to decide whether a User Experience is good or not, putting them at the front of the process seems like an intuitive choice, right?
Even from a Project Management perspective, following the principles of Design Thinking enables Design teams to focus on users' needs from the very beginning.
Acknowledging all design challenges surrounding users early in the process could avoid costly mistakes and promote more relevant and viable products.
Conclusion
Design Thinking is a powerful user-centric approach to enhance User Experience. By focusing on real users, teams can design innovative solutions that truly resonate with them.
As a UX-driven Product Development Agency with over 14 years of experience, we know that fostering a human-centered approach is key to developing effective solutions. Reach out to shape the future!
