INNOVATION AND DESIGN THINKING (21 IDT 19/29)

S.E.A COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY Page 1

INNOVATION AND DESIGN THINKING (21 IDT 19/29)

S.E.A COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY Page 2

INNOVATION AND DESIGN THINKING (21 IDT 19/29)

S.E.A COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY Page 3

INNOVATION AND DESIGN THINKING (21 IDT 19/29)

S.E.A COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY Page 4

INNOVATION AND DESIGN THINKING (21 IDT 19/29)

INTRODUCTION
INNOVATION:

Everyone loves an innovation, “an idea that sells”. This is the basis for economic growth
and is therefore to be maximized. The ability to innovate successfully decides the survival of
companies,communities and nations. Leadership in industry identifies innovation as themost
important driver of competitiveness as well as their number one job priority. At the same time, 35%
of CEOs call an “unsupportive culture and climate” a critical roadblock to innovation.

The unified innovation process model for engineering designers and managers was
developed and shown in Figure. It depicts the design process and explains how its participants’
actions affect it. The model represents the kernel of the design process and shows where reviewers
interrupt its flow and can be used as a communication tool by designers and managers, and as an
instrumentation map by design researchers. At the core of the model are three activity functions:
‘Plan’, ‘Execute’, and ‘Synthesize’.

The plan usually consists of one or more concrete ideas, a division of labour and sometimes
includes contingency planning in case of failure. The execution is where the work gets done.
Synthesis is the gathering of the solutions from execution to form the output solution. It occurs in
many ways and typically includes assembly of the parts into a whole system and testing.

The process of innovation consists of re-creating business models and building entirely new
markets to satisfy unmet human needs; above all, it aspires to select and execute the right ideas, and
bring them to market in record time. Traditionally, innovation in the business world has meant
seeking new technological solutions. Unfortunates, this is an outcome not a process for achieving
the goal.

GLOBAL INNOVATION INDEX:

The global innovation index aims to capture the multi-dimensional facets of innovation and
provide the tools that can assists in tailoring policies or promote long term output growth, improved
productivity, and job growth. The global innovation index is annual report,andit gives the annual
ranking of countries by their capacity for and success in innovation.

S.E.A COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY Page 5

INNOVATION AND DESIGN THINKING (21 IDT 19/29)

Frame
Work:

Global Innovation Index 2019 rankings

S.E.A COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY Page 6

INNOVATION AND DESIGN THINKING (21 IDT 19/29)

India innovation ranking for top 10 states (2019)

In this direction government starts working to improve rank in the global index.

In the inaugural function of 107th session of Indian Science congress which was held in
Bangalore on Jan-2020 prime Minister of India urges the young scientists to “Innovate, Patent,
Produce and prosper. These four steps will lead country towards faster development”
 Based on the skill India Report and government policies the technical and higher
educational institutes take the measurable steps to enhance the framework (human capital
and research) of innovation model for further development.
 So people seeking for innovation globally in all aspects in every domain.
 The Department of science and technology within the government of INDIA has developed
the INDIA INNOVATION INITIATIVE (i3) to create an innovation network.

India innovation initiative:

 This programme is jointly promoted by the Confederation of India industry, the Department
of Science &Technology, Government of India and the All India council for Technical
Education (AICTE).
 Many companies have developed innovation centres to drive new product, process and
service development, Companies like Microsof,Procter &Gamble, Accenture, IBM,
AT&T,computer sciences corporation, Qualcomm (wireless technology), Verizon(smart
phones, internet) etc have all opened innovation centres focused on developing key
scientific and technological innovations.

TOP 6 METHODS OF INNOVATION TO COME UP WITH UNIQUE PRODUCT IDEA

ARE:
Innovation is the process of generating new and unique ideas or solutions and applying them to
create value for the service.

1. Brainstorming
2. Six sigma DMAIC
3. DESIGN THINKING
4. Lean Canvas
5. Consumer trend canvas
6. Other methods
S.E.A COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY Page 7
INNOVATION AND DESIGN THINKING (21 IDT 19/29)

DESIGN THINKING

The Management tools and techniques are being questioned for their validity and effectives.
Need a new way, on that’s smart, human, cultural, social and agile and that puts innovation at the
core of every move it makes. That way could be DESIGN THINKING.

Design thinking is also considered to be a strategy for innovation. It leads to dramatic

improvements in innovation. This is why design thinking forms the core of effective strategy
development and seamless organizational change. Anything that involves human interaction, from
products, services, processes etc., can be improved through design thinking. It all depends on the
designer’s way to create, manage, lead, and innovate.

 Design thinking is simply a form of human centred responsive design.

 It is a most powerful driver of Innovation.
 It helps us appreciate and make sense of the complex connections between people, places,
objects, events and ideas.
 It guides long-range strategic planning.
 It shapes business decisions based on future opportunities rather than past events.
 It sparks the imagination and reveals the true value.
 It also holds the core capabilities behind innovation.
 It is often touted as bringing a refreshed, revitalized and rejuvenated approach to
managements and strategic thinking.

Design: plan of a system, its implementation and utilization for attaining a goal (change undesired
to desired). This is transformation of existing conditions into preferred ones.

Design is to design the design of a design


 Designing involves both problem understanding and problem solving
 Designing becomes easier when problem is understood thoroughly

Design or making, has been classically understood to be a process of turning ideas into things.

Direct Design- direct correspondence between ideas, drawings, and finished products.Direct
designs are criticized that these are not responsive to real world conditions.

Responsive Design- From an awareness of the power of engagement, a new and expanded form of
design emerged. Considered response of the world rather than an idea comes from designers. In
responsive design the most popular form is “Design thinking”.
Design Thinking is a wonderful drug for management. For executives and managers, it is
becoming everyday language. Every business leader needs to be a good design thinker.

Design thinking is a way to solve problems and drive profit. It can help to get out of the
crisis mode by considering challenges from a systems level. Some of the principles of design
thinking originated from design discipline but were adapted to apply in a wider and more
complicated business context.
Business people to think like designers and designers to think like business people, but
design thinking is more than that.

S.E.A COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY Page 8

INNOVATION AND DESIGN THINKING (21 IDT 19/29)

Thinking is the ‘breaking down’ ideas and ‘building up’ ideas.

Intuitive Thinking - The art of knowing without reasoning. This is the world of originality and
invention.
Analytical Thinking – It declares truths and certainties about the world. There are two familiar
forms of logic (tools).
Deductive Reasoning – Declare true / false – the logic of what must be – reasons from the
general to the specific.
Example: The general rule is crow is Black and I see a brown bird, it can declare
deductively that this bird is not a crow.
Inductive Reasoning – the logic of what is operative – reasons from the specific to the
general.
Example: Study of sales per square meter across a thousand stores and find a pattern
that suggests stores in small towns generate significantly higher sales per square meter than stores
in cities, It can inductively declare that small towns are more valuable market.
Both are the primary driver of value creation. The choice is based on the structure and
norms of the organization. Generally, the organizations preferred the Analytical Thinking.

Design thinking tool is ‘AbductiveReasoning’ - What could be possibly be true.

Design Thinking will balance the analytical and intuitive in a dynamic interplay. It is the form of
thought that enables movement along the knowledge funnel and the firms that master it will gain a
nearly inexhaustible, long-term business advantage.

S.E.A COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY Page 9

INNOVATION AND DESIGN THINKING (21 IDT 19/29)

The Knowledge Funnel

Mystery:
Takes an infinite variety of forms.

Heuristic:
Narrow the field of inquiry and work the
mystery down to a manageable size.

Algorithm:
Convert from general to a fixed formula.

There are two different activities:

Exploration: Moving across the knowledge stages of the funnel from mystery to heuristic
and heuristic to algorithm.
Exploitation: Operating within each knowledge stage of the funnel by honing and refining
an existing heuristic or algorithm.

Both Reliability and validity are important for an organization. Without validity, an
organization has little chance of moving knowledge across the funnel. Without reliability, an
organization will struggle to exploit the rewards of its advances. As with exploration and
exploitation, the optimal approach to validity and reliability is not to choose but to seek a balance of
both.

 Design thinking is a blend of logic, powerful imagination, systematic reasoning and

intuition to bring to generate the ideas that consist to solve the problems of the clients with
desirable outcomes. It helps to bring creativity with business insights.
 Design thinking helps to gain a balance between the problem statement and the solution
developed.

S.E.A COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY Page 10

INNOVATION AND DESIGN THINKING (21 IDT 19/29)

S.E.A COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY Page 11

INNOVATION AND DESIGN THINKING (21 IDT 19/29)

Definitions of Design Thinking:

There is no general agreement on precise definition of design thinking. There are variations
across disciplinary cultures, and different meanings depending on its context.

 Design thinking is a methodology that designers use to brainstorm and solve complex problems
related to Designing and Design engineering.
Or
 Design thinking is a human- centred approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s
toolkit to integrate the needs of people , the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for
business success—Tim Brown CEO of IDEO.
Or
 Design thinking is a human centred innovation process that emphasizes observations,
collaboration, fast learning, visualization and rough prototyping. The objective is to solve not
only the stated problems at hand, but the real problems behind the obvious—Thomas Lockwood 
Or
 Design thinking is the search for a magical balance between business and art; structure and
chaos; intuition and logic; concept and execution; playfulness and formality; and control and
empowerment ---IdrisMootee

Timeline of Design thinking:

Year Context
1963 The idea of using Design as a way of solving complex problems in a simplified
manner in sciences originated in the book ‘The science of the Artificial’
authored by Herbert A. Simon
1973 The idea of design was achieved for Design Engineering by the book
‘experiences in visual thinking’ authored by Robert McKim
1987 Peter Rowes Book Titled “design thinking” describes methods and approaches
that planners, designers and architects use
1980s to The work of Robert Mckim was consolidated by Rolf Faste at Stanford
1990s university during this period
1991 David M Kelly Founded IDEO and adapt Design thinking to business interests
2009 The design thinking process itself is human centred, offering methods for
inspiration, ideation and learning to designers --Brown
2012 Apply the study of design thinking principles in engineering.
2015 Verbal protocol analysis,cognitive ethnography, controlled laboratory
experiments, and other formal methods from cognitive science have been
rigorously applied in engineering
2017 Design thinking reflected in many applications like prototyping, solution-based
method is often useful way to encourage inspiration, ideation and organization
learning and human centred methods.

The design thinking being taught at some of the leading universities of the world, as well as
the leading global corporate houses across the globe.
Infosys Ltd., India’s second largest IT-based company providing business consulting,
information technology and software engineering services, has also made design thinking a
mandatory skill to be acquired by each of its employee.
Stanford University in the United States and the University of Potsdam in Germany have
also promoted design thinking, citing it as one of the most useful skills for professionals.

S.E.A COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY Page 12

INNOVATION AND DESIGN THINKING (21 IDT 19/29)

Features of design thinking:

Design thinking provides multi-dimensional solutions to the problems.
Features are:
 Finding simplicity in complexities
 Having a beautiful and aesthetically appearing products
 Improving clients and end users quality of experience
 Creating innovative, feasible and viable solution to real world problems.
 Addressing the actual requirements of the end users.

Uses of design thinking:

Design thinking helps to learn the following
 How to optimize the ability to innovate
 How to develop a variety of concepts, products, services, processes etc for end-users.
 How to leverage the diverse ideas of innovation
 How to convert useful data, individual insights, and vague ideas into feasible reality
 How to connect with the customers and end-users by targeting their actual requirements.
 How to use the different tools used by designers in their profession for solving customers
problems

Design Thinking helps in

 Optimization of capabilities
 Feasibility and viability analysis
 Addressing the needs of end users

Doing the things right be one of the strategy for design thinking

Design thinking draws upon logic,imagination, intuition and systemic reasoning, to explore
possibilities of what could be and to create desired outcomes that benefit the end user (customer).

S.E.A COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY Page 13

INNOVATION AND DESIGN THINKING (21 IDT 19/29)

Changing paradigms:
Design thinking is changing the paradigm of management and it will impact us for decades.

20th Century 21stCentuary

Scale and Scope Speed and Fluidity
Predictability Agility
Rigid Organization Boundaries Fluid Organization Boundaries
Command and Control Creative Empowerment
Reactive and Risk Averse Intrapreneur
Strategic Intent Profit and Purpose
Competitive Advantage Comparative Advantage
Data and Analytics Synthesizing Big Data

Design thinking resources:

For design thinking to succeed, the right ingredients need to be assembled. The desirable
workspace, the materials often used in design thinking, and finally the needed integration and
cooperation between the design –thinker’s team and the organization.
The resources are 1. People, 2. Place, 3. Materials, 4. Organization

S.E.A COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY Page 14

INNOVATION AND DESIGN THINKING (21 IDT 19/29)

Venn Diagram of Design Thinking:

Process Innovation
Emotional Innovation

Functional Innovation

 Desirable, feasible and viable are three important lenses for innovation through design
thinking
 Desirable (people want it), feasible (what can actually do it) and it has to be viable(don’t go
break)
 Desirability tests whether the innovation is solving the customer problem rightly
 Feasibility tests whether the innovation strengthens the business or not
 Viability tests the value chain for long term sustainability 

Design thinking process Models:

1. Convergence –divergence
2. 1d.iit-analysis –synthesis model
3. Engine service design (uk)
4. Design chaos
5. Spirit of creation
6. D. school post dam
7. IDEO (Educator toolkit)

S.E.A COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY Page 15

INNOVATION AND DESIGN THINKING (21 IDT 19/29)

Roadblocks to en Route to Design Thinking:

1. Corporate tendency to settle at the current stage in the knowledge funnel (Companies often
let mysteries remain mysteries, declaring them unsolvable).
2. The corporate tendency to leave heuristics in the hands of highly paid executives or
specialists with knowledge, turf and pay checks to defend.
3. To settle at the algorithm stage without refining that algorithm to code.

Tools of Design Thinkers:

1. Observation: Deep, careful, open-minded observation. This requires careful watching and
listening in a way that is responsive to the subject.
2. Imagination: It is a natural act of the human mind, rather than a tool.
3. Configuration: Translating the idea into an activity system that will produce the desired
business outcome. This is essentially the design of a business that will bring the abductively
crated insight to fruition.

Design thinking methodologies:

Design Thinking is about the creation of, as well as adaptive use of a body-of behaviours
and values. This goal stands in sharp contrast to, while complimentary to, the predominant
disciplinary model based on the creation and validation of abody-of-knowledge.
Design thinking creates a vibrant interactive environment that promotes learning through
rapid conceptual prototyping (Shown in Figure).Design thinking is commonly visualized as an
iterative series of five major stages. To theleft we see the standard form. To the right we see
something closer to reality.

Stanford Empathize Define Ideate Prototype Test

Frog CAT Seek Build Imagine Plan Make
IDEO Ed. Discovery Interpretation Ideation Experimentation Evolution

S.E.A COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY Page 16

INNOVATION AND DESIGN THINKING (21 IDT 19/29)

Applications of Design thinking:

 Design thinking is a problem solving that focus on users and their emotional needs while
experiencing products and services.
 Design thinking approach is useful for Designers, Engineers, planners, Managers,
strategists, Economists, Teachers and many other Professions
Design thinking having wide range of applications across different domains:

Automobile
➢ Health care ➢ Architecture ➢ Software
➢ Education ➢ Digital ➢ Retail
➢ Art and culture ➢ strategy

❖ Business:
➢ Design thinking helps in business by optimizing the process of product creation,
marketing, and renewal of contracts.
➢All these processes require a companywide focus on the customers and hence, design
thinking helps in these processes immensely.
➢ Design thinking helps the design thinkers to develop deep empathy for their customers and
to create solutions that match their needs exactly.
❖Information technology:
➢ The IT industry makes a lot of products that require trials and proof of concepts.
➢The industry needs to empathize with its users and not simply deploy technologies.
➢ IT is not only about technology or products, but also it is process.
➢The developers, analysts, consultants, and managers have to brainstorms on possible ideas
for solving the problems of the clients. This is where design thinking helps a lot.
❖Education:
➢The education sector can make the best use of design thinking by taking feedback from
students on their requirements, goals and challenges they are facing in the classroom.
➢By working on their feedback, the instructors come up with solutions to address their
challenges.
❖ Health care:
➢ Design thinking helps in health care as well as the expenditure on healthcare. The cost of
healthcare facilities is growing day by day.
➢ Experts worldwide are concerned about how to bring quality healthcare to people at low
cost
➢ Using design thinking, the efficiencies in the system and the perennial crises were
addressed

Design thinking Engineering systems thinking

• Origins: Industrial design, Engineering • Origins: cybernetics, management science,

design/product development, psychology operation research, system engineering

• Capture human process: inspiration, ideation, • Captures system process: inputs , outputs,
and implementation. and feedback loops

• Values: practicality, empathy, innovation • Values: interaction, emergence, interdependent

S.E.A COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY Page 17

INNOVATION AND DESIGN THINKING (21 IDT 19/29)

Rules of Design Thinking:

There are four rules of design thinking.

1.The Human Rule: All Design Activity Is Ultimately Social in Nature

Design thinking activities will always bring us back to the “human-centric point of view.”
This is the imperative to solve technical problems in ways that satisfy human needs and
acknowledge the human element in all technologists and managers.

2. The Ambiguity Rule: Design Thinkers Must Preserve Ambiguity

Innovation demands experimentation at the limits of our knowledge, at the limits of our
ability to control events, and with freedom to see things differently.

3. The Re-design Rule: All Design Is Re-design

Because technology and social circumstances change constantly, it is imperative to
understand how these needs have been addressed in the past. Then we can apply “foresight tools
and methods” to better estimate social and technical conditions we will encounter 5, 10, or even 20
years in the future.

4. The Tangibility Rule: Making Ideas Tangible Always Facilitates Communication

Curiously, this is one of the most recent findings.While conceptual prototyping has been a
central activity in design thinking during the entire period of research, it is realize that “prototypes
are communicationmedia.”

Design thinking Vs. Scientific Method:

Scientific method begins with by defining all parameters of the problem to arrive at a
solution.
But a design thinker is supposed to identify both the known and the ambiguous facets of the
problem statement along with the current situation. This method of thinking helps to unearth hidden
parameters and open alternate paths to reach the solution

Design Thinking Strategies:

Design Thinking - Analysis vs. Synthesis (Problem and Solution)

Analysis is the process of breaking down a big single entity into multiple fragments. It is a
deduction where a bigger concept is broken down to smaller ones. Then, one-by-one the solutions
developed for each of the small problems. Brainstorming is done over each of the solutions.
Synthesis refers to the process of combining the fragmented parts into an aggregated whole.
It is an activity that is done at the end of the scientific or creative inquiry.

Design thinking process starts with reductionism, where the problem statement is broken
down into smaller fragments. Each fragment is brainstormed over by the team of thinkers, and the
different smaller solutions are then put together to form a coherent final solution.

Synthesis + Analysis = Design Thinking

Case Study:
Derive a plan to contain attrition in an organization where the high-quality employees leave after
the appraisal cycle. As a result, the organization loses its valuable human resources and suffers from
transferring the knowledge to a new employee.

S.E.A COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY Page 18

INNOVATION AND DESIGN THINKING (21 IDT 19/29)

Solution:

Analysis:
Now, let’s break down the problem statement into various constituent parts. Following are
the subparts of the same problem statement, broken down to elementary levels.
 The employees are not motivated anymore to work in the company.
 Appraisal cycle has something to do with attrition.
 Knowledge transfer is necessary for new employees.
Knowledge transfer adds to the cost of the company.

Synthesis:
 Now, let's start solving each problem individually. Let's look at one problem at a time and
try to find a solution only for that problem statement, without thinking of other problem
statements. To solve the problem of lack of motivation, the management can plan some sort
of incentives that can be given on a regular basis. The efforts put in by the employees must
be rewarded well. This will keep the employees motivated.
 To solve the issue of occurrence of attrition during appraisal cycle, the management can
conduct a meeting with the employees leaving the organization, and take their insight as to
what led them to leave the company.
 For knowledge transfer, the management can hire only those people who are experts in a
domain.
 Regarding concerns for budget of knowledge transfer, the management can have a document
prepared by experts in a domain and this document can be uploaded on intranet. This can be
made available to new joiners. Hence, additional human resource is not required for
knowledge transfer and this will reduce the figures in the company's budget.

Now, if we observe carefully, the third solution may not be feasible all the time. We cannot
be assured of expert professionals coming for interviews all the time. Moreover, expert
professionals demand more compensation than not-so-expert professionals. This will increase the
company's budget.
Hence, we will now combine the other three solutions to form a coherent one. The final
solution will be for the management to first have a talk with the employees leaving the organization
to know the reasons behind attrition, then come up with awards in suitable categories and then,
create an easily and universally accessible document in the organization for knowledge transfer.
This way, analysis and synthesis together help in design thinking process. Design thinkers
start with breaking down a problem into smaller problems that can be handled and studied easily.
Then, the different solutions are combined to form a coherent single solution

Design Thinking –Divergent Thinking vs. Convergent Thinking:

Divergent Thinking:
Divergent thinking is the process of devising more than one solution for a problem
statement. It refers to the thought process of generating creative solutions.
The main features of divergent thinking are:
 It is a free flowing chain of ideas.
 It happens in a non-linear manner, i.e. it does not follow any particular sequence of
thinking. Moreover, multiple ideas can emerge at the same time, rather than one idea coming up
only after the other has occurred.

S.E.A COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY Page 19

INNOVATION AND DESIGN THINKING (21 IDT 19/29)

Convergent Thinking:
Convergent thinking is exactly opposite of what divergent thinking. The concept of
convergent thinking requires the design thinker to go through all the possible solutions thought
during divergent thinking and come up with a correct solution. This convergence on a single
solution or a mix of limited number of solutions is the essence of convergence thinking.
Convergent thinking requires speed, accuracy, efficiency, logical reasoning, and techniques.
A thinker is supposed to recognize the patterns, reapply a few techniques, and accumulate and
organize the stored information.
Another important aspect of convergent thinking is that judgment is an important part of this
process. Divergent thinking requires thinkers to suspend judgment. Convergent thinking encourages
thinkers to apply the power of judgment.
Case Study:
The problem statement at hand is “Knowledge transfer adds to the cost of the company”.
Let’s think of ways to eliminate or at least, reduce the cost to the company.

Solution:
Divergent Thinking:
Following can be some of the possible and even not-so-possible solutions.
1. Elimination of knowledge transfer program.
2. Having a single instructor for knowledge transfer program in a classroom session.
3. Preparing a document for knowledge transfer program.
4. Making it mandatory for employees to search for knowledge resources online.
5. Hiring only those employees who are experienced enough and who doesn’t need knowledge
transfer.
There may be many other solutions that may come to your mind. Write them down on a sheet of
paper. Here, we won’t focus on whether a solution is possible, feasible or viable. We just need to
bring ideas to the table, no matter how absurd they may sound. This is called the process of
divergent thinking, where a thinker is free to move or flow in any direction.
Convergent Thinking:
Now, looking at the five ideas, it can be easily said that option 1 is not feasible. Every
employee does not have an idea of a company’s tools and techniques and hence, cannot be expected
to survive without knowledge transfer.
For the same reason, option 5 is also not acceptable since the cost of the recruitment is more.
The best practices of a company are seldom known to new employees and taking an assumption
about an employee’s knowledge level is a huge mistake. It is considered to be a good HR practice to
have knowledge transfer session for new employees (option 2).
If we go by option 4, we are not assured of the pace at which learning will happen for the
new employees. Each employee can take variable amount of time to grasp the concepts. The time
taken to search materials online and read them is an overhead and it cannot be monitored.
Hence, the two better options that remain are option 2 and option 3. However, one cannot
correctly estimate the effectiveness of a document for knowledge transfer. It is similar to reading
materials online. Hence, the best option available is to have an instructor teaching employee in a
classroom program (option 2).
Although, the employees won’t get personal attention at times, yet by maintaining a fine
balance between the strength of the batch and the length of class, this can be the best option to
reduce cost and overhead. The reduction in the number of instructors will lead to less expenditure
for DT and at the same time, the effectiveness of a paid instructor will remain, making the process
of knowledge transfer as effective as before.
This is how convergent thinking comes into picture.

S.E.A COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY Page 20

INNOVATION AND DESIGN THINKING (21 IDT 19/29)

Characteristics of Design Thinking:

Thus, design thinking is always an interplay between diverging exploration of problem and
solution space and converging processes of synthesizing and selecting. Design thinking can be put
down to three basic characteristics (see also Figure).

Exploring the problem space:

When exploring a problem space, design thinking acquires an intuitive (not fully verbalized)
understanding, mainly by observing exemplary use cases or scenarios, as opposed to formulating
general hypotheses or theories regarding the problem; and synthesise this knowledge to point of
views.

Exploring the solution space:

Design thinking asks for a great number of alternative ideas in parallel and elaborates them
with sketching and prototypingtechniques. In this manner, ideas are being consciously transformed
into tangiblerepresentatives.

Iterative alignment of both spaces:

These representatives of ideas and concepts facilitate communication not only in the design
team, but with users, clients and experts as well. Thus, design thinking helps to keep in touch with
the problem relevant environment and can use this information for refining and revising the chosen
solution path(s).

S.E.A COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY Page 21

INNOVATION AND DESIGN THINKING (21 IDT 19/29)

MODULE – I
UNDERSTANDING THE DESIGN THINKING
SHARED MODELS IN TEAM-BASED DESIGN:
The use of media within the process of designing new products has not been directed by
rigorous research findings. In this section a media-model framework is discussed, which categorizes
media according to levels of resolution and abstraction. This framework can be used to assess
characteristics of various models and as a general guide for discerning differences between media
types. Designers can utilize the media-model framework to make informed judgments about
appropriate prototyping and modeling approaches within various stages of the design process.

Rough sketches and prototypes yield paradigmatic changes in a model and high-resolution
renderings and models yield parametric changes in a model.Resolution was a critical factor in
unpacking shared models, another factor was at work, which we identified as Abstraction.

By resolution, the level of refinement or granularity that can be observed in the fit and
finish of a shared representation.Figure shows two shared representations used in the development
of a test car. The sketch of the car on the left exhibitslower resolution than the CAD model on the
right.

By abstraction we mean amplification through simplification or pulling specific

characteristics out of context. This includes the notion of deliberately translating something that is
familiar into something unfamiliar.

We have observed four classesof abstraction:

1. Material, e.g., material construction
2. Formal, i.e., shape or appearance
3. Functional, e.g., “works-like”
4. Mathematical, e.g., dimensions, optimization

S.E.A COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY Page 22

INNOVATION AND DESIGN THINKING (21 IDT 19/29)

Figure represents an example of two levels of abstraction. The wooden car on the left is
more abstract than the steel car on the right. The team supervisor, a well-seasoned design engineer,
felt that using steel would limit choices. This is anexample of how abstraction can make the familiar
unfamiliar.

Media-models are characterized by the dimensions of resolution and abstraction. The figure
shows media-models framework.

CADmodels are both highly abstract and highly resolved. In CAD rendering, specific and
actual physical things are reduced to geometric boundaries, or lines, which have no specific material
existence.
CAD models are highly abstract in that they refer as an entire class of objects, not one real
object.
CAD models are highly resolved in that they clearly define features and tolerances.
There is little or no ambiguity in a CAD model. Instead, design engineers enlist CAD to
reduce uncertainty.
Rough sketches and prototypes exhibit low resolution and varying levels ofabstraction,
depending on the context in which they are used (for example the wooden car prototype).
Note that we consider manufactured products to be highly resolved and not at allabstract
because they are the actual things.

Media Cascade:
The sequence of representations though which projects develop and unfold in different
media during the course of a development cycle and which we refer to as a media cascade.

The figure depicts some highlights of a media cascade from a student project, abinding for a
snowboard. Shown here are product briefs, rough sketches, rough prototypes,CAD models,
functional prototypes, and an actual working model.

Media-models may be classified into three categories:

Ambiguous Media
Mathematized Media
and Hybrid Media

S.E.A COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY Page 23

INNOVATION AND DESIGN THINKING (21 IDT 19/29)

Ambiguous media, such as rough sketches and rough physical prototypes, serve asa scaffold for
engineers to fill in the gaps, and are completed as engineers positmany possible formulations of the
problem.They encourage divergent conversations.
The objects say: I am not the real thing. I am an ephemeral notion.

Mathematized media, maps, and highly realistic images are completed throughrefinement of what
is presented. Thus, they encourage convergent conversations.Thesemedia-models present
themselves as sacrosanct and seem to resist substantialchanges.
The objects say: I am the real thing. I am the underlying, unchanging truth ofthe
thing.

Hybrid media allow several kinds of operations and discussions. They often involve usingphysical
interfaces in conjunction with high-level frameworks. This has proven toallow a flexible
exploration of how different elements relate to one another.Hybrid models ofteninvolve
combinations of different media, such as photographs, drawings, and text.
The objects say: I am about provisional relationships among things.

To summarize:
Ambiguous media-models afford paradigmatic shifts.
Mathematized media-models afford parametric adjustment.
Hybrid media-models afford understanding and changes in relationships.

Open Models: Media that allows collaboration

Closed Models: Media that restricts collaboration (for example software can be considered closed,
as itkeeps control of the model and possible changes in the model in the hands of afew people that
are experts with the software tool. )

Business Process Modelling (BPM) media models:

BPM media-cascades are overwhelmingly weighted towardhighly abstract and highly

resolved media-models.

S.E.A COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY Page 24

INNOVATION AND DESIGN THINKING (21 IDT 19/29)

Tangible Business Process Modelling (TPBM) media models:

The development of Tangible Business Process Modeling (TBPM) began in response to

information deficits in process induction.

THEORY AND PRACTICE IN DESIGN THINKING:

In Design Thinking, theory and practice are closely interconnected. The theory serves as a
blueprint, guiding companies in general and design teams through the design process. Given such a
close interrelation of theory andpractice, we argue that Design Thinking research needs to be set up
in a particular way too. This setup ties in with Design Thinking process models: To attain evermore
befitting design solutions, prototypes are supposed to be tested and refined.Correspondingly,
Design Thinking research should help to test and refine theoryelements of Design Thinking.

There are two widely held convictions in the field of Design Thinking:
(1) Multidisciplinaryteams produce more innovate design solutions than monodisciplinary teams.
(2) Teams trained in Design Thinking (by the D-School) produce more innovativesolutions than
untrained teams.

Specifying Hypotheses:

A design solution S1 is considered more innovating than a solution S2 if S1 is more unusual

as well as more useful that S2.

While the two hypotheses concerning D-School training and multidisciplinary are viable
starting points, they need to be further refined.

Given this clarification of what “innovative” means, both starting hypotheses split into two
more specific claims.
These are the assumptions regarding D-School education:

1. D-School trained teams produce more unusual solutions than teams without this training.
2. D-School trained teams produce more useful solutions than teams without this training.

Accordingly, two hypotheses may be formulated concerning multidisciplinary:

3. Multidisciplinary teams produce more unusual solutions than monodisciplinary teams.
4. Multidisciplinary teams produce more useful solutions than monodisciplinary teams.

S.E.A COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY Page 25

INNOVATION AND DESIGN THINKING (21 IDT 19/29)

5. Multidisciplinary teams experience more communication problems than monodisciplinary

teams.
6. D-School trained teams experience less communication problems than teams without this
training.

Why Experiments Matter

In principle, two alternatives are available. Investigations can be experimental or non-

experimental. Both approaches have their advantages as well as their disadvantages.
The experimental method has been devised to fade out or “oppress” all the factors
potentially relevant to an outcome except for those factors whose influences are to be investigated
(as specified by the hypotheses). Thereby, the relationship between the factors that one takes
interest in becomes maximally clear. But naturally, one doesn’t find out anything about the other
factors (not addressed by the hypotheses) that one is at such pains to fade out in the experimental
setting.
In non-experimental studies, on the other hand, one may explore all the facets of real-life
situations in their full booming buzzing mix-up.

EXPLORING THE WORK OF DESIGNERS ACROSS THE GLOBE:

It describes the preliminary results of a study of design practices in different regions

and industries with the goal of understanding the relationship between culture, especially national
culture, and the work of designers. This gives the report about the role of the institutional context,
especially client expectations, different attitudes toward what it means to be creative, different
interaction norms within professions, different ways of using prototypes, and differentecologies
around design education.

Figure reflects our perspective on how design thinking and practices are embedded within
their cultural context. Each layer affects and is affected by the adjacent layers.

S.E.A COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY Page 26

INNOVATION AND DESIGN THINKING (21 IDT 19/29)

Culture is a “a fuzzy set of attitudes, beliefs, behavioral norms, and basic assumptions and
values that are shared by a group of people, and that influence each member’s behavior and his/her
interpretations of the ‘meaning’ of other people’s behavior”. The culture is reflected not only in
national culture, but is a mosaic composed of cultural identities derived from a variety of sources,
including national culture, demographic features, and associations.

Culture and Design Insights

Client Expectations:
The design practices can be strongly affected by the corporate culture, but adaptations also
may be required to meet the demands of the local clients. The structures of local culture,
institutional context (such as client demands), and organizational culture were intertwined and
mutually determined the practices of designers. The client expectations, particularly at design
consultancies, were described as heavily influencing the types of prototyping, concept generation,
and storytelling processes followed by designers in different regions. The clients have borders that
determine their expectations for what the designers should deliver, how they should behave, and of
their own role in the process. The strongest effects from frames or expectations around building
relationships (client-consultant relationships), process as a deliverable, whether design activity is
seen as a cost or an investment, and the value of form versus function.

Creative:
In Asia, particularly when observing in-house designers, it is noticed that using existing
similar products as sources of inspiration was the norm. While the Western designers were
sometimes seen as being radical and designing products that couldn’t easily be manufactured or
were only appropriate for a “niche” market – they were just too “out there.”

Interaction Norms across Professions:

Many of the same occupations and roles existed across regions and observed interesting
differences in the way that those occupations are constituted and the interaction among
professionals from different occupations. For example, less cross-training between designers and
pattern cutters in Asia and that it would have violated the norms for designers to cut their own
patterns. In France and England, the fashion designers were trained to be pattern cutters and were
expected to be able to take on this role, or at least demonstrate a high level of competency when
working with a specialist pattern cutter. These occupational jurisdictions had a significant effect on
what work designers did (and didn’t do) in different regions and how they interacted with other
professions as they implemented their design ideas.

The Role of the Prototype:

Across regions, firms, in house vs. design consultancies, and industries, prototypes played
highly social roles as objects around which questions were asked and social interaction occurred. In
all cases, designers created prototypes throughout the design process and used these as a way of
understanding their own designs and getting feedback from others. We found numerous objects
referred to as prototypes, including models, sketches, scenarios, CAD drawings, garment patterns,
etc. The creation and use of prototypes was somewhat determined by the disciplinary training (e.g.
mechanical engineering, industrial design, fashion design, etc.) of the designer as well as the local
context (e.g. client expectations, speed of the design cycles, etc.).

The Ecology of Design Education:

The ecologies around design education vary across regions. In all cases, there are multiple
constituents including students, faculty, administrators, potential employers, government bodies,
S.E.A COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY Page 27
INNOVATION AND DESIGN THINKING (21 IDT 19/29)

and professional associations. How these constituents interact with educational institutions, the
amount of influence they have, and how these interactions shape design education and the future
work done by students educated at these institutions varies by region.

Methodological Insights:
First, the cross-cultural comparisons of design practices require observations of the
designers as they engage with ideas, objects, each other, and their clients.
Second, when studying the design of products whose design was not “universal,” e.g. the
products are likely to be used/understood differently indifferent cultures, since these products are
more influenced by the local cultures in which they were sold and used.
Third, consistent with research in cross-cultural psychology.
Finally, it is noticed significant differences in the design practices of in-house designers vs.
those working in design consultancies.

THE EFFICACY OF PROTOTYPING UNDER TIME CONSTRAINTS:

Iterative prototyping helps designers refine their ideas and discover previously unknown
issues and opportunities. However, the time constraints of production schedules can discourage
iteration in favour of realization.
In the creation phase, designers ask the adductive question of “what might be”. In the
feedback phase, designers make inferences from observations.

The design task had two conditions: individuals encouraged to conduct iterative testing
(iteration) and individuals prevented from conducting iterative testing (non-iteration).

S.E.A COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY Page 28