--- title: Design Thinking description: Design thinking is a non-linear, cognitive framework used to solve complex problems. You will understand how to empathize with users, define core problems, ideate solutions, prototype designs, and conduct testing to develop user-centered products and services. category: arts-design subcategory: graphic-design difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced url: /subject/design-thinking --- # Design Thinking Design thinking is a non-linear, cognitive framework used to solve complex problems. You will understand how to empathize with users, define core problems, ideate solutions, prototype designs, and conduct testing to develop user-centered products and services. ## Available Resources 2 Videos • 1 Books • 1 Courses • 5 Websites ## Websites ### 1. IDEO DesignKit IDEO.org's public library of human-centered design methods, case studies, and mindsets, organized around inspiration, ideation, and implementation. After working through it you can run field interviews, synthesize findings, and prototype solutions with communities. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.designkit.org/ **Tags:** design-thinking, human-centered-design, ideo, toolkit, social-innovation ### 2. Stanford d.school Stanford d.school's collection of downloadable method cards, workshop guides, and starter kits used in its courses. Gives you facilitation scripts and exercises for running empathy interviews, ideation sessions, and rapid prototyping with a team. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://dschool.stanford.edu/resources **Tags:** design-thinking, stanford-dschool, toolkit, prototyping, facilitation ### 3. Interaction Design Foundation Interaction Design Foundation's topic hub gathering articles, literature summaries, and course listings on design thinking. Covers the five-stage model and its origins, giving background reading before applying empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://ixdf.org/literature/topics/design-thinking **Tags:** design-thinking, ux, interaction-design, five-stage-model, reading ### 4. hbr.org Harvard Business Review (hbr.org) offers research-based articles, case studies, and practical guidance on leadership, strategy, and organizational performance for managers and executives. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://hbr.org **Tags:** websites, business-entrepreneurship, business-fundamentals ### 5. designthinking.ideo.com IDEO's Design Thinking resource hub explains the design thinking approach and provides primers, tools, and case studies to apply it to real-world problems. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://designthinking.ideo.com **Tags:** websites, business-entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship ## Videos ### 1. Tim Brown: Designers think big A 2009 TED talk in which IDEO's chief executive argues design should move from styling objects to tackling systemic problems. Explains participatory, local design and the shift from design to design thinking. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAinLaT42xY **Tags:** design-thinking, ted-talk, ideo, innovation, systems-design ### 2. Stanford d.school Design Thinking The 1999 ABC Nightline segment following IDEO as it redesigns a shopping cart in five days. Shows observation, brainstorming rules, rapid prototyping, and team decision-making as they actually happen in a studio. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M66ZU2PCIcM **Tags:** design-thinking, ideo, prototyping, brainstorming, case-study ## Courses ### 1. Design Thinking Learn Design Thinking with IDEO's online course! Master innovative problem-solving techniques and human-centered design principles. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.ideou.com/pages/design-thinking **Tags:** design-thinking, ideo-u, innovation, online-course, human-centered-design ## Podcasts ### 1. Design Better **Author:** Aarron Walter, Eli Woolery Interview podcast hosted by Aarron Walter and Eli Woolery with designers, product leaders and creative practitioners. Conversations cover user research, design leadership, team collaboration and creative process, giving listeners working examples of how design problems are framed and solved in real organisations. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** en | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://designbetterpodcast.com **Tags:** design-thinking, ux-design, product-design, design-leadership, creative-process ## Books ### 1. Frame Innovation: Create New Thinking by Design **Author:** Kees Dorst Dorst, professor of design innovation at UTS, argues expert designers create value by reframing problems rather than following a five-step recipe. Sets out a nine-step frame-creation process, illustrated through case studies on retail layout, nightlife districts and staffing agencies. The honest critique of design thinking is that the process is a ritual without the underlying reasoning. Dorst supplies that reasoning: why the problem statement itself is the real design object, and how to generate alternative frames systematically. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0262550962?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** design-thinking, problem-framing, innovation, design-theory, case-studies --- *This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge* *Curated by humans at Dantes.io. Personal study use welcome; republishing this curation requires permission (team@dantes.io).* View this page online: https://dantes.io/subject/design-thinking