Design Thinking in the Construction of Digital Products
Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2025 9:05 am
Design Thinking is an old term that dates back to the 1930s, but it was in the 1980s that it was defined as “a form of creative action” by Rolf Faste, a professor at Stanford’s School of Engineering in the US. However, it was David Kelley who adapted it to management and made it more famous. Kelley founded two of the main institutions that evangelize Design Thinking: the IDEO consultancy and the d.School, Stanford’s design school. From the 2000s onwards, Design Thinking began to be applied worldwide by all types of companies and taught in the best design and business schools, becoming known for being a design approach to human-centered innovation. It is important to note that there are other theories about the beginnings of Design Thinking.
Design Thinking can be understood as a philosophy based on empathy: the ability to put yourself in the shoes of another human being to understand their behaviors, emotions and pain. Understand people first and then create something that makes sense and responds to real needs. This philosophy is complemented by extreme multi-perspective collaboration (after all, innovation is a team sport) and testing in practice, because all there is at the beginning of innovation is a set of hypotheses, which need to be confirmed or refuted in real life.
In addition to being perceived as a philosophy, Design Thinking can also be seen as a phased method. The objective of the method is to reduce the risk inherent in innovation. Just because someone used accurate mobile phone number list Design Thinking doesn't mean the end result of the project will be a success, but the chances of failure are certainly reduced. There are many frameworks that attempt to explain the method: the most famous are the Double Diamond, from the British Design Council, and the five hexagons, attributed to d.School. All of them present, with different names and formats, the same elements: a first phase of investigation into people and the context, a second phase of defining the challenge to be solved (because we cannot solve all the problems at the same time), a third phase of generating ideas, a fourth phase of creating a prototype or proof of concept, and a fifth phase of testing. It is worth noting that all of this is an interactive (and non-linear) process of trial and error.
Design Thinking helps solve different types of problems and serves innovation in the creation of products and services, for the (re)design of experiences, processes and even business models.
The same is true for the creation and development of digital products.
In the popular imagination, the creation of great digital products often comes from the entrepreneurial genius of just one person. OK, it's true that the initial concept may have come about in this way. The classic examples are Mark Zuckerberg with Facebook, Daniel EK with Spotify, Stuart Butterfield with Slack, among others.
However, as already mentioned, innovation is a team sport, and it requires immense effort from many people to get a digital product up and running. From a deeper understanding of what the consumer needs, through the conceptualization of the main functionalities, the design of the user experience (UX) and interfaces (UI), to the development (code creation) to transform a set of hypotheses in the heads of some people into a real product in the hands of users.
In an increasingly connected and digital world, Design Thinking has proven to be an effective approach in creating innovative and relevant digital products. By applying this methodology to the development of digital products, the user is placed at the center of the process, stimulating empathy, creativity and experimentation. It's rare that a product or design team doesn't master the topic and use it on a daily basis.
Design Thinking can be understood as a philosophy based on empathy: the ability to put yourself in the shoes of another human being to understand their behaviors, emotions and pain. Understand people first and then create something that makes sense and responds to real needs. This philosophy is complemented by extreme multi-perspective collaboration (after all, innovation is a team sport) and testing in practice, because all there is at the beginning of innovation is a set of hypotheses, which need to be confirmed or refuted in real life.
In addition to being perceived as a philosophy, Design Thinking can also be seen as a phased method. The objective of the method is to reduce the risk inherent in innovation. Just because someone used accurate mobile phone number list Design Thinking doesn't mean the end result of the project will be a success, but the chances of failure are certainly reduced. There are many frameworks that attempt to explain the method: the most famous are the Double Diamond, from the British Design Council, and the five hexagons, attributed to d.School. All of them present, with different names and formats, the same elements: a first phase of investigation into people and the context, a second phase of defining the challenge to be solved (because we cannot solve all the problems at the same time), a third phase of generating ideas, a fourth phase of creating a prototype or proof of concept, and a fifth phase of testing. It is worth noting that all of this is an interactive (and non-linear) process of trial and error.
Design Thinking helps solve different types of problems and serves innovation in the creation of products and services, for the (re)design of experiences, processes and even business models.
The same is true for the creation and development of digital products.
In the popular imagination, the creation of great digital products often comes from the entrepreneurial genius of just one person. OK, it's true that the initial concept may have come about in this way. The classic examples are Mark Zuckerberg with Facebook, Daniel EK with Spotify, Stuart Butterfield with Slack, among others.
However, as already mentioned, innovation is a team sport, and it requires immense effort from many people to get a digital product up and running. From a deeper understanding of what the consumer needs, through the conceptualization of the main functionalities, the design of the user experience (UX) and interfaces (UI), to the development (code creation) to transform a set of hypotheses in the heads of some people into a real product in the hands of users.
In an increasingly connected and digital world, Design Thinking has proven to be an effective approach in creating innovative and relevant digital products. By applying this methodology to the development of digital products, the user is placed at the center of the process, stimulating empathy, creativity and experimentation. It's rare that a product or design team doesn't master the topic and use it on a daily basis.