 Let's break down design thinking in a simple, easy-to-understand manner. In essence, design thinking is a problem-solving approach that prioritises people's needs. It's less about producing a quick answer and more about understanding the problem from all angles, ensuring that the solution is both effective and user-friendly. Imagine you're tasked with building a house, not just any house, but one tailored specifically to the needs and desires of its future inhabitants. You wouldn't stop by randomly layering bricks, right? You'd first want to understand who's going to live there, what they need and what they envision of their dream home. The process of understanding, ideating and creating solutions that cater to these users is at the heart of design thinking, the six phases of design thinking. Design thinking often unfolds in six main steps or phases. These guide individuals and teams through the creative journey. Here they are. The first step is to empathise. This is understanding the future homeowner's step. You immerse yourself in the world of the users. In this case, those who'll live in the house through conversations and observations, you'll get a feel for their desires and necessities. Within UX, there's lots of different tools and techniques that we can use in this process. The next step is define. So after we collect all the user research and the information, we pinpoint the exact requirements. This is like realising, oh okay, they need a four bedroom home with a large kitchen and a play area for the kids. The next step is to then ideate. This is where creativity flows. So knowing the requirements, we could brainstorm architectural styles, room layouts and design features that would fit the design needs. We know through the defined stage what we need to design and this is where we get to try all out our ideas. The next step is prototype. In this phase, you create tangible or visual representations of your ideas. This might involve crafting a mini model of the house or drawing detailed sketches of different rooms. When we're doing websites and apps, we do wireframes, which are essentially blueprints and then we might make them more high fidelity in Figma or other tools. Then the next stage is test. This is where we present those models or the sketches to the future inhabitants. They might provide feedback like, oh, we want bigger windows in the living room or can we have a porch at the back. Based on this, you refine your designs. So this is when we might design websites or apps. We show our future users and then based on their feedback, we then improve it. The next step and final stage is implementation. This is where the design comes off the paper and takes shape on the ground. We'll actually start construction of the house, website or an app. And in this example, we'll ensure each brick and tile aligns with the design. Once it's built, we essentially review the final structure making sure it meets the inhabitants needs and making sure of any final tweaks if necessary. So why is user design thinking so popular? First off, it's user centric. The emphasis is on understanding and catering to user needs, ensuring that the final product, so in this case the house, it's functional and loved by its users. We don't want to ever build something that we don't know is right for the people we're designing for. It encourages collaboration, so many minds are better than one. In this example, architects, interior designers, builders and even landscapers might collaborate, bringing diverse perspectives and skills to the table. When you're in a big company, this will be people like product owners, managers, this will be developers and all people around who build digital products. Then it's flexible. So the stages of the roadmap, but design thinking is adaptable. You could go in between stages and as you gather more insights, you could then revisit and refine earlier stages. It's not a linear straight path. So now we look at applications of design thinking. Though we've discussed it in the context of house building, design thinking, it's broad applicability. It can be employed in any field and this is when there's a problem that needs to be solved. So getting started with design thinking. Stay curious, keep questioning and observing, understand the why behind user needs, practice empathy, truly feel the user's aspirations and concerns, really understand who you're designing for. It's the foundation of design thinking. Then prototype and test. You want to bring your ideas to life, however rough they may be. Real world feedback is invaluable. So we like to think of design thinking as the architects blueprint for building solutions, beer houses or services that people love and need. That's the key. So when you're crafting your dream home or even tackling a website or an app, let design thinking guide you where you create something that people are going to love and happy building.