🔄 Design Thinking

empathize · define · ideate · prototype · test · human-centred design

🎯 Challenge Prompt: "Design a better school lunch system."
Work through each stage of the design thinking process to develop a solution. Write brief notes in each section — there are no right or wrong answers.

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What is design thinking?

Design thinking is a human-centred approach to problem-solving. Rather than starting with technology or business constraints, it starts with deeply understanding people — their needs, frustrations, and goals. Developed at Stanford's d.school, it is now used by companies like Apple, Airbnb, and the NHS.

Is it really used in engineering?

Absolutely. Every great engineered product started with understanding people. The five stages — Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test — are explicitly taught in engineering degrees and used in software development (as UX research), civil engineering (participatory design), and medical device design (user needs analysis).

Key terms

HMW — "How Might We" — a question format that reframes problems as design opportunities Empathy map — a visual tool capturing what users say, think, feel, and do Iteration — repeating a cycle of test → learn → improve → retest Fidelity — how realistic a prototype is; low-fi (paper) first, high-fi (coded) later Wicked problem — a complex problem with no single "correct" solution — the type design thinking excels at

🎯 Try this challenge

Work through the Practice Challenge for the school lunch problem. Then try applying the same process to a problem in your own life — a messy bedroom, a long bus journey, or a confusing school website. Design thinking works on any problem where real people are involved.

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