Design process

• The Elements of the Design Thinking Process, in their correct order, are:

  • Empathize: Research Your Users' Needs
  • Define: State Your Users' Needs and Problems
  • Ideate: Challenge Assumptions and Create Ideas
  • Prototype: Create Solutions
  • Test: Try Your Solutions
• Empathize stage:

  • Acquire an empathetic understanding of the problem you're trying to solve through user research
  • Empathy is crucial for a human-centered design process to gain real insight into users and their needs
• Define stage:

  • Analyze observations and synthesize them to define core problems identified
  • Problem statements are created in this stage
  • Creating personas can help keep efforts human-centered before proceeding to ideation
• Ideate stage:

  • Challenge assumptions and create ideas
  • Start to "think outside the box" and identify innovative solutions to the problem statement created in the Define stage
  • Brainstorming is particularly useful in this stage
• Prototype stage:

  • Experimental phase to identify the best possible solution for each problem
  • Produce inexpensive, scaled-down versions of the product to investigate ideas generated
  • Could be as simple as paper prototyping
• Test stage:

  • Evaluators rigorously test the prototypes
  • Design thinking is iterative, so teams often use results to redefine one or more further problems
  • Can return to previous stages to make further iterations, alterations, and refinements to find or rule out alternative solutions
• Start-up costs are expenses incurred before the business is running
• These are the bills and expenses needed to cover leading up to the launch of the business
• Examples of start-up costs include:

  • Permits, licenses, and incorporation fees
  • Business cards
  • Logo design
  • Website design
  • Signage
  • Down payment and improvements on rental property
• Operating costs are ongoing expenses required to keep the business running
• These costs are separate from materials to manufacture the product
• Examples of operating costs include:

  • Rent
  • Payroll
  • Taxes
  • Legal services
  • Loan payments
  • Insurance payments
  • Utilities
  • Marketing costs