📌 Lesson Title

Introduction to Design Thinking


🎯 Learning Objectives

By the end of this lesson, learners will be able to:

  • Understand what design thinking is

  • Explain the stages of design thinking

  • Recognise the importance of user-centered solutions

  • Apply design thinking to simple problems


📖 Lesson Content

🔹 1. What is Design Thinking?

Design thinking is a problem-solving approach that focuses on:

  • Understanding users

  • Defining real problems

  • Creating innovative solutions

👉 It is widely used in AI, software development, and innovation.


🔹 2. Why Design Thinking Matters

Traditional problem-solving focuses on the problem only.
Design thinking focuses on people + problem + solution.

Benefits:

  • Encourages creativity

  • Improves user experience

  • Leads to innovative solutions

  • Reduces risk of building the wrong product


🔹 3. The 5 Stages of Design Thinking

1. Empathise

Understand the user and their needs
👉 Example: Interview users about their challenges

2. Define

Clearly state the problem
👉 Example: “Students struggle to manage study time”

3. Ideate

Generate possible solutions
👉 Brainstorm ideas without limitations

4. Prototype

Create a simple version of the solution
👉 Sketch, mockup, or basic model

5. Test

Test the solution and improve it
👉 Get feedback from users


🔹 4. User-Centered Thinking

Design thinking always asks:
👉 “What does the user need?”

Not:
👉 “What do we want to build?”


🧠 Quick Check (Knowledge Questions)

  1. What is design thinking?

  2. List the 5 stages of design thinking

  3. Why is empathy important in problem solving?

  4. What is a prototype?