Week Four: Design Thinking

     Think weeks focus was all about how to design something (be it a product or a program) for social innovation. Meaning, designing things with human beings in mind. I love this topic, I feel like things are so often designed without people in mind. An example off the top of my head are cities/towns without sidewalks. Almost every town I've lived in has never been very walkable, I'd have to walk on the side of the road in a lot of instances. Design thinking is an attempt to mitigate problems like that by undergoing a thorough process that begins with empathy.

    Empathy. How many businesses start with empathy? I suspect not very many. But I love this thought of beginning the design process this way.  In order to "fix" a problem, we first must understand the people who this problem effects. What are their struggles like? What are their lives like? How are they effected daily or even long term? What are their thoughts about this problem? By observing these kinds of things, it can give us a more detailed picture into what the actual issue is, and possible revenues into how we can then help. I dunno... I think that so many things that are created nowadays that the main priority is profit, not people. My own husband could probably give a full dissertation about how the video game industry is all about pumping out as much "soulless" product now to turn a buck rather than investing in quality games that has the main goal of giving the player a good experience. 

    Design thinking is important for social innovation because they both focus on the same thing: people. And I think that design thinking is really what can help you bring concrete steps towards whatever your social innovation goal is. I imagine that any successful social innovation entrepreneur has participated in design thinking, whether they know it or not. 

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