These Five Steps Outline the Basics of the Design Thought Process.
Creative design is a complex process that can be applied from everything to the creation of a company’s products and logos. If you are unsure where to start, this figure shows five basic steps.
The graphic below from the Design Taxi creativity site outlines the basics of the design process in terms of creating a product for a company. However, the framework is applicable to most forms of commercial creativity. The steps are broken down as follows:
- Empathize: Get to know and understand your audience.
- Define: Narrow the problem you are solving to a simple statement.
- Idea: Brainstorm your problem.
- Prototype: Create a first draft of your design that you can use to showcase your solution to a potential audience.
- Test: Show your prototype to your selected audience, measure the reaction and adapt if necessary.
It’s a very simple template, but just about any creative can use it as a guide to create their product. Creatives often focus on the third step, which can be extremely difficult to solve if you don’t fully understand the problem, but the first two steps help you narrow down the issues. Meanwhile, the last two steps are needed to refine your idea and turn it into a product or design ready to ship.
A Simplified View of the Design Thinking Process | TAXI design