Design Thinking and Identifying a Problem Have you ever tried to walk down a crowded hallway and thought there has to be a better way to get through the school Have you ever held a tool in your hand and realized it doesn’t feel or work the way you want it to Have you ever wished that somebody would figure out an easier method to clean or even redecorate your room If so you may be an inventor Whenever a product or system doesn’t work as well as it could it has a design problem An inventor finds these design problems and improves the design or creates brand-new things that solve problems To be a successful inventor you need to solve problems for many people not just yourself One new idea might make life easier for the whole world Lots of great inventors use a process called design thinking to help them identify problems big and small and create solutions for them Design thinking is a specific way of looking at products and problems to help figure out how to improve them The design firm IDEO made design thinking famous and one of its first projects was to reinvent the shopping cart Now it’s your turn to design a better shopping cart by using design thinking 4 CHAPTER ONE
Design thinking is a unique way of looking at a design problem by taking user behaviors and preferences into account 5
What is great about a grocery cart What is not so great These questions can help you discover a topic to study Quite often we use the same thing for so long that we get used to it We might not realize how much more helpful it could be and we might overlook some of the problems it has We have just come to accept it Sometimes it takes a design thinker to provide a fresh look at these everyday items and reevaluate them Every day millions of Americans use and may be annoyed by grocery carts This book is going to help you use design thinking to explore the possibilities of improving this familiar invention 6
Try This Think about the last time you or your family used a shopping cart Draw a picture of the cart with all its parts wheels lower level main basket upper basket child seat and handle Imagine filling it with all the things you buy Don’t forget about big heavy items and small or fragile items that get smooshed What is helpful about the cart’s design structure wheel size handle and more What could be better On your drawing list and point out the design problems This list will help you in Chapter 2 7
