Design Thinking and Identifying a Problem When you get dressed in the morning does everything you put on fit perfectly Do you ever think your garment would be better if it were a different color had pockets was waterproof or had a different logo on it These are the kinds of questions that designers especially fashion designers ask every day Like all inventors fashion designers have to ask a lot of questions and do a lot of experimenting before they create the clothes we see hanging in stores This is particularly true for designers of activewear clothing that people wear to feel comfortable play sports and exercise These designers who create sports uniforms yoga pants sweatshirts and workout wear have to balance their design ideas with function and the ability to sell what they make They also have to make choices about how much fabric a design will need and how much the shopper is willing to pay for the garment They balance their creativity with the personal movement and financial needs of their customers In this book we’ll use a process known as design thinking to help us organize our thoughts around redesigning a popular American article of 4 CHAPTER ONE
The uniforms people wear to work need to be comfortable and functional 5
What problems do you see with a toothbrush How could you improve it clothing a hooded sweatshirt known as a hoodie Design thinking gives us a system of thinking to organize our creativity and get input from the people who will use our inventions The company IDEO first pioneered design thinking decades ago as a way to solve problems Today design thinking is used to redesign everything from toothbrushes to schools Are there ways to make hoodies more unique and useful 6
Try This Design thinking starts with a question that is based on a problem we have noticed Our design thinking journey began by going to a soccer game Lots of parents and players were hanging out wearing team hoodies The hoodies fit fine on the adults but on the kids the sweat shirts were so big that they went down to their knees That gave us our question how might we design sweatshirts that fit better What kind of question do you have about hoodies Look around you Who is wearing hoodies Do they look good on everyone Why or why not Do you think the hoodie should be improved Make a list of things you like and things that could be better You will use this list in Chapter 2 7
