Design Thinking: Personal Reflection and Learning Experience

Running head: DESIGN THINKING
Design Thinking
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DESIGN THINKING 2
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Knowledge Development................................................................................................................2
Critical Analysis..............................................................................................................................3
Personal Development.....................................................................................................................5
Strength and Weaknesses................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
Action Plan......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

DESIGN THINKING 3
Introduction
Personal reflective writing involves writing assignments and exercises that are self-
referential or self-reflective in nature (Lawrence, 2013). The articles involve the writer writing
about their own experience in different activities. Tembrioti and Tsangaridou (2014) emphasized
that reflective practice is very significant for the professional competency. The ability to reflect
on what one has done is important than practicing a routine. In this paper, I was able to write
about some of my achievement, weaknesses and strengths from what I have learnt in the design
thinking class. It is based on a personal assessment of the different activities that have occurred
in class. The ability to reflect on one’s learning enhances the critical thinking skills.
Knowledge Development
In the first week of my studies, I learnt about design thinking foundation, where the
whole unit was explained in details, what to expect at the end of the unit, and the objectives and
goals of the unit were also established. I got to understand the meaning of design thinking.
Which is the method used to provide a solution-based approach to solving problems? Before this
class, I never thought there are criteria for finding solutions to problems. Also from the activity,
we did in class where, in groups of 3 we wrote three points of business and converted it into a
diagram. I got to learn share writing from the group members. At first, I was skeptical on how
whole group discussion was going to turn out. I was afraid my group members would be
judgmental and not consider all the ideas. But as it turned out, they’re very cooperative, and all
the ideas were considered as we brainstormed together. What amazed me most was how quick
were able to accommodate one another and think abstractly in coming up with the ideas. The

DESIGN THINKING 4
experience was really helpful as we all learnt from one another. The discussion made the process
much quicker and was able to come up with ideas as first as possible. When the diagrams were
interchanged in the class, other students came up with different ways of interpreting the diagram
which was amazing as we had not thought of all the possibilities the diagram could represent. I
noticed how people think out of context in different situations. The lecture was able to gain the
attention of the whole class through the group activity as everyone was involved.
Week 2 of the class, was discuss the design thinking process. According to Chen and
Venkatesh (2013), design thinking refers to the physical and mental process that helps
organizations creative design outcomes. It entails the problem identification, idea generation,
development of concepts and its implementation (Best, 2015). I was able to determine that the
unit aims at improving the creativeness and originality of student’s creative outcome. We
watched a video of a company empathize work environment. The theme of the company was
innovation and the owner invested in the employees. The employees helped to design their work
place. An empathy map was created to determine the needs of the employees and the workplace.
Critical Analysis
Schiele and Chen, (2018) noted that in empathize stage, it is important to create and
establish an empathy map. The employees were able to gain an empathic understanding of the
needs of the workplace. Ferreira, Silva, Oliveira, and Conte (2015) denote that, collaboration tool
is important in the identification of the real needs. This was evident as the team sought to
understand the problems of the workplace. Observations, engaging other people and empathizing
with other people to understand what motivated them were some of the ways used to gain
information about the ideal physical work environment (Glen, Suciu, & Baughn, 2014). I noticed