Design Thinking Skills in Social Work Issues

DESIGN THINKING SKILLS
IN SOCIAL WORK ISSUES

DESIGN MAKING TOOLS AND
SOCIAL PROBLEM
 The social problem identified is that of social isolation.
 In spite of being more connected , people have become more lonely than ever
and they abstain themselves from the social gatherings and the social
support.
 Design thinking is a process that helps to solve the problems, focusing on the
human-centered solution (Gasparini, 2015)
 Design thinking process involves few tools that help in the solving of the
problems. These tools include to Empathize, to Define, Ideate, Prototype and
Test.
Source: Denning, 2013

EMPATHY
 Activities involve conducting one
on one interviews with the
individuals who remain socially
isolated.
 They can be asked the questions of
What, Why and How . The What ,
Why and How questions help to
move from assumptions to
concrete observations.
 The outcomes suggest that
social isolation arises when
people do not connect to anyone
in the society to share their grief
or problems. It can also be
attributed to introverted nature.
Source: Koppen & Meinel, 2015

DEFINE
 Activities involve the unpacking of the stories of the individuals who are
socially isolated.
 The space saturation and the group is another activity of the design
making process, that helps to define the problem statement.
 The outcome suggests that the main problem to address is the
phenomenon in which people tend to isolate themselves from
interacting with the society and suffer from loneliness as a result,
which also gives way to depression and other mental health issues.

IDEATE
 The activities of BrainStorm , Brainwalk, MindMAp,
The Sketch, Analogies and the Challenge
Assumptions can be useful for solving the problem
of social isolation.
 The designers might be asked to sit in a room with
adequate space and design their ideas.
 The outcome of this activity was that the best
approach to solve the problem would be to base
the activities in a customer centric approach.

PROTOTYPE
 The two activities of prototype are low-fi and high-fi.
 The activities also involve the arrangements of
workshops.
 There should be less time sped on workshops which
include the implementation of the plan.
 The outcome of the activity suggested that the
set of activities to undertake the problem
solving would be a 7 step process.