Empathy in Design Thinking: Understanding User Needs & Mindset

This essay explores the crucial role of empathy within the design thinking framework. It defines empathy as the ability to understand the world from another person's perspective and emphasizes its importance in design thinking as a means to deeply understand the needs and realities of users. The essay highlights how empathy helps designers connect with customers, understand their mindset regarding products and services, and develop products that align with user needs. Furthermore, it suggests that design thinking, incorporating empathy, can aid in analyzing the mindset of workers. The essay references various sources to support its claims, providing a comprehensive overview of empathy's significance in the design thinking process. Desklib offers similar solved assignments and resources for students.

“Design
Thinking”
• Helps designer to create the
empathy with customers.
• Helps to know the mindset of the
customer in relation to the
products and services (Dorst,
2011).
• It gives the idea to the designers
to build products accordingly
(Welsh & Dehler, 2013).
• The mindset of workers can be
analyzed easily by considering
design thinking (Brown, 2008).
Empathy?
•Empathy is related with the
ability of seeing world with the
eyes of the other individual.
• In relation to design thinking,
empathy can be elaborated as a
proper understanding of issues
and truth of the other
individuals(Leifer & Steinert,
2011).
Its importance in
relation to design
thinking
References
•Brown, T. (2008). Design thinking. Harvard business review, 86(6), 84.
•Dorst, K. (2011). The core of ‘design thinking’and its application. Design studies, 32(6), 521-532.
•Leavy, B. (2010). Design thinking–a new mental model of value innovation. Strategy & leadership, 38(3), 5-14.
•Leifer, L. J., & Steinert, M. (2011). Dancing with ambiguity: Causality behavior, design thinking, and triple-loop-learning. Information Knowledge Systems Management, 10(1-
4), 151-173.
•Welsh, M. A., & Dehler, G. E. (2013). Combining critical reflection and design thinking to develop integrative learners. Journal of Management Education, 37(6), 771-
802.
•Bayburtsyan,T.(2017). Design Thinking For Software Developers. Retrieved from: https://medium.com/@tigranbs/design-thinking- for-software-developers-bbd2f863c6f7
•Zurb. (2019). You're Design Thinking Too Much. Retrieved from:https://zurb.com/blog/you-re-design-thinking-too-much
Source: Bayburtsyan,2017.
Source: Zurb, 2019.

References
• Brown, T. (2008). Design thinking. Harvard business review, 86(6), 84.
• Dorst, K. (2011). The core of ‘design thinking’and its application. Design
studies, 32(6), 521-532.
• Leavy, B. (2010). Design thinking–a new mental model of value
innovation. Strategy & leadership, 38(3), 5-14.
• Leifer, L. J., & Steinert, M. (2011). Dancing with ambiguity: Causality
behavior, design thinking, and triple-loop- learning. Information
Knowledge Systems Management, 10(1- 4), 151-173.
• Welsh, M. A., & Dehler, G. E. (2013). Combining critical reflection and design
thinking to develop integrative learners. Journal of Management
Education, 37(6), 771-802.
• Bayburtsyan,T.(2017). Design Thinking For Software Developers. Retrieved
from: https://medium.com/@tigranbs/design-thinking- for-software-
developers-bbd2f863c6f7
• Zurb. (2019). You're Design Thinking Too Much. Retrieved
from:https://zurb.com/blog/you-re-design-thinking-too-much