In this badge, students learn and practice the core concepts of design thinking as part of a diverse four-person team. Design Thinking is a collaborative approach for generating creativity through anthropological techniques that draw on human behavior, needs, and preferences. Through this human-centered approach students explore and challenge their assumptions to more accurately design for the end user and learn a repeatable way to innovate.

The Details

• Increased Self-Awareness: Ability to recognize one’s own biases, assumptions  and influence during the design process; 

• Empathize: Ability to use various techniques to better understand the social, emotional, and physical needs of the end user; 

• Define the Problem: Ability to synthesize findings from users into compelling needs and insights and reframe the challenges as an opportunity for design in the form of a How Might We question;

• Ideate: Ability to collaboratively generate ideas with a focus on volume and variety;

• Prototype: Ability to move an idea from the theoretical to the tangible in an inexpensive and low resolution way; 

• Conduct Test: Ability to conduct tests in order to gather feedback from the end user on what’s working and what’s not working, make iterations and refine the solution.

Designed in collaboration with the Boston Innovation community and resources provided by IDEO and the Stanford d.school.