Design Thinking : Define

Previously, we talked about what is design thinking and the first step. Now, let's talk about the second.

After you have understood the user, you would want to design an empathy map or a persona.

What this involves is drawing the name of the user(real or made up) and four sections around it. One section is what the users says, another is what the user thinks, what the user does and what the user feels. In each section you would want to compile all that you have learned from the users and reasearch. By brainstorming and compiling a lot of ideas in all of the catagories you will have a clear understanding on who the user is.

Additionaly, you can also create personas. These are similar to empathy maps but could also include characteristics, social enviorment, convictions and beliefs as well as fears and doubts.

Another idea is creating a point of view sentence/statement -
I met ___
I was surprised to realize ___
I wonder if this means ___
It seems like he/she/they needs a way to ____

                  __User Joureny__
user name | Action 1 | Action 2 | Action 3 | Final Action |
----------|----------|----------|----------|--------------|
Does      |          |          |          |              |
----------|----------|----------|----------|--------------|
Thinks    |          |          |          |              |
----------|----------|----------|----------|--------------|
Feels     |          |          |          |              |
----------|----------|----------|----------|--------------|
Says(if   |          |          |          |              |         
applicable)          |          |          |              |
----------|----------|----------|----------|--------------|  

You can use this to map out the user experince as they go though your product/prototype.

This will help you fully understand your user and start to give you an idea of what they might need.

Now you can start to define what problem are you trying to solve. And if you go though the user journey and find that the user faces problems at different stages, then catagorise those problems into high priority and low priority so that you can first focus on the major factors in making the product better and then go back and reifne the smaller aspects.

Mainly try to use "How might we...?" questions to help you slove the problem.

Next steps - ideate, prototype & test