Introduction to the Design Thinking Toolbox

Welcome to the Design Thinking Toolbox

I (Aidan Bigham) am a Design Factory New Zealand coach, at the Waikato Institute of Technology (WINTEC), in Hamilton, New Zealand. I facilitate the Design Thinking journey to undergraduate and postgraduate students, community organisations and industry.

This course – the Design Thinking Toolbox – is designed for those that know a little about the Design Thinking process and to provide a bit of an overview of some tools that we may use at different stages of the process. It may also be used by those that already know a lot and want to refresh themselves on some tools. There is always a gem to learn.

This course is a natural progression from Design Thinking for a sustainable future (which focusses on the process and some specific tools). By doing this course, you will learn some depth into each process, and familiarize yourself with possible tools to use within each stage and how they can be adapted.

As we progress, I hope that you can start to gain the confidence to adapt, change or trial new tools according to the contexts that suit your context.

There will be short activities throughout the course, so please do your best at giving them a go. There will be times I will ask you to share something you have learnt, these are essential reflection items to help reinforce learning – and what you say may help others! So please take the opportunity to share.

I look forward to leading you through this course and I hope you enjoy it.

TASK

For our first task, comment below on the question “How would you explain Design Thinking” in 30 words or less.

Have a skim through some other perspectives – what stands out for you?