Inspirator - en ny vej til design af workshops

Abstract

The focus of this Master’s Thesis is to explore the emerging field of the use of design thinking in a non-traditional design context. Being introduced to this way of dealing with all kinds of challenges during my study in Interactive Digital Media, I was inspired to learn more about how to act as a professional design consultant. To start with I found it necessary to comprehend the field by interacting with professionals who have a lot of training in working with, and applying design thinking to a variety of businesses and sectors. It was then discovered that these professionals are in need of a planning tool when preparing for a workshop with a customer. Now, each consultant group is working with different kinds of makeshift solutions, which this Thesis hypothesizes can be done in a better and smarter way. To do this, mixed designerly methods have been applied in a progressive design process. However, only two iterations are accounted for in this report due to limitations in time and scope of the paper. Nonetheless, it is the intent to continue the realization of the concept to a full functional product even after the Thesis period has ended. As a result of the design process, a new software concept emerged, with the purpose of supporting current and future design consultants when planning workshops based on design thinking. Not only is it a planning tool for the professionals, it can also be used by everyday employees who wish to use these specific methods. This way, the concept of the planning tool can in the long term accommodate another problematic issue, where design thinking can be naturally integrated in the companies’ daily activities, unlike today. It is lastly concluded that this kind of software system will fulfil a current need amongst a wide Spector of clientele, in a field that is set to only emerge in the near future. This without the risk of outmatching the professionals working in the field, whose transformation of knowledge, education, and situational awareness cannot be replaced by a rigid software system anyway. Instead, it is intended to only support a proper and rewarding use of design thinking, directly in the companies, which likewise is a hope and anticipation for the future development of the field by the professional design consultants themselves.

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A master thesis from Aalborg University

Inspirator - en ny vej til design af workshops

[Inspirator - a new way to design workshops]