Design thinking is used to create products systems, explore problem domains, and solve unscrupulous problems. You can also use it to hack your life.
Ayse Birsel’s “Design the Life You Love” is a great book that explains how to use some design thinking processes and break them down into steps. It will allow you to discover what you enjoy doing what you are good at and ultimately create the soup of your dreams.
She explains the four-step process in detail, which are Deconstruction, Point of view, Reconstruction, and Expression.
After you have completed the questions, she will guide you to your highest expression. It is very similar to the Design Thinking process, where you examine the problem domain and create divergent ideas before deciding which one is the best. The problem statement in this instance is about designing your own life and what you want.
Design Thinking: How it can help you make better decisions in your life
Before getting to the intricacies of design thinking, one should ask themselves what exactly do we call a well-designed life? In simple words, A well-designed life means a life that is creative, productive, evolving, changing, and open to surprise. Is it possible to harness the power and potential of Design Thinking to improve your life?
It is possible, and the answer is a big YES. The key is how you use Design Thinking to make your life more successful, and some of the design thinking course online from Great Learning teach this value very well.
It is easy to start with APPRECIATION.
It could be your relationship, materialistic problems, or just plain old directional challenges. For me, I want to know where I’m going and why I’m doing it.
It will allow you to see the bigger picture and make you more aware that you will receive different answers to different questions. Appreciation will encourage you to do and achieve the things you want.
How to deal with the “what should I do?” situation
Most of us are stuck at this point. What should we do? Is it best for me? Can I do it? Is it worthwhile? Do I really need to do this? Will it be a success? Most people make the wrong or none of these choices with a lot of noise in their heads.
What is the best choice? For a Design Thinker, it would be the inspiration stage. It doesn’t matter if the situation is concrete or abstract; it just inspires you to do better in what you are doing.
Design thinking and milestone creation
Set milestones
Life has taught me that it is possible to take your life in small steps, analyze it and then learn from the mistakes and missteps.
While this is definitely a good idea, you might also consider multiple goals and multiple sprints. These are what I refer to as milestones. Although you can set larger goals, I recommend creating milestones [1] and allowing for multiple milestones.
You could learn to play tennis, be successful and wealthy, be an author, go on trips to remote locations or go deep diving in the ocean.
Design Thinking’s beauty is its ability to achieve MORE THE MERRIER goals. Design Thinking has taught me to embrace uncertainty and be open to failure.
Definition and ideation
Reframing your professional and personal lives is a great thing, and it permits you to define and think. It’s much easier to determine if something works for you once you have it defined.
It adds convenience to making decisions and adds momentum to the process. The results can be amazing if you base your ideas on this definition.
Imagine different scenarios while considering your current situation in life. See where you’re at in a few years. The forthcoming step is all about identifying the best options for you in the long term.
It is one of the most effective ways to think up solutions.
I’m encouraging you to use abductive Thinking. Ask “HOW MIGHT WE” questions, and every time you ask, you will see a new light. Who knows, maybe that light is glowing right in your face.
Design Thinking encourages reflective reframing and integrative Thinking, which allows you to bring competing constraints into harmony.
Design thinking applied in real life
From Great Learning design thinking course, it’s worth learning how to apply design thinking in real life. Apart from the previous information, I have explained the Design Thinking Application, and I refer to it as a MACE technique.
- M – Manage – is there anything you need to manage? You could also be incremental.
- A – Adapt. If you need to adapt something for good, it might help expand your mind [2].
- C – Create is a way to create something that doesn’t already exist.
- E – Extend is a more evolutionary process that refers to doing more of what has been done before.
Design Thinking is a wonderful way to improve your work life. It lets you analyze your life from the angles you’ve never done before and inspires you to come up with fresh ideas.
It delivers energy and a positive drive. It will also help you find the right way to get to your destination, which is frankly a very difficult task. It is well worth the effort and can pay huge dividends in the end.
You now have MACE. Yes, by knowing this technique, you can’t directly think of changing the world, but for now, change your life!
Conclusion
We all have problems, and we all get stuck occasionally. It is easy to get obsessed with our problems and feel miserable. However, the author offers this insight: “Everything that makes life easier, more productive and more enjoyable was created because there was a problem.”
It doesn’t matter how we look at the outside world; designers can see what happens when they tackle problems. There are many solutions to life, and that’s a good thing. Design thinking allows us to approach problems with curiosity and then take actions to create the life that we desire.
