Design Thinking Activities
From the team that has studied this for thirty years. It focuses on the activities you can actually run, and quietly shows where the method is weaker than its reputation.
Watch on YouTube (opens in a new tab)Third-party video. It is loaded from YouTube and is not hosted by the academy.
By the end of this lesson you can
- Name the five modes of design thinking and what each is for.
- Explain how design thinking relates to the Double Diamond.
- Describe three common criticisms of design thinking and how to avoid them.
The idea
Design thinking is a name for the way designers approach problems, packaged so that non-designers can use it. The most widely taught version, popularised by the Stanford d.school and IDEO, has five modes:
- Empathise: understand the people involved through observation and conversation.
- Define: state the problem from their point of view.
- Ideate: generate many ideas without judging them too early.
- Prototype: make cheap, rough versions of ideas.
- Test: put the prototypes in front of people and learn.
These map neatly onto the Double Diamond: Empathise is Discover, Define is Define, Ideate and Prototype are Develop, and Test runs through Develop and Deliver. The two models describe the same habits: understand first, generate options, learn by making, and check with real people.
Its limitations
Design thinking has real critics, and the criticisms are worth knowing because they describe traps you can avoid:
- Theatre instead of evidence. A two-day workshop with sticky notes can feel productive while involving no real users. Empathy built from imagination is assumption.
- Too shallow for hard problems. Complex problems such as healthcare access or housing involve policy, money and history. A five-step workshop does not replace domain expertise or long-term work with affected communities.
- Ignoring delivery. Many design thinking efforts stop at a prototype. Ideas that never ship help nobody.
- Designing "for" rather than "with". Designers can end up deciding on behalf of people they have spent an hour with. Participatory approaches involve affected people in the decisions.
Why it matters in real projects
You will meet design thinking in workshops, job interviews and client requests. Knowing the modes lets you participate. Knowing the limits lets you add value by asking, "Who are the real users we will speak to?" and "How will this actually get built and measured?"
A realistic example
A university team runs a one-day design thinking workshop to "improve the student experience". Staff role-play students, fill a wall with ideas and vote for a student app. Six months later the app has very few users.
A second team, with the same goal, spends two weeks interviewing twelve students across different courses. They find the sharpest pain is not information but timing: students find out about deadline extensions and support services after they need them. The team tests a simple change, sending reminders at the right points in the term, which costs a fraction of an app. Usage of support services rises the next term.
Both teams "did design thinking". The difference was real evidence and attention to delivery.
Step by step
Choose a small, real problem
Something with real people you can reach this week: the queue at a local shop, how your family shares a calendar, how classmates share notes.
Empathise with at least three people
Watch or ask about the last time they did the task. Note what they did, not what they say they would do.
Define the problem in their words
Write one sentence using a phrase you actually heard.
Ideate ten ideas in ten minutes
Quantity first. Include at least one idea that involves no technology.
Prototype one idea in under an hour
Paper, a note, a script, a role-play. It should be cheap enough to throw away.
Test it with the same people
Ask them to try it. Note what confused them and what they ignored.
Common mistakes
Mistake Running workshops with no real users involved.
Instead Bring real evidence into the room, or treat the output as hypotheses to test.
Mistake Treating the five modes as a strict sequence.
Instead Move between modes as needed. Testing often sends you back to Empathise.
Mistake Stopping at the prototype.
Instead Plan how the idea would be built, who owns it and how you will measure it.
Check your understanding
Choose an answer, then check it. There is an explanation either way.
Practice exercise
Exercise · about 2 h
A one-week mini design thinking cycle
Run the walkthrough on a small real problem over a week, a little each day.
Steps
- Talk to or observe at least three people.
- Write a problem statement that uses their words.
- Generate ten ideas, choose one with a short reason.
- Make a prototype in under an hour.
- Test with at least two people and record what you learned.
Deliverable
A short write-up (around 500 words) with photos of your notes and prototype, plus a paragraph on what you would do differently.
Self-assessment
Tick each item when it is true of your exercise. Be honest; this is for you.
5 items
Summary
- Design thinking has five modes: empathise, define, ideate, prototype, test.
- It describes the same habits as the Double Diamond.
- It fails when it becomes workshop theatre, ignores complexity, or never reaches delivery.
- Real evidence and a plan to ship are what make it useful.
Further reading
Third-party sources, chosen for reliability. They open in a new tab.
- Design Thinking 101 (opens in a new tab)Nielsen Norman Group
- d.school tools (opens in a new tab)Stanford d.school
Free guides and activities from one of the originators of the five-mode model.
Your notes
Marking complete updates your course and roadmap progress.