The modern mantra of technological development places users at the centre of digital creations. User experience skills and attitudes are now ingrained into almost every contemporary UI and/or UX designer.
At the core of this mindset is a set of values that emphasises sensitivity to user needs and aspirations. Accordingly, innovative thinking must be solution-oriented rather than simply analytical or critical, and systematic research capabilities are just as important as technical know-how.
This trend is not only prevalent in the information technology (IT) world, but in many other industries, too. Generally referred to as design thinking, this mindset has become a dominant paradigm in many production industries including IT circles.
The Genesis of Design Thinking
Design thinking emerged sometime in the 50s and 60s as the world struggled with a rapidly changing environment and a more complex social order ushered by the industrial revolution.
The new, complex world called for new ways of thinking and problem-solving approaches that require a more general or broader view. Academicians like Nigel Cross of the UK Open University and technologist Buckminster Fuller aimed to ‘scientise’ approaches to designing solutions by integrating technology and rationalism into new strategies to solve human and environmental problems that could not be solved by politics and economics alone.
Such thinking created a path towards seeing the “bigger picture” in perspective and a more holistic and multi-disciplinary approach to problem-solving. As humanity faced more complicated problems of the technological and information era, it was only a matter of time for this mindset to find its way into the IT industry.
The Design Thinking Revolution
Today, design thinking has become a formal nomenclature – often referring to a systematic methodology of using design to conceptualise and create products.
Much of its popularity is leveraged on its focus on addressing latent human needs driven by empathy, ideation, prototyping, and testing to create products that deliver an improved user experience. As Chatterjee summarises it in an ed-tech analysis, “Companies using design thinking doesn’t just limit its use to designing the products but also how consumers interact with it and by extension with their brand.”
More importantly, design thinking as both an ideology and a process advocated a complex problem approach. It is human-centred, focusing not on the technical sophistication of new products or services but on their ability to be functional, affordable, and desirable in meeting everyday needs. The same philosophy is now shared by the average digital innovator in Europe to the typical UX designer in Singapore and elsewhere.
By focusing on making ideas concrete and relevant to human needs, design thinking managed to revolutionise various industries that provided essential and even miscellaneous services. Healthcare delivery, food and retail businesses, banking systems, as well as the entertainment and travel industries were all radically changed by design thinking through innovations that focused on satisfying human needs rather than market dynamics.
Design Thinking and User-Centred IT Innovation
User-centred design is primarily an application of design thinking in technological innovation. It promotes the same user-oriented mindset among application designers to ensure a satisfying interaction between user and the product.
Also referred to as UX/UI design, it endorses a well-rounded discipline not just in a technological-savvy way but in professional consistency, feedback management, systematic procedures and other user-specific sensitivities. Any UI UX designer in Singapore is among the globally renowned innovators who display these abilities and attitudes.
Conclusion: The New Age Need
User-centred design methodology involves stages of product development based on the design thinking framework that stresses empathy with users, analytical problem-solution mindset, and systematic research and testing as critical components of effective creations.
Given this trend, companies looking to bolster their technological capabilities in today’s competitive commercial scene need to partner with digital solutions firms and a UI UX designer who’s capable of meeting the demands of user-centred design – that you can find in USER. As one of the pioneers in UX solutions in Singapore and have worked with many Fortune 500 companies, we are a reliable partner for your UI UX design needs. To know more about our available services, visit https://www.user.com.sg/.
