Design Thinking - What It Is and Why It's Important

What do companies like Microsoft, Apple, and Disney share in common? It’s their knack for designing exactly what customers are looking for. How do they do it? It’s through design thinking!

Design thinking originally started as a process for developing sleek and new products and technology. Today, however, the methodology is already extensively used across the public and private sectors alike and for personal and business projects across the world.

But what is design thinking in the first place and why is it important?

Design Thinking for Kids at a Glance

At the most basic level, design thinking is a form of solution-based technique for solving a problem. This is a creative process where a person engages in opportunities to understand and empathize with the needs of a user, redefine or identify problems, brainstorm different ideas, and test the said ideas with the use of prototypes to iterate and learn the best solution.

To make it easier to understand design thinking courses for school kids, let’s take this example.

If you ask kids to come up with a design for a car, there is a big chance that they will go crazy coming up with the coolest car designs that ever existed. But if you ask them to design something that will help transport people from one place to another, they will surely generate an endless number of ideas and solutions.

You see, the moment a child starts to think about solutions to the specific problem instead of simply redesigning a solution that already exists, this is already innovation at its finest, something that is already very powerful in its own right.

Design thinking courses or programs rely on the coachable and natural ability of humans to recognize patterns, be intuitive, and construct functional and meaningful ideas.

The Importance of Design Thinking Online Course

By now, you are probably wondering and curious to know why design thinking courses for kids are important in the first place.

With the fast-paced introduction of brand-new technologies and with many more that are yet to be invented, the distant future remains vague and uncharted. What is the best way to prepare kids for this unclear and unknown future, then?

To some extent, the best thing that parents can do is to help them develop a maker’s mindset, and the most powerful tools to develop just that is none other than design thinking.

Design thinking courses for kids will ensure that the youth can develop the following:

●                    An ability to develop persistence, learn to take risks, and embrace failures

●                    An ability to define and identify problems to come up with innovative and actionable solutions

●                    An ability to learn, relearn, and unlearn, together with the attitude that no problem is too big to solve

●                    A creative confidence in responding to new challenges

●                    Gaining a good understanding of the value of feedback and collaboration

Through the best design thinking online course, young kids can learn how to frame their thoughts and think about problems with the use of design thinking frameworks, preparing them to face the future with more confidence!