Design Thinking Process with Mind Maps | EdrawMind

Today businesses use a more humane approach in coming up with product or service design ideas. The whole process includes several steps, each being a collaborative and idea-sharing session in between teams. Here we look at what this kind of brainstorming session is, what tools they require, and how EdrawMind can be ideal for the design thinking process.

What is the Design Thinking Process?

Design thinking is about taking an approach towards problem-solving that is human-centric. Today many industries take up this approach in their brainstorming sessions when envisioning new ideas and products. The process helps them evolve new or existing products to serve the end customer in a better manner.

The design thinking process is a creative one that welcomes ambiguity and uncertainty. It is about taking a holistic view of a problem and considering all aspects of it. Design mindset applied to a life situation aids the people concerned in looking at the bigger picture, being informative, and acting accordingly.

Steps of Design Thinking Process

The design thinking process incorporates five steps:

Empathize

In this stage, you or the team understands the perspective of the target audience, consumer, or customer. You identify or address a problem that exists. Design thinkers are thus encouraged to put aside assumptions and objectively consider possibilities about the target customers and the needs they wish to address. It is usually done by observations and qualitative interviews. Tools such as empathy maps are used to consolidate information and capture what people think, say, and feel about a problem or need.

Define

At this stage, the team puts together information gathered in the first stage. They define problem statements that should be in human-centric terms rather than as business targets. For instance, the target for a pre-cooked meal product could be to benefit busy moms who have meals ready for their families in no time.  

Ideate

When a problem is defined, the team can then brainstorm as to how the needs can be addressed. The team puts together all possible ideas and then starts to investigate or test them. It is a creative, freeing phase that allows the team to think out of the box.

Prototype

The team identifies which are possible solutions for the problem identified. It is a scaled-down version of systems and products which they can present to the target customer group and get their feedback as well.

Test

Here the prototype product is tested, and feedback is taken from users. This is essential in order to know how successful is the product design and purpose in meeting the intended need or requirement.

Why Use EdrawMind to do Design Thinking Process?

The design thinking process is all about brainstorming, coming up with ideas, getting feedback, and coming up with solutions. In all the steps of this process, there are several brainstorming and mind mapping sub-processes involved. That is where EdrawMind can contribute. It is a feature-rich collaborative tool that aids brainstorming and mind mapping.

EdrawMind can help users organize and create content easily with the help of a wide array of themes and functions. It is easy to create mind maps of different styles that can aid different purposes. With the use of this software, it is as easy to brainstorm as it is to plan projects and manage the same or make business presentations.

How to Do Design Thinking Process with Mind Maps – EdrawMind and Its Features

There are several steps in the design thinking process, and each of them requires ideas and feedback to be collated and brainstormed over. They need to be shared between team members, presented to target groups, and solutions to be mapped to the problem.

Whether one is drawing up empty maps in the initial stages of the process or coming up with ideas when it is the ideation stage, EdrawMind can help as an effective brainstorming or project management tool.

Key features that it provides are the following:

12 Mind Map Structures

The software provides 12 structure of mind maps, 33 themes, and 700 plus clip chart images. You can create empathy maps or ideas of a brainstorming session in the form of radial mind maps, bubble or timeline, sector or fishbone maps.

Community-Based Software

When you need to collaborate or come up with fresh ideas, checking out other people’s projects can aid greatly. That is what the Mind Map community can showcase for design thinkers here.

Versatility

You can use the software on different platforms such as the web, Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android. Versatility is also apparent in how you can save the work. File formats such as PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Image are some of the many options available. It is also possible to convert HTML, word, or markdown docs into mind maps with a single click.

Cloud-Based

With cloud-based saving features, you can create and save anywhere, without having to depend on local drives and hard disk space. It is also used to sync data from anywhere, whether you make changes on your laptop and wish to add more ideas to the same map through your mobile. As a result, ideas can be updated and synced on this mind mapping software on the go.

Easy Edit Features

Mind maps you make using EdrawMind, the design thinking tool online, can be turned into presentations easily. You could also turn them into Gantt charts. What’s more, you can insert tables, notes, attachments, and hyperlinks, all with a single click. There is an inbuilt brainstorming mode that makes it easy to write down and remove ideas as they come by. Also, the inbuilt formula editor tool helps to add or edit formulas easily in any map or chart you create.

Best Tool for a Complete Design Thinking Process – EdrawMind and Its Benefits

EdrawMind can be considered as one of the best tools to take up for the design thinking exercise. The benefits that it provides are several:

• It is easy to present ideas with mind map charts. You can create in class or meetings directly using this software.
• Design thinking steps  often throw up a multitude of ideas. With this tool, you can analyze and display even complex concepts.
• It is easy to organize the structure of the maps and share the same in different formats and different file-sharing platforms.
• You can use the free version as well as purchase the Pro version. For a hassle-free trial, you can get started with the free web version.
• There are individual, business, and educational versions that suit the varied needs of people. If you wish to take it up for your business, you can use it as an effective medium for task and project management and knowledge management.   

Conclusion

Visualization is a powerful way to explore ideas, especially when you engage in a design thinking initiative. The inbuilt features of EdrawMind help turn empathy maps or brainstorming ideas you come up with into dynamic slideshows or beautiful, comprehensive maps. When involved in a collaborative effort, you can effortlessly export slides you create into editable PDF or PPT files. The design thinking process can be done with ease using this software.