My Journey with Design Thinking (A mind blooming experience!)
The first time I learned about the term Design Thinking was in an interview I watched on TV in 2018 about a disruptive lady, Lethabo. Lethabo Motsoaledi is the co-founder and CTO of Voyc, a company that helps businesses to better understand their customers’ needs. They do that via a methodology named ‘Design Thinking’.
Ever since I couldn’t get those words out of my head and a year ago(late December 2019), I discovered the Interaction Design Foundation. Interaction Design Foundation offers a variety of courses for UI/UX designers amongst which is Design Thinking. Because I was so excited, it was the very first course I started. Ideally, it shouldn’t take more than a month to complete (assuming one’s schedule isn’t so tight), but because of a whole lot of factors, I couldn’t finish it until 31st December 2020.
My experience starting the course was a little challenging because I felt intimidated (and that was because I placed unnecessary pressure on myself). As a result, I took a break but continued months after, only this time, it was surreal! I could feel my mind blooming like a flower placed in the right condition.
Learning about the uniqueness of Design Thinking and how it sparks innovation reminded me of all the amazing ideas I’ve had in the past but gave up on, and inspired me to dare to dream again. To somebody else, it was probably just another course to take in the climb of their career, but to me it was serendipity. Everything I learned ignited growth and encouraged me to strive to make my mark here on earth.
Design Thinking for me was like a fertile soil allowing my mind ‘grow’. Besides affirming some methods I intuitively applied in projects, it truly broadened my perspective and showed me better (and fun) ways to do things!
I appreciate everyone that encouraged me to keep on going. Thank you for participating in my empathy research (Uju and Suleiman) and making me submit progress reports on a regular basis (Peter). Your support made my learning experience worthwhile. Even if it takes some time to come to life, I’ll try my best to work on the fitness app I was given as my class project. :)
I’m grateful to have taken it, and I’m looking forward to many more to come. Next time I won’t allow how intimidating things might seem at first glance, stop me from simply satisfying my curiosity to know why people behave the way they do and how I can use that to make the world better. I am most grateful for the psychological freedom that learning about Design Thinking has gifted me. Now I see myself applying some ideation methods in projects coming up. Can’t wait to teach all that I’ve learned.
If you’re interested in taking the course, you can use my referral link by clicking here (you get 2 months off your yearly membership). You can also find my certificate here.
