The Power of Design Thinking in Creating a Human-Centered Industry: Examining the Intersection of Design Thinking and Systems Engineering in the Ocean Industry
Design as a Holistic Practice
Design has evolved beyond its initial definition of "thinking made visual." It now encompasses shaping people's perceptions, interactions, and emotions towards products, services, and businesses. As a result, design has become a more profound and holistic practice, considering aesthetic, functional, contextual, cultural, and societal considerations. This article explores the power of design thinking in creating a human-centered industry and its intersection with systems engineering.
Design Thinking: The Four Explorations
According to Jeanne Liedtka, there are four ways to explore during the design process: what is, what if, what wows, and what works. By understanding these four vantage points, we can better understand how design shapes our environment and the experiences we have within it. We can create meaningful experiences that benefit us through thoughtful and intentional design.
Shift to an Exploratory Mindset in the Ocean Industry
To face the challenges of industry transformation required for a healthy and safe future, the ocean industry must shift from an engineering mindset to an exploratory one. Developmental clusters provide an excellent opportunity to demo new business models and test innovation in ecosystem development among the many interdependent companies and sectors in today's ocean space. Developing clusters allows for collaboration between interdependent companies and sectors and enables us to create something new and innovative.
The Importance of Empathy in Design
Design is not just about aesthetics and functionality; it's about the emotions and feelings of the people involved. Systems engineering is a process of problem-solving that focuses on developing and managing systems. While it involves understanding the needs of stakeholders, it leaves out critical success criteria that center around the stakeholders' experiences and emotions. Therefore, empathy is essential in design to take the possible feelings of the operators into account.
Design Maturity and Business Success
Companies with higher levels of design maturity in their business practices have better results for shareholders. Despite this finding, many companies are nowhere near mature in their design practices, with over 40 percent of the companies surveyed still not talking to their end-users during development. In the ocean industry, more than 60 percent are not spending time with their end-users when creating and designing new solutions.
The Importance of Diversity in Teams
To improve design maturity, it's essential to welcome diverse people, ideas, thoughts, and perspectives from customers, users, colleagues, and acquaintances to create great solutions. When we disagree, we are allowed to learn, change something, and improve the quality of our ideas. A diverse team challenges our ideas and assumptions about how the world works if we are solving the correct problems, asking the right questions, and centering our work on the right stakeholders.
Innovation in the Ocean Industry
Real innovation changes the course of industries or even society. In the ocean industry, there is an opportunity for business clusters to work together on safe spaces for new models of ocean business innovation. Collaboration between industry players is critical to leveraging our collective knowledge, resources, and skills to find innovative ways to build our future. Such collaborations can create new revenue streams and cost savings, helping businesses become more competitive and sustainable.
Conclusion
In conclusion, design thinking is a powerful tool for creating a human-centered industry. By shifting to an exploratory mindset and welcoming diversity in teams, we can improve design maturity and in turn, achieve better results for shareholders. The intersection of design thinking and systems engineering can help us create cohesive experiences, products, and entire industries. We can build a sustainable and healthy future for ourselves through innovation and collaboration.
