Design Thinking in Software Developments

Shared requirement is an important thing when trying to have quality software. Software requirements simply record four main things: the user and his purpose, the data stored, the rules and also the limits, to the gap between impractical conditions to something more practical. Many approaches to innovating in a software requirement such as design thinking approach, user centered analysis & design, object-oriented analysis & design, and of course the requirements engineering approach. But whatever the approach, the same thing is all the needs and problems come from the user. On this occasion we will use a design thinking approach. Design thinking simply addresses the three statuses in developing requirements namely problem (pain), needs, and proposed solutions. The culmination point in a software development is the existence of innovation that acts as a value proposition or unique solution advantage compared to before.

Three principles design thinking in software development

• Starting with the user research. User should be researched for their problems through several options of elicitation. We can do observation, interview, and questionnaire to understand the users pain point.
• Doing creativity. Creativity about how to turn something impractical into practical. With of course considering various existing limitations.
• Making through learning. Understand that software development is an ongoing process. so realize that the process of software development is not a one-time but rather incremental and iterative

Four steps to do design thinking in software development

• Step 1. Understanding the user.
  • Who are the users?
  • What their pain points?
  • Ask them about how the problem ‘might be’ solved
  • Ask them about the constraints they have?
• Step 2. Explore and Sketch
  • Focus what is the most important. Rank their pain points & needs.
  • Do brainstorming with the users
  • Think analogy by looking similar solution for similar problem
• Step 3. Converging the solution
  • Converting users into specific users (persona)
  • Building the prototype for the persona.
  • Doing user acceptance test to validate your prototype.
  • Changes idealism into realistic prototype
• Step 4. Testing and Learning
  • Evolutionary based on feedback
  • Stay open with changes
  • Have a good reason to changes otherwise stay on track

If you want to learn more, I will create a real example, just post in the comment