DESIGN THINKING

DESIGN THINKING

 A human-centered approach to innovation in which you will transform the products and services based on the customer needs and by thinking creative ideas is known as design thinking. One of the most interesting approaches in developing a product is design thinking. Design thinking is an agile method. In this, we continuously identify the problem and find an appropriate solution that is both innovative and fulfills the customer’s needs. When design thinking is applied while developing a new product, the essence of the product will be valued more. The designers have to think out of the box to produce a good product. Design thinking transforms the focus from a business-centric approach to a customer-centric approach. The design should achieve the purpose and business goals and not just the beauty. Designers have several tools to assist them in conducting research, ideate solutions, and explore use cases to find the best solution to the problem.

IMPORTANCE OF DESIGN THINKING IN BUSINESS

  • All businesses will have never-ending goals. They want to produce new products that attract customers and helps to increase sales. When design thinking is applied, It can save vast amounts of money because it directs the attention to the particular solution the customer expects. The Return on Investment (ROI) of design thinking realizes the immediate cost savings.
  • Most of the software fails due to the following reasons: Not understanding the customer requirements, Lack of communication between customers and developers, and stakeholder policies. Fixing errors at the end of the development of the product will be 1000 times expensive than the cost before development. Design thinking provides a simple way to improve on by looking at what exactly the problems are and provides insights and data that are critical to building appropriate solutions.  
  • The first and foremost step to understand how design thinking is working is by knowing the current challenges faced in the business. Complex problems are broken down into tangible ones that can be analyzed and solved is the biggest advantage in design thinking. Creating cultural change across all projects and initiatives is what it takes.
  • Design is a creative team. The team of artists who create branding elements like logos, emoji, icons, and print advertisements. Design thinking is identified as a competitive advantage in businesses. In business, it helps to identify, understand and address the problems that affect customer relationships. Another big challenge to the organizations is measuring the return on investment (ROI) of design thinking.
  • By applying design thinking to business operations, we can able to see the change in overall performance compared to the previous workflow.
  • Businesses have come to recognize the importance of design thinking. The essence of design thinking in business is demonstrated by some famous organizations like Apple, Microsoft, Disney, Zoho, Infosys, TCS, Cisco, TATA Motors, Hyundai, Maruti, M&M, and IBM.
  • Whether you’re a CEO, a marketer, or a designer, or an engineer, there are some reasons why you should invest in design thinking. By investing in design thinking, it decreases the cost of customer support, a little up-front UX research can save hundreds of engineering hours, and improving your User experience (UX) saves a lot of money.

DESIGN THINKING COURSES

It is originated in Sanford University. Currently, design thinking is one of the sought courses and has its applications in many fields like healthcare, education, agriculture, financial services, environmental sustainability, etc. Nowadays many big software companies have made design thinking to be a mandatory skill for each of the employees. Many leading universities around the world including d.school, Stanford, Harvard, and MIT offer a course on design thinking. A separate master’s degree course on Product Design is offered in IITs and IISc in India. We can get admission for post-graduate studies in the field of technological design by writing CEED (Common Entrance Examination for Design).

Self Employment Ideas

For a smooth living, a stable source of income has become an utmost necessity. The modern world grants many employment opportunities to the people to choose from. People choose their career options that suit their necessities and personality. People engage themselves in various jobs to secure their present and future. The 9 to 5 jobs are considered to be the most common and safe option for people that promises a good salary at the end of the month. In the present time of crisis, many people lost their jobs and with no source of income, life has definitely come to a standstill for them. To keep going with the flow of life, people have started to utilize their passion in a professional way that would fetch them money to lead a good life.

Self employment is that job opportunity where a person is his own boss. Although being self employed is not at all an easy task because there are challenges at every step. Initially, a self employed person might face many downfalls, monetary losses, uncertainty about continuity of the job and many such issues. Apart from that, stress, anxiety, feeling of despair, under – confidence, societal pressure, unfulfillment of economic needs etc might crush the person. But if a person believes in himself and his ideas, is determined and hard working, no challenge can break him. Ideas and proper execution of ideas are the key to a successful self employment opportunity.

10 Self Employment Ideas

1. Freelancing

Freelancing refers to that self employment idea where a person puts up his skills on the concerned websites so that they could be hired by companies for a period of time. Freelancers don’t work as employees rather they work on the basis of contract. Freelancing includes works like Content Writing, Proofreading, Web designing, Copywriting etc.

2. Blogging

Blogging is the most common self employment idea presently. To become a good blogger, one needs to have an internet connection, a laptop or maybe a smartphone and a lot of ideas on varied topics that would catch the attention of the readers. For example, right now, ‘Fashion’ is something that everyone is interested in and blogs on fashion would fetch a blogger with lots of readers and ultimately profit. The same goes with health and fitness blogs, travel blogs etc.

3. YouTube

YouTube has become the most popular platform on the internet where people showcase their talents. Some use this platform for entertainment purpose and for some it is a source of income. People post their music, dance, acting, cooking, painting and other such videos on YouTube. YouTube pays people when their videos cross a certain limit of views, likes and subscribers. Some people even earn around lakhs monthly from YouTube. It is a perfect platform to earn name, fame and money.

4. Make – up Artists

Make – up Artists are in great demand nowadays. A training certificate from a well known institute is enough to start with the job. Although the well established Make – up Artists have customers throughout the year yet the business of the Make – up Artists bloom more during the wedding season.

5. Home Bakers

In the past few years, home bakers have come up in huge numbers. People who are interested in baking have taken an opportunity to use their skills to earn money. Home bakers bake at the comfort of their homes and sell their eatable items.

6. Selling hand – made products

People good at art and crafts can make use of their crafting skills to start their own line of business. There are many websites where people sell their hand made products. Social media applications like Facebook, Instagram etc are used for promoting their products. Some of the hand – made products are so well crafted that it gives a tough competition to machine – made products.

7. App designing

With the popularity and necessity of smartphones, app developing industry is getting popular. With a proper training in an app developing course, one can start his career in this industry even remotely.

8. Social Media Influencers

This profession is the most discussed and popular profession of recent times. With the growing popularity of social media, social media influencers are growing in numbers. These influencers specialise in specific content and work on those contents. They make regular posts on their social media accounts on their specialised topics in an interesting way to attract the attention of the viewers. Because these influencers have a massive fan base, they are approached by the top brands for promotion of their products. This is of course a great self employment idea.

9. Tuitions

If a person thinks that he is good at any subject, he can start teaching students. Initially there might be one or two students but gradually if his students appreciate his teaching process, many more students would enroll themselves in his tuition. Because people give so much importance to education, taking tuitions is a good idea to start one’s career.

10. Photography

The photography industry is also growing rapidly. A person with photography skills can easily turn his passion for photography into profession. To begin with, one should take mini steps like concentrating on creating his own portfolio, learn from or intern under skilled photographers to enhance their already existing skills. After building a strong portfolio and promotion of his works, he could be approached by people to cover various events from which he can earn his living.

These are a few self employment ideas that people can make use of to earn their daily bread. Before taking up any self employment idea, one has to self introspect and self discover to know what he wants in his life. When a person turns his passion into profession, his zeal towards working immediately doubles than ever before.