Friday, September 17, 2010

Design Thinking Applied To New iPad App

I came across this good, quick read on design thinking and applying it to launching a new business - in this case the iPad app Pulse from Alphonso Labs. You can read it here. In a nutshell here are the 5 steps:
1)Empathize: Research and understand the end-user - their needs, pains and usage scenarios.
2)Define: Focus on a core niche and then research that niche to define the why and how.
3)Ideate: Brainstorm sessions and innovation.
4)Create Prototype: These can be rough and even Post-It notes. But create something to narrow and code from.
5)Test: Usability test in the real world.

I would add a 6th one here which is to get Steve Jobs to present your app at the launch of iPad...which happened for Pulse. The result of good design or luck? Probably both, but you won't get lucky with bad design!