Tag: empathy

  • From Tools to Confidence – Learning Design Thinking by Doing It Together

    From Tools to Confidence – Learning Design Thinking by Doing It Together

    We started the course with different ideas about Design Thinking and ended with a much broader understanding of it. Through hands-on exercises, teamwork and reflection, we learned how empathy, experimentation and collaboration can turn uncertainty into learning, ideas and new possibilities.

  • Does AI Make Us More Creative or Just Faster?

    Does AI Make Us More Creative or Just Faster?

    Written by Iryna Ilyuchyk & Tanjid Hossain During our Design Thinking workshop, Katja Tschimmel introduced the idea of Design Thinking 4.0, where humans and AI work together in the creative process. We agreed not to use AI during ideation. We first explored the problem and generated ideas ourselves, while AI was allowed later, during prototyping.…

  • Shifting Together: How we learned to reframe problems in 2 days

    Shifting Together: How we learned to reframe problems in 2 days

    by Andreia Pais da Cunha & Sayef Md Uddin We usually associate Design Thinking with sticky notes and frenetic brainstorming, but our two‑day course with Katja Tschimmel showed us it is a deliberate mindset. It helps us reframe situations, look at problems from different angles, and explore possibilities we don’t see at first or never,…

  • What Do Groceries and Shoes Have to Do with Design Thinking?

    What Do Groceries and Shoes Have to Do with Design Thinking?

    Written by: Olukayode Adebiyi & Kirsti Earl Our design thinking journey began from different perspectives. During Laurea’s second-phase admission process, we took part in a group discussion about how artificial intelligence is shaping our world. Kirsti saw many possibilities in AI while also noting that how we use it matters. Olukayode was more cautious about…

  • Setting the stage for creative freedom

    Setting the stage for creative freedom

    By Heidi Aho, Shahida Parvin, & Eduardo Solorzano Tejeda. Design Thinking (DT) and Innovation require a lot of creativity. Creativity is often described as a spark of inspiration, but it is far more complex and deeply human. It happens at the intersection of emotions, environments, and culture. To truly nurture creativity, we need to look…

  • Designing with Empathy: Turning Small Crises into Meaningful Solutions

    In our Design Thinking masterclass with Katja Tschimmel, we explored how empathy can transform crises, big or small, into into human-centred solutions.

  • Why, why, why Design Thinking? 

    “It’s not ‘us versus them’ or even ‘us on behalf of them.’ For a design thinker it has to be ‘us with them’”.  –Tim Brown  Reflections by Marita Ruotsalainen and Katja Räisänen The workshop days of Design Thinking with engaging pracademic Daniela Marzavan felt like looking at something familiar through a pair of new glasses…

  • Let us unlock new tools with Design Thinking

    Reflections by Tuukka Savinainen & Showmen Rudra The themes of the days became noticeably clear during the teaching, and the understanding of why something grew during the teaching also increased. We went through the entire design thinking process in service design and experienced the power of activating thinking through various exercises.   Design Thinking is a…

  • Who can be a designer?

    Who can be a designer?

    Reflections on empathy and inclusion in the design field By Rosa Yang and Stinne Vognæs Neither of us are designers, so what does it mean to do a part-time service design degree as an adult? Will we ever be able to claim the “title” or “identity” of a Designer? After our first two-day workshop on…

  • Design Thinking Journey: From Head to Heart to Hand with a Skill Bag

    Reflections by Judyta Kontoniemi and Namrata Sethi Design Thinking. Sounds simple, right? Just follow the classic 6-stage Design Thinking process, reserve a couple of hours, get a room with a whiteboard and brainstorm a solution. Without involving real end users. There is much more to it. Let’s find out what Design Thinking is really about.…