Design Thinking & Its Importance In School Education

Schools are the ideal setting for teaching design thinking to students, but only a small number of children have benefited. In simple words, Design Thinking is a powerful tool for raising children who will become lifelong creators. Teachers of IGCSE syllabus schools in Chennai (https://www.internationalvillage.org/) say that children who learn the basics of Design Thinking can use it as a powerful tool for delivering creative and innovative solutions later in life. You can browse more here to know how students can become graphic designers without attending universities.

Our blog is all about the importance of learning design and instilling a maker mindset in children. So, we come back to the question,

” What is Design Thinking?”

David Kelley, the founder of IDEO, popularised the concept of ‘Design Thinking”.
It is a method for solving problems by applying creativity and innovation. It removes all barriers and allows students to explore previously unexplored and undiscovered areas, allowing you to unleash your imagination and creativity. It also empowers students to ask probing and provocative questions and generate innovative solutions.

Design Thinking comprises five steps:

• Empathise
• Define
• Brainstorm
• Iterate
• Prototype
• Evaluate.

How important is Design Thinking for students? Experts in this field say that Design Thinking process skills are important for children to thrive in an uncertain future.

Teachers from the best international schools in Chennai feel that if design thinking is taught early on, it will be more valuable than memorisation. It can help children develop a maker mindset, which will become increasingly important in the coming years.

Skills in Design Thinking are important to learn to deal with situations that you have never encountered before. It will help students define design-related problems and analyse them to find the right solution.

Why Is Learning Design Important In Schools?

Students’ perceptions of the world of education and learning have shifted dramatically.

As students learn to understand the user’s needs and behaviour through empathy, they obtain deeper insights into their behaviour and understandings of the world. They gain knowledge and skills for the twenty-first century.

It is also necessary to teach students 21st-century skills such as creative thinking, decision-making, and problem-solving. It helps them to be open-minded and adaptable in their ways of thinking. Children who learn Design Thinking will be prepared for unforeseen situations with confidence, creativity, and optimism.

Imagine asking your child to design a car. It’s very likely that they will come up with the coolest car designs ever. However, if you tasked them with finding a way to transport people from one place to another, the ideas would be open to possibilities, and the solutions would be creative and unlimited.

This is innovation at its best – where your child comes up with solutions to actual problems rather than redesign existing ones. Design has the potential to bring your child creative problem-solving skills.

A Dozen Ways To Learn Design By Yourself

Beginners often overlook or perform design fundamentals incorrectly by re-creating other people’s work, but this is important to understand better your design software and the practical applications of design theory. Here are some ways to learn design by yourself without ever attending an academic institution:

• To learn graphic design skills, use Instagram and Pinterest to follow designers you want to learn from.
• Enrol yourself in online courses that teach Adobe Software, the industry standard for graphic design software.
• Take online courses that teach you how to design your brand from beginning to end.
• If you use free software to design graphics, you should seek legal counsel before creating business graphics.
• Scour the net and find graphic design blogs and video blogs that cover design fundamentals.
• Use design challenges to learn how to use software, put design theories into practice, improve your skills and design aesthetic.

You can also try to implement these ideas:

• Designing a website mockup for a small business owner
• Creating a media kit for a celebrity
• Creating a logo for a neighbourhood coffee shop
• Creating a geometric pattern with your hands
• Developing a digital copy of your handwriting

Pointers To Keep In Mind To Be A Successful Designer

Here are some pointers to help you carve a successful career path in the field of Design.

• Understand design history to understand why graphic design is used in the manner it is.
• Learn about Typography which is about designing or selecting letterforms to arrange them into words or sentences.
• Learn to draw, maintain good communication and write for a human audience.
• Learn and understand Graphic design jargon and slang terms and how and where to use them.
• Share your work, techniques, and methods on social media platforms and use them to derive insightful inspiration.
• Watch design tutorials, and note down the techniques and the basic design terms used.
• Learn Illustrator, Photoshop, HTML, and CSS to give you a competitive advantage in the job market.
• Make a list of everything you want to do as a designer, and take a position as a designer.
• Find opportunities to conduct design classes or enrol yourself in programs to learn from other designers.
• Create a portfolio of your work, and attend a prestigious design school.

The Final Say

You will never run out of design requirements if you are a creative entrepreneur. As your self-confidence grows, you’ll gradually be able to express yourself in more and more imaginative ways. If you’re a designer looking for a job, create a personal website, tell everyone you know, and make luck happen.