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Writer's pictureSamraat Sardesai

Design Thinking for Community Building


Design thinking is a creative and collaborative approach to problem-solving that puts the needs and desires of the people at the center of the process. It is not just about designing products or services, but also about designing experiences and solutions that improve the lives of the people in a community.


Design thinking can help us tackle complex and wicked problems that affect our communities, such as poverty, social isolation, environmental degradation, health inequities, and more. By applying design thinking principles and methods, we can empathize with the people we are designing for, define the problem clearly and accurately, ideate diverse and innovative possibilities, prototype and test our ideas with real users, and iterate based on feedback and learning.


Design thinking can also foster a culture of innovation and collaboration in our communities, by engaging diverse stakeholders in co-creating solutions that are meaningful and sustainable. Design thinking can help us build trust, empathy, and shared understanding among different groups of people, as well as empower them to take action and ownership of their own challenges and opportunities.


If you are interested in learning more about design thinking and how it can be used for community building, you can check out some of these resources:


- The Design Thinking Toolkit for Educators: A free online resource that provides tools and methods for applying design thinking in educational settings.

- IDEO's Design Kit: A collection of tools, methods, case studies, and stories that illustrate how design thinking works in practice.

- Stanford d.school's Virtual Crash Course in Design Thinking: A 90-minute video workshop that guides you through a full design cycle using a real-world challenge.

- Design Thinking for Social Innovation: An article by Tim Brown and Jocelyn Wyatt that explains how design thinking can address some of the most difficult social challenges.

- Designing for Social Change: A free online course by +Acumen that teaches you how to apply human-centered design to create social impact.


I hope this blog post has given you an introduction to design thinking and how it can be used for community building. I encourage you to try it out yourself and see what amazing solutions you can come up with!




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