How does Design thinking work in practice?
Ashoka University offers a course on Creativity and Design thinking as a part of their Entrepreneurship department. The course is designed to help students understand the core elements of human-centered design and creative thinking in problem-solving.
As a part of the course, dVan conducted a session on the practical application of Design Thinking. The workshop used everyday things, things that we observe around ourselves to help students connect the design of objects to usability and user preferences. The workshop also introduced the class to real-life case studies of Design thinking projects undertaken by dVan.
How might we co-create a new approach towards learning in the
21st century with school students?
A new Montessori school in Potsdam, Germany wished to co-create new learning methodologies that would enable students to learn critical 21st century skills within the parameters set by the curriculum. We participated in the project as facilitators that represented HPI School of Design Thinking.
Through a series of workshops, we were able to establish a co-working relationship between high school students and teachers. At the end of these workshops, the school had created its own distinct teaching curriculum based on student needs and faculty participation
How do we help school teachers introduce art in their
classrooms using Design thinking?
Tagore International School, Vasant Vihar is a highly reputed, CBSE School based out of New Delhi. With a legacy of innovative interventions in the curriculum and an openness to try new methods of education, the School wanted to empower teachers to use more creative, inter-disciplinary ways to introduce concepts in class. Could Math and Music be taught together? Can History and Chemistry be combined? Especially with the recent emphasis placed by CBSE on integrating art forms with regular curriculum - the school wanted to experiment with new possibilities.
Through a workshop, teachers of different subjects and grades came together to create prototypes of such compelling and multi-disciplinary education modules.
Introducing Design thinking and innovation to students at IIT Delhi.
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi is one of the Twenty Three IITs created to be Centres of Excellence for training, research and development in science, engineering and technology in India. The entrepreneurship and business department of IIT Delhi wanted to introduce its students to Design thinking.
Through a 2 hour workshop, students were introduced to the importance of Design thinking, the theory of design process and a practical experience of designing solutions to complex problems. Students also participated in creative thinking exercises.
How might we teach Design thinking principles to high school students?
Project MyNT - My Next Thing, aims at evolving the current education ecosystem by making practical knowledge and interest levels as major contributors to one's career choice. We seek to provide the greatest “value-add” to students with real-world knowledge and experience to help them make better career choices. MyNT gives students an insight into careers therby helping them choose.
Through the workshop, students were introduced to key skills of human centered design. The workshop helped students them think like designers and understand how real-world problems are solved using the design process.
With the COVID-19 staring in our faces, how do we design Public Policy
in a manner that is more
inclusive and responsive to crisis?
Citizens for Public Leadership is an independent, non-partisan movement focused on advocating progressive Public Policy in India. The COVID-19 crisis has presented new challenges in Public Policy while highlighting existing gaps. Through a workshop on Design and Policy, we worked with the fellows to help them understand and create frameworks that allow them to use Human-centered design principles when designing policies with the goal of making future policies more inclusive and responsive.
Introducing Design thinking
and innovation to students
at the Naropa Fellowship.
The Naropa Fellowship is a one-year, fully-residential, post-graduate, academic programme focused on creating and nurturing agents of change who will work towards fostering an ecosystem of entrepreneurship and growth while preserving the cultural heritage of Ladakh and the Himalayan region. We worked with their students to help them include Design thinking and Innovation in their projects.
Through a 2-day workshop, students experienced a Design sprint and understood the entire design journey from research to product development. These solutions were further tested by the students with the specific audiences in Ladhak.
How should a hospitality
school in India position
itself for the students?
Indian School of Hospitality is a higher education institution training students in Hospitality. With a state-of-the-art campus and experienced faculty, their program gives students real skills to understand and excel in the Hospitality sector, beyond hotels. They wanted to explore a brand positioning for themselves.
Through a workshop, we helped the management, students and faculty come together and create new ideas to collaborate and build a unique positioning for the school.
Developing Agile thinking and
Strategic planning modules for
CII to help business Post Covid-19
Together with Design for Change India, we developed a series of public webinars as well as masterclasses for the Confederation of Indian Industry.
This series of workshops enables MSMEs and start-ups, to develop strategies and tools to deal with challenges brought about by economic, social and technological uncertainty, especially in the aftermath of Covid-19 and innovate to flourish in the new normal
What is the future of recipes?
Nestle is the world’s largest food and beverage company. They have more than 2000 brands ranging from global icons to local favorites, and are present in 187 countries worldwide. As an organization, Nestle prioritizes innovation and is a huge believer of Design Thinking.
Given their understanding of the changing food consumption trends, they wanted to redesign the future of recipes. How will people in the years to come think of food? Will it be more functional? Or is food related to deeper experiences in life? The project was a part of the central office headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland.
Members of our team, through a 4-month Design process, created a solution for Nestle.
How might we help our school teachers to integrate creative thinking strategies in their coursework?
Art1st is an organisation committed to developing learning environments that nurture and strengthen imagination, visual literacy, creative skills and cultural awareness of children and educators. Art1st conducted a 2-day Education Summit for CBSE educators to help them leverage art and creative thinking as a powerful medium through which their students can understand themselves and transform the world around us.
We conducted workshops in an Interactive Lab format where through Design Sprints educators were given access to new frameworks that could be used to create course work that integrates art and creative thinking strategies with coursework.
How do we help the learning
experience of young Opera singers?
The “Neue Stimmen” competition, organised by Bertelsmann Foundation is one of the most prestigious among upcoming opera singers. The Foundation wanted to enhance the learning experience of students.
Having interacted with a large number of opera students, teachers and directors, we realized the uncertainty that the career brings with it, and the dependency on personal network and contacts to be successful.
We created a self-empowerment, community-building tool for opera students - an online application for skill development and personal exchange within the community.
How do we get young entrepreneurs to create first prototypes of
their business ideas at a 2-day
Paytm Build-for-India Bootcamp?
Paytm through its Build-for-India unit is encouraging young student entrepreneurs to work on promising business ideas. As a part of this effort, they organised a start-up bootcamp to help young leaders create and pitch their business ideas to a group of mentors and investors. As a part of this initiative we worked with a group of 40 students to help them create a first-level prototype of their business ideas.
Our workshop empowered the entrepreneurs to work with their teams to create testable prototype of their business ideas. Of the 40 participants, nearly half were able to create their first-level prototypes and pitch them further.
Can we make sitting in cars easy
for people with limited mobility?
Veigel is a German automobile accessory company that has been creating car accessories to help mobility for disabled people. They wanted to increase their target audience and make the process of sitting into and existing a car easy for anyone with mobility issues. User-research showed us that the motion of entering and exiting a car is rather uncomfortable for a lot of people.
We created a physical device that can help people of various ages, and mobility issues, sit into cars with more comfort without feeling dependent or in need for help. The solution is currently being patented and will be launched in the German market by the end of 2019.
How can the NINEISMINE
Campaign continue to support
India’s most vulnerable children
during the lockdown?
The NINEISMINE campaign grew out of Nelson Mandela’s call to ordinary citizens to keep governments accountable to fulfilling the MDGs. Children in India took upon themselves the task to ensure the fulfillment of Goals 2 and 3 and 4 – all of which refer to children. Pratyek, a non-profit, coordinates a larger network of child rights organisations across India and runs the campaign. The pandemic left their programs which have a high degree of physical outreach and on-ground work in a difficult position. With the lockdown, they needed to think of innovative ways to reach out to the most vulnerable child in their constituencies and support them.
We worked with the team to help them evolve a strategy by leveraging Design thinking and innovative problem solving frameworks.
Helping entrepreneurs leverage
Design Thinking and Agile Innovation
to grow in times of a crisis.
The German Indian Startup Exchange Program (GINSEP) initiated by the German Startups Association and supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), aims to strengthen and foster exchange between India and Germany in the startup space and support Indian and German startups in their efforts to gain access to each others markets.
d-Van collaborated with GINSEP to offer an introductory workshop on Design thinking and Agile Innovation. Set in the context of COVID-19, the workshop introduced start ups to a simple 4-P framework to assess problems and find low-cost solutions that could boost the companies growth despite the constraints imposed by COVID.