From October 9th to October 10th in 2015, one of our course instructors at the School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Peking University，Studious Network co-founder and COO, Li Ting, brought design-based thinking which combined hands with heads at Wangkezhen Lou in Peking University for students.
The Design Thinking Workshop consisted of designing gift activities. It tailored real-world scenarios according to simulation of customer demands, guided participants step-by-step and inspired participants to establish a transference which was the desired outcome of the design thinking.
Mr Li invited the students to have a brainstorming of "key words to design" and the students thought it as life, nature, moved, new and beauty. In the following part of gaming, she helped students understand the kernel and basic thinking processes of Design Thinking Mindset: Defer judgment-No Standard Answer-Get Emotional -Yes And.
Then we entered the gift design part of the workshop, and the students worked in pairs. They had a deep conversations, tapped "gifts demand" for each other, and became mutual gift designers for each other. Mr Li incorporated several rounds of interviews and continuously guided the students to approach "extreme demands".
The highlight of the Design Thinking Workshop was the hands-on part. The teacher prepared a wealth of materials to help students to implement their blueprints. Colored papers, brushes, and cloth all allowed the students to perceive the real needs of partners, to break taboos and stereotypes of the adult world, and to create a gift filled with the type of spirit only found in children. During the display of these wonderful gifts, many students expressed surprise at the fact that their counterparts’ gifts expressed the original subtle meaning hiding in their inner feelings.
After this lesson, the students had a clear understanding of design which should focus on "communication, demand, iterative", be people-oriented, and user-oriented. A student brilliantly summarized design thinking as a transformation from " this time, this place, this man" to " that time, that land, that man ",which they were praised for.
