Reflection: How can the iterative and non-linear nature of design thinking contribute to the development of innovative health solutions

The iterative and non-linear qualities of Design Thinking are demonstrated through Rapid Prototyping and the continuous cycles of learning and action. Understanding Rapid Prototype as a principle and tool of Design Thinking, requires the early visualisation and elaboration of future possibilities, enabling an earlier failure of this idea (Altman, Huang, & Breland, 2018). The creation of low-fidelity prototypes, that are created quickly and cheaply, enable continuous learning. This learning is feedback into the design process where innovative solutions only emerge after multiple cycles of ideation, prototyping and testing. Thus, we can see an iterative and non-linear process (Altman, Huang, & Breland, 2018). Designers use the insights and results from rapid prototyping to “review, question and improve their initial assumptions, understandings and results” (Dam & Teo, 2024).

How does this contribute to the development of innovative solutions to health challenges?

By going through the Design Thinking process, we further develop our understanding of the problem, giving us increasing insight about the parameters of a problem and thus the extent that a possible solution must cover. We may need to refine the problem, or re-emphasise certain aspects of it. Similarly, the process of ideating, prototyping and testing leads to reconceptualising ideas that emerge during the ideation phase, causing further changes to the prototype (Figure 1). Ultimately, this becomes a repetitive process that culminates with minimal changes between the penultimate and final prototypes. The iterative and non-linear qualities of Design Thinking contrast with traditional linear (and often top-down) processes that necessitate detailed specifications before developing a proposed solution (Altman, Huang, & Breland, 2018; Raghu et al., 2015).

Figure 1: The primary stages of Design Thinking and exercises used or questions asked in each stage. Adapted from Altman, M., Huang, T. T. K., & Breland, J. Y. (2018). Design Thinking in Health Care. Prev Chronic Dis, 15, E117. https://doi.org/10.5888/pcd15.180128

In their design of SMARTHealth (a mobile-based, point-of-care Clinical Decision Support device to measure and manage the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in resource-constrained settings) Raghu et al., (2015) used agile development, which shares the iterative and non-linear qualities of Design Thinking) in an iterative process that incorporated constant feedback from stakeholders throughout the evolution of the solution. According to Raghu et al., (2015), a needs assessment would not have thoroughly explicate the requirements that need to be met by SMARTHealth, especially considering that the end-users had very limited experience with using information and communication technology. Thus, the rapid development of prototypes followed by feedback from the health workers (end-users) enabled the design team to find an innovative solution to assess and manage the risk of CVD while ensuring that it can be utilised by health workers with minimal training (Raghu et al., 2015).

The necessity of iterative and non-linear activites does seem to make this process quite time consuming which could be deterrent for many organisation. I hypothesize that guaranteeing the commitment of stakeholders in an intense Design Thinking processes would be challenging. This sentiment is reflected by a stakeholder’s comments in Altman, Huang, & Breland, (2018) review study, “Don’t get me wrong. What we did was fantastic. But it took a lot out of us”.

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References

Altman, M., Huang, T. T. K., & Breland, J. Y. (2018). Design Thinking in Health Care. Prev Chronic Dis, 15, E117. https://doi.org/10.5888/pcd15.180128

Raghu, A., Praveen, D., Peiris, D., Tarassenko, L., & Clifford, G. (2015). Engineering a mobile health tool for resource-poor settings to assess and manage cardiovascular disease risk: SMARThealth study. BMC Med Inform Decis Mak, 15, 36. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-015-0148-4

Dam, R. F. and Teo, Y. S. (2024, February 21). What is Design Thinking and Why Is It So Popular?. Interaction Design Foundation - IxDF. https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/what-is-design-thinking-and-why-is-it-so-popular