Design Thinking is a human-centered approach to problem-solving that uses empathy, creativity, and prototyping to come up with innovative solutions. It is an iterative process that involves five stages:

1. Empathize: Understand the needs of the user by putting yourself in their shoes.
2. Define: Define the problem statement in a way that is clear, concise, and actionable.
3. Ideate: Generate creative solutions to the problem.
4. Prototype: Build a prototype of your solution to test it out and get feedback.
5. Test: Test your prototype with users to get feedback and iterate on your design.

Design Thinking is a powerful tool that can be used to solve a wide range of problems, including those in software engineering. For example, Design Thinking can be used to:

• Design better user experiences: By understanding the needs of the user, Design Thinking can help software engineers create products that are easy to use and enjoyable to interact with.
• Innovate new features: Design Thinking can be used to generate creative ideas for new features that can improve the user experience.
• Solve technical problems: Design Thinking can be used to come up with new ways to solve technical problems, such as performance issues or security vulnerabilities.

Importance of Design Thinking 

Design Thinking is an important tool for software engineers because it helps them to:

• Understand the needs of the user: By putting themselves in the user’s shoes, software engineers can better understand what the user wants and needs from the product.
• Generate creative solutions: Design Thinking encourages creativity and innovation, which can lead to new and better ways of solving problems.
• Get feedback early and often: Design Thinking involves testing and iterating on ideas early and often, which can help to ensure that the final product is successful.

Design Thinking Tools

There are a number of tools that can be used in the Design Thinking process, including:

• Empathy maps: Empathy maps are a way of understanding the needs of the user by mapping out their thoughts, feelings, and desires.
• Personas: Personas are fictional characters that represent the different types of users who will be using the product.
• Storyboarding: Storyboarding is a way of visualizing the user experience by creating a series of drawings or sketches that show how the user will interact with the product.
• Wireframes: Wireframes are low-fidelity sketches of the product’s interface.
• Prototyping: Prototyping is the process of creating a working model of the product to test out ideas and get feedback.

What is Visual Thinking?

Visual Thinking is the process of using images and graphics to communicate ideas. It is a powerful tool that can be used to:

• Explain complex ideas: Visual Thinking can be used to break down complex ideas into smaller, more manageable pieces.
• Solve problems: Visual Thinking can be used to identify patterns and relationships that may not be obvious when looking at data or text.
• Inspire creativity: Visual Thinking can be used to spark new ideas and solutions.

Importance of Visual Thinking 

Visual Thinking is an important tool for software engineers because it can help them to:

• Communicate with stakeholders: Visual Thinking can be used to communicate ideas to stakeholders in a way that is clear, concise, and easy to understand.
• Solve problems: Visual Thinking can be used to identify and solve problems in a way that is more efficient and effective than traditional methods.
• Inspire creativity: Visual Thinking can be used to spark new ideas and solutions, which can lead to better products and services.

Visual Thinking Tools

There are a number of tools that can be used in Visual Thinking, including:

• Mind maps: Mind maps are a way of organizing thoughts and ideas by connecting them to a central idea.
• Flowcharts: Flowcharts are a way of visualizing the steps involved in a process.
• Diagrams: Diagrams are a way of visualizing relationships between different things.
• Infographics: Infographics are a way of presenting data in a visually appealing and informative way.

Conclusion

Design Thinking and Visual Thinking are two powerful tools that can be used to solve problems and improve the user experience. By combining the two approaches, software engineers can create products that are both innovative and user-friendly.

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Joyful Journey of User Experience Design (UX) in technology. While you may see history as something you adapted way back in secondary school, realizing our set of experiences can give important bits of knowledge into what’s to come. So we should view client experience and its beginnings

It is the right time to investigate user experience design (UX) ‘s historical backdrop since it’s urgent to understand this field. If you’re a newbie to User Experience (UX), this fills in as an extraordinary prologue to the field for a good understanding. It may very well make you think differently if you’re an accomplished proficient. Let’s directly get into the evolution of UX with the timeline chart.

( infographics)

4000BC– UX landed its foot in the history in  4000BC  on the ancient Chinese philosophy of Feng Shui.

500 BC – Another trace of UX origins is found in Ancient Greece.

Early 1900’s – The footsteps were continued by the famous scientist Frederick Winslow Taylor and his application of Principles by drawing everyone’s attention in the user design. Taylor’s application of principles

Although Taylorism was broadly reprimanded for how it decreased individuals to simple gear-teeth in a machine, Taylor’s attention on upgrading the connection among people and their apparatuses is positively suggestive of some key user experience (UX) standards.

1940’s – Toyota’s contribution to UX’s growth

While Toyota, similar to Passage, esteemed proficiency in designing and creation, it additionally looked for its representative’s input. The get-together laborers’ commitments were esteemed extraordinarily—nearly however much the advancements utilized. The thundering achievement that Toyota experienced thus carried new regard for the part of human association with innovation

1955 – Henry Dreyfuss and his infusion in UX

 He states “At the point when the resource between the item and individuals turns into a state of grating, then, at that point, the mechanical architect has fizzled. Then again, if individuals are made more secure, more agreeable, more anxious to buy, more effective – or downright more joyful – by contact with the item, then, at that point the designer has succeeded”

1966 Walt Disney and his ideology

Walt Disney’s ideas stated that he believes the comfort zone of man in the use of technology. His innovative utilization of technology  brings individuals happiness to instigate user experience designers

1970’s – The era of PC, Xerox, and Apple

!970’s paved the way for Personal computers, PALC Xerox and even for the Gaint technology Apple. The true innovation was also done by Steve Jobs.

1995 – Donald Norman and his experiences

Donald Norman coined the term UX with a team of members in Apple. He believed that the concept of human interface and usability was narrow. As a result, he wanted the human to get inclined to the system and working of the product. Thus he gave much importance to all the core values of user experience like industrial design, graphics, the interface, the physical interaction and the manual. 

No big surprise. Thoughts contained in the expression “User Experience” are very much financed in the long stretches of extraordinary work.

The Basics know about of User Experience Design (UX)

What is user experience design?

Client experience (UX) plan is the cycle configuration that groups use to make items that give significant and applicable encounters to clients. It is a user-centered approach. This includes the plan of the whole interaction of securing and incorporating the item, including parts of marking, plan, convenience and capacity.

Why user experience design is important?

User Experience Design (UX) is significant because it attempts to satisfy the client’s requirements. It plans to give positive encounters that keep a client faithful to the item or brand. Moreover, a noteworthy User Experience Design (UX)  permits you to characterize client ventures on your item that is generally helpful for business achievement

Advantages of User Experience Design (UX)

Plans that permit a client to all the more proficiently and normally explore assistance incredibly build the likelihood of keeping up with that client. Likewise, the more they’re on your site, the more probable they are to finished designated or coordinated activities

• User-friendly interface
• Easy navigation
• Increases satisfaction
• Higher operational efficiency
• Fosters brand sales volume
• Progressive customer loyalty
• Minimal usage of resources
• Reduces costs

User Experience Design Vs interactive design

User Experience Design (UX) Interactive design is explicitly an order which inspects the collaboration (through an interface) between a framework and its client. It might likewise join configuration zeroed in on how data ought to be introduced inside such a framework to empower the client to best comprehend that data however this is frequently n viewed as the different control of “data plan” as well

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The 3 important core attributes of Design Thinking plays a pivotal role in creating business growth.  

1. Empathy
2. Expansion and thinking
3. Experimentation

Example of Human-centered design  

A  Talking Hearing Aid. Starkey Livio AI by ElmerV. Carlson

5 Stages in Design Thinking – Actionable framework of Design Thinking

Stages of Design Thinking-  (Infographics)

The origin of the 5 stages of Design Thinking was done by Hasso- Plattner’s Institute of Design at Stanford. The design thinking has to undergo all the 5 stages of the thinking in a sequential order to deliver a quality product with utmost customer satisfaction. All 5 stages are simple yet mandatory

Stage 1 – Empathize—Understanding Users’ Needs

Here, you should acquire a compassionate comprehension of the issue you’re attempting to address, ordinarily through client research. Sympathy is pivotal to a human-focused plan cycle, for example, plan thinking since it permits you to save your presumptions about the world and gain a genuine understanding of clients and their necessities.

Stage 2 – Define—State Your Users’ Needs and Problems

Assembling the entirety of the data accumulated in the principal stage, the subsequent stage is to characterize the issue or problem to be stated clearly. The subsequent issue ought to be caught in human-focused terms as opposed to zeroed in on business objectives. In light of the dissatisfactions, you noticed or caught wind of concocting inquiries for how you may tackle them. This analysis will help you out to concentrate much on the user’s needs.

Stage 3 – Challenge Assumptions and Create Ideas

What? In light of a reasonable issue or problem, you’ll currently expect to concoct whatever number of thoughts and likely arrangements as could be expected under the circumstances.

Why? The ideation stage makes you break new ground and investigating new points. By zeroing in on the number of thoughts as opposed to quality, you’re bound to free your psyche and coincidentally find advancement!

How? With devoted brainstorming sessions, you’ll utilize a scope of various ideation methods, for example, out-of-the-box thinking, switch thinking, and most exceedingly terrible conceivable thought.

For instance: A wide range of meeting with the team members to get a deeper insight into their understanding. With your concern proclamation to hand, you concoct whatever number of thoughts as could be allowed for how you may make your workers more joyful and along these lines bound to remain with the organization

Stage 4 – Prototype—Start to Create Solutions

The product undergoes a simple test before the final stage. Prototyping is the first phase where you start ‘building’ on the plan. The final idea is put to test with the help of a prototype. A prototype is a scaled-down and inexpensive model of the product which is offered to some users for testing.

Stage 5 – Test—Try Your Solutions Out

The last phase of configuration believing is trying your model. In the wake of testing, you present the model to the client, return to the client’s criticism, ad-lib your model, and rehash the interaction until the client is fulfilled

Conclusion

You may decide to zero in on only one part of the plan thinking measure, for example, becoming acquainted with your clients and putting forth a cognizant attempt to be more sympathy-driven on an everyday premise. In case you’re battling to assemble positive client surveys, for instance, you may decide to direct client interviews to discover what your clients are absent.

“Design is a formal response to a strategic question” – Mariona Lopez

Presently the greatest challenge faced by all the companies is heights of innovation. The companies are forced to move a level higher than others . Design Thinking in innovation creates a competitive edge to withstand in the business world.

Innovation in the Design Thinking is a process is not a one-time undertaking. It should be an integral part of any company at all times. An inventive methodology in getting sorted out your work prompts bewildering results. It satisfies your customer’s most noteworthy need. It conveys legitimate and significant outcomes and gives you an upper hand over different organizations. The system helps in empowering all capacities, focusing more on the clients.

Infographics ( Business growth)

The ideology behind Design Thinking

Before we dive into our topic lets gain some knowledge on the basic attributes of Design Thinking

What is Design Thinking?

Design Thinking is a nonlinear approach, which involves human perspective to generate innovative ideas to tackle all problems in design and development. These products are created to help people live a better and simple life.

Principles of Design Thinking

The 3 important core attributes of Design Thinking plays a pivotal role in creating business growth.  

1. Empathy
2. Expansion and thinking
3. Experimentation

Example of Human-centered design  

A  Talking Hearing Aid. Starkey Livio AI by ElmerV. Carlson

5 Stages in Design Thinking – Actionable framework of Design Thinking

Stages of Design Thinking-  (Infographics)

The origin of the 5 stages of Design Thinking was done by Hasso- Plattner’s Institute of Design at Stanford. The design thinking has to undergo all the 5 stages of the thinking in a sequential order to deliver a quality product with utmost customer satisfaction. All 5 stages are simple yet mandatory

Stage 1 – Empathize—Understanding Users’ Needs

Here, you should acquire a compassionate comprehension of the issue you’re attempting to address, ordinarily through client research. Sympathy is pivotal to a human-focused plan cycle, for example, plan thinking since it permits you to save your presumptions about the world and gain a genuine understanding of clients and their necessities.

Stage 2 – Define—State Your Users’ Needs and Problems

Assembling the entirety of the data accumulated in the principal stage, the subsequent stage is to characterize the issue or problem to be stated clearly. The subsequent issue ought to be caught in human-focused terms as opposed to zeroed in on business objectives. In light of the dissatisfactions, you noticed or caught wind of concocting inquiries for how you may tackle them. This analysis will help you out to concentrate much on the user’s needs.

Stage 3 – Challenge Assumptions and Create Ideas

What? In light of a reasonable issue or problem, you’ll currently expect to concoct whatever number of thoughts and likely arrangements as could be expected under the circumstances.

Why? The ideation stage makes you break new ground and investigating new points. By zeroing in on the number of thoughts as opposed to quality, you’re bound to free your psyche and coincidentally find advancement!

How? With devoted brainstorming sessions, you’ll utilize a scope of various ideation methods, for example, out-of-the-box thinking, switch thinking, and most exceedingly terrible conceivable thought.

For instance: A wide range of meeting with the team members to get a deeper insight into their understanding. With your concern proclamation to hand, you concoct whatever number of thoughts as could be allowed for how you may make your workers more joyful and along these lines bound to remain with the organization

Stage 4 – Prototype—Start to Create Solutions

The product undergoes a simple test before the final stage. Prototyping is the first phase where you start ‘building’ on the plan. The final idea is put to test with the help of a prototype. A prototype is a scaled-down and inexpensive model of the product which is offered to some users for testing.

Stage 5 – Test—Try Your Solutions Out

The last phase of configuration believing is trying your model. In the wake of testing, you present the model to the client, return to the client’s criticism, ad-lib your model, and rehash the interaction until the client is fulfilled

Conclusion

You may decide to zero in on only one part of the plan thinking measure, for example, becoming acquainted with your clients and putting forth a cognizant attempt to be more sympathy-driven on an everyday premise. In case you’re battling to assemble positive client surveys, for instance, you may decide to direct client interviews to discover what your clients are absent.

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Our primary focus on developing School Management System is the Mobile-First Approach and user experience design. But when we started to work on the user research we found out some great insights, which changed our thought process.

Our user research is based on Madurai city. We researched with schools in Madurai and our key observations are listed below.

1. Teachers able to record the attendance with their mobile app
2. Parents get the attendance info via Push Notifications or SMS
3. Admin Staff and School Principal see the stats of attendance in their app dashboard.

Attendance Tracking

In traditional manual method, the teacher records the student’s present or absence status in the attendance register and also keep the leave letters in the separate file. Even though both availability and reason are stored, the traditional method do not serve well. The data stored in two different places and difficult to retrieve and analyze.

The introduction of software makes the data entry easy and also adds value to the data. The teacher can easily track the absence record of the student and the stated reasons for the same in a single click.

The attendance tracking software, serve the following cases

1. It records the presence or absence of the student on that particular date & the session
2. In case of the absence, it records the reason for it.
3. It seamlessly links with student leave application and approval workflow.
4. It updates the absence of student to the parent via Mobile app via Push Notification or by SMS
5. It updates the class attendance summary data to school admin people and the principal.

Mobile App for Attendance Taking

Designing a simple mobile app for attendance taking that connects with School Management software via REST API is the quick and handy solution. The Mobile app for student attendance taking helps to record the data. It also uses the data effectively. But the app still needs manual efforts.

By incorporating electronics and communication devices, the attendance system can be made advanced and automated.

RFID Based Attendance System for Schools

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) based attendance system is the most commonly used system in Schools, Colleges, and Universities. In this method, a unique id is assigned to the students, and the RFID tag attached to their student ID card. Students only need to place their ID card on the RFID reader (which mounted on a school campus or nearby gate) and their attendance will be taken immediately.  The data is stored in the reader and can be consumed by the web application

Biometric Attendance System for Schools

Biometric attendance system uses the Finger Print as the identification source. The person need to press his finger on the bio-metric reader and it checks the identify against the stored data and records the entry. It enters clock-in and clock-our time. It is mostly used for Employee Attendance Tracking and few schools implemented it for student attendance also.

This system works well for higher education students, teachers, and staff. This system is not recommended for kids.

Facial Recognition Attendance System

In recent times, during the Covid 2019 situation, the touch-less or contactless attendance system through facial recognization is the most discussed and desirable solution. The solution uses the camera feed and facial recognition algorithm for attendance. This solution is been popular in Hospitals and high-security premises. In near future, we might see the schools also adopt this solution and innovate on it.

Final Thoughts

To summarize, the best attendance management system for schools is the combination of technology, cost, and user experience. the desire-able solution is the one, which serves the results and helps us to achieve automation.

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