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How The Pandemic Can Be Solved With Design Thinking

As governments, NGOs, and other organizations around the world struggle to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, debate rages over the best way to address the problem.

Will social distancing help flatten the page? How can we mitigate the economic effects? Should we force people to shelter-in-place?

Although the correct course of action is best left up to the experts and may vary by geographic area, all decision-makers would benefit from design thinking. This concept, which is the bread-and-butter of innovators and designers around the world, describes a problem-solving approach that incorporates creativity and people’s input.

At a time when solutions seem elusive, the first step is to acknowledge the humans at the heart of the problem.

Brainstorming

A key part of design thinking is brainstorming. This is essentially an act of creation: It’s the use of one’s innate creativity to imagine multiple ideas, solutions, or possibilities. While we have epidemiologists to model the spread of the disease and the effect of social distancing, decision-makers should use brainstorming to envision possible scenarios. This will enable them to craft a resilience plan for their communities and choose the best course of action.

Prototyping

Design thinking includes a heavy emphasis on experimentation and testing. In the context of Covid-19 response, that doesn’t mean running clinical trials — leave that up to the scientists.

Rather, it refers to starting small and scaling up. In a sense, this is already happening as people elected to self-quarantine and practice social distancing.

Decision-makers should test out their Covid-19 response at a small scale, the same as designers would roll out a prototype before going all in.

Empathy

The human element is at the core of design thinking. In a literal context, this may mean creating a User Experience (UX) rather than a web design that doesn’t take the user into account. It also refers to accepting human input into an agile development process. Yet empathy in design thinking is more than just accepting feedback.

You must envision the impact of your creation on your audience, and use their needs to motivate your design. For Covid-19 response, this means taking your community’s concerns into account.

Wrapping Up

Design thinking is a means of problem-solving through ideation, innovation, and empathy. Facing the challenge of Covid-19 requires a balance of these three elements. Just as designers need to create something from nothing to solve a problem, so should decisionmakers draw upon their own creativity to form a cohesive, efficient pandemic response. Using design thinking might just help us solve the pandemic — by keeping the focus on human need.

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