Design thinking process

Design thinking process
Design Thinking is a methodology used by designers to solve complex problems, and find desirable solutions for clients. A design mindset is not problem-focused, it’s solution focused and action oriented towards creating a preferred future. Design Thinking draws upon logic, imagination, intuition, and systemic reasoning, to explore possibilities of what could be—and to create desired outcomes that benefit the end user. (Naiman, L)
Empathize
Design thinking begins with a very human-centered approach, thinking about the primary experience and the challenge at hand. Gathering a number of stakeholders to understand and describe the challenges from their perspective is central to the process (Siang, 2017).
In this report the main focus area was to explore the service rendered to the community. The report will be focusing on the internal and external clients of the SAPS. The following method was used:
Questionnaires
Questionnaires
The following questionnaire was used to understand the customer’s perceptions of the SAPS. The Answers can be found in the appendix under Appendix A. The questionnaires helped gain a better understanding as to the way in which people had felt about the SAPS regarding the service, as well as the environment.
Many people believed that they did receive good service however they had to wait for a long period of time. 50% of the people felt welcome, as they had entered the police station although the other half did not. The SAPS communication skills had been seen to be excellent, as majority of the people had agreed. Not many of the SAPS had introduced themselves when assisting and many people did not feel comfortable explaining the problem to the police officer. Overall although the SAPS had received some negative feedback, they have received good comments such as the members being knowledgeable of their job amongst the rest.
Define
After the stakeholder groups are understood, the problem is identified. For many problems, this is one of the more difficult steps. Given the work from the previous step, the design approach for the problem needs to be centered around the experience of the different user groups (Siang, 2017).
After the research had been analyzed, the following three (3) key issues were drawn:
1. Public image
SAPS stands for protection and safety however amongst entering you feel as if you are not welcome/ comfortable and you are uncertain about who to talk too or where to go.
2. Bad Morale
The SAPS team do not feel happy when they are at work and this affects their work as they are not as productive as they could be.
3. Communication
Without proper communication, the message is not transmitted effectively and conflict occurs. The internal and external communication of SAPS could be improved drastically.

Ideate
The ideation step explores problem solving. Through ideation the groups discuss what an ideal future state would look like and the possible steps and solutions for how to get there (Siang, 2017).
The ideation phase had been done with the help of table tennis. As the ball was knocked back and forth, ideas were bounced around. All these ideas had been written and pictures were drawn to better understand the concepts. The concepts were then analyzed to understand which would best fit the SAPS and able them to be more successful.

The following ideas where the main concepts that were chosen for the SAPS:
The app
The app will work similar to Uber. The idea is that the client will call into the station or use the app to request an emergency vehicle. The client will then be able to see on the app how far the police vehicle is. This will give the traumatised client peace of mind that help is on the way. The app will also allow the client to rate service after.
From an internal perspective  a request to take the job will then pop up on the policemen’s app after a client makes a request.  An officer will then accept the job and go to the scene.
From an internal perspective this will allow better control and communication regarding emergency calls. This will also allow managing staff to keep track of when the vehicle arrives at the scene. This allows for managing staff to incentivise policemen that exceed response time expectations and keep track of officers that repeatedly don’t meet response time expectations and they can be dealt with. Managing staff can also then see the client satisfaction rate and keep track of officers that don’t meet clients expectations.
This app does more than just solve communication issues it will also boost morale by incentivising good work and giving purpose to an officers day.
New signage.
New signage includes getting all station branding up to standard . Signage of where clients need to go will be put up to ease the stress of finding the right area after experiencing something bad. This will overall help client services and boost public perception. Not only that but by branding the stations the staff will feel like they are a part of a team.
Team building
Team building plays an important part of getting staff positive , and working together. Small things such as dress up days or a casual Friday will already start boosting morale and team dynamics.
Prototype
Prototyping requires that the group moves its idea into a physical, tangible form. The prototype, visualizations that are either physical or drawn, will rely on the feedback from stakeholders, be technologically feasible, and viable for the organization. Design thinking sessions require a room and resources for everyone to draw and iterate on designs (Siang, 2017).
The prototypes had then been created to show the concept come to life. A team-building program had been created which can be seen in Appendix C as well as a Mobile application that can be seen in Appendix D.

Test
Combining all of the knowledge from the prior four steps, this process refines and iterates on feedback to create a model that can be tested and implemented. In this phase, the prototype is put into action. Failure should be an expected part of this process, because as with any iterative process, things are not typically perfect from the first go (Siang, 2017).
Unfortunately the prototypes that have been created were unable to be implemented due to the fact that the SAPS has certain rules and regulations in which they need to abide by therefore the ideas could not be implemented and tested to gain insight as to whether it was successful or not. The lack of financial resources also played a big role in not being able to role out the prototypes, as it will cost a lot to physically design the mobile app.

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