International Conference on Teaching and Learning 2018
DESIGN THINKING MINI PROJECT: THINK INNOVATIVELY IN
NOVEL WAYS
Sharifah Zannierah Syed Marzuki1, Che Asniza Osman2, Siti Zahrah Buyong3,
Laila Mohammad Kamaruddin4
ABSTRACT
Design thinking is a critical component and has potential impact to business
competitiveness. The effort should start early so that younger generations can develop their
intellectual abilities to be able to recognize connections, redefine problems, plan and analyse
possible ideas, solutions and be near to the potential customers in order to sustain. This
design thinking mini project is initiated to build interest among students taking Technology
Entrepreneurship (ENT 600) on the importance of new product development. Looking at
technological evolution, students are encouraged to think innovatively about a problem or
have the ability to evaluate business opportunity. In this mini project, students are required to
meet potential customers and gain inputs. Once all information is gathered, students will
discuss further with their team members and come up with their product design and build
prototype with limited resources. The idea of offering limited resources is to educate
students that networking is prominent in the real business environment and they need to find
suitable market players to work together and they should be mindful with competition.
Finally, they need to present their output in five minutes business pitching. Questionnaire will
be distributed after the mini project is completed to analyse the responses.
Keywords: design thinking, innovative, technology, business, opportunity
INTRODUCTION
Design thinking concept is being measured as an effective tool by many strategists to create
innovative competitive strategies thus it appears as a critical component that should be
implemented by companies (Wattanasupachoke, 2012; Dunne & Martin, 2006). Within this
context, the idea and encouragement of design thinking should start at early education or in
institutions of higher learning. Research has shown that motivation influences students’
involvement and academic achievement (Gambrell, 2001). This study seeks to investigate
the nature and magnitude of relationship between motivation and design thinking. The focus
of this study is to ensure that students have the motivation and interest to be creative and
increase their focus on critical thinking skills that can be applied when they leave their
learning institutions. This is in line with Rugutt and Chemosit (2009) that found student-tostudent relations, critical thinking skills and student-faculty interaction are important variables
to contribute to student positive teaching and learning environment.
Simon (1996) emphasized on the need for the establishment of a holistic approach on the
knowledge of design process as a means of approaching managerial problems. In similar
perspective, Roger Martin the Dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University
International Conference on Teaching and Learning 2018
International Conference on Teaching and Learning 2018
of Toronto since 1998 whom has published several articles on business design interestingly
said that:
“I saw that this is what great business leaders do. They enter some kind of constrained
environment where they want to do something that is near impossible. They have to figure it
out by thinking differently from anybody else.”
Practically, the components, characteristics and process of design thinking provide an
ultimate momentum for design approach to be included in the curriculum and teaching for
future opportunities. Looking at the technology advancement and the growing demand for
innovative products and services, Technology Entrepreneurship (ENT600) offered by
Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) is a good platform for students taking this subject to be
creative in finding new ways to solve a problem or create an opportunity. The objectives of
this study are to find out the acceptance of design thinking mini project in the teaching and
learning process of ENT 600 and to know whether motivation has a connection in the
learning process.
DESIGN THINKING MINI PROJECT: APPLICATION IN TEACHING AND
LEARNING
Creativity focuses on thinking of new things while innovation focuses on doing new things.
Design Thinking Mini Project is the best way to kickstart the idea before thinking of own
product for the assignment that students are required to complete. Firstly, students must
discuss a product idea that has the potential to be commercialized and do a business
pitching. Next stage is on creativity and educators will prepare all the materials for students
to work in groups, perform market survey and build prototypes.
Creativity can be defined as the production of new and useful ideas as well as the ability to
discover new ways of looking at problems and opportunities. It is the ability to use the
imagination to develop new ideas, new things or new solutions. This generation of ideas
should lead to improvement in the efficiency or effectiveness of a system.
There are several steps that students need to undertake as follows:
1)
Conduct a simple market survey
Students are supposed to perform a simple market survey by interviewing potential buyers at
surrounding areas. They need to ask on the potential buyers’ preferences on the value
added that need to be instilled in the innovative umbrella. They need to gather as much
information as possible.
2)
Product Design
Once they gathered all the information, they will discuss further and sketch the product
before proceed to the next stage.
3)
Build Prototype
Students will try to come up with a prototype that matches with the design using the
materials provided by the lecturer. Students are always be reminded that they need to:
International Conference on Teaching and Learning 2018
International Conference on Teaching and Learning 2018
•
Use whatever materials that they have as in the real life, they need to know how to
utilize the limited resources but can actually come up with wonderful ideas and outputs
•
Build networking among other teams as they face limited resources. Students are
required to borrow materials from others or exchange materials. This is to develop the real
scenario that they need full support from the suppliers, sub- contractors, agents, middlemen
and other market players.
•
Be aware of other teams that are trying to find ideas or seeking for opportunity to
imitate from other groups. This is one of the challenges in the real market that competitors
are also working hard to compete and be the champion.
4)
Presentation
At the end of the mini project, students need to present their innovative product and explain
its design and functionality together with the value proposition.
METHODOLOGY
The participants for this study are the students from Science and Technology background
that include from architecture students (Faculty of Architecture, Planning and Surveying),
mechanical and chemical engineering students (Faculty of Mechanical and Faculty of
Chemical Engineering) and environmental health students (Faculty of Health Sciences).
Questionnaires were administered using convenience sampling method for data collection.
Students were asked to answer the questions after they have completed their tasks in the
design thinking mini project. A total of 111 questionnaires were distributed and completed by
the respondents. The questionnaire used a 5-point Likert scale indicating strongly agree,
agree, neutral, disagree and strongly disagree. Descriptive and correlation analyses were
used to explain the findings.
FINDINGS
The number of questionnaires that have been distributed was 111 to the students from four
faculties as mentioned above. Reliability test was conducted to ensure the internal
consistency of measurement items and the Cronbach’s alpha was calculated. The
Cronbach’s alpha is 0.803 which exceeds 0.70 (Nunnally, 1978).
Demographic Analysis
Table 1 shows the profile of respondents where the majority of 49 (44.1%) were
environmental health students, 13 (11.7%) were architecture students, 32 (28.8%) of the
respondents came from chemical engineering and 17 (15.3%) were mechanical engineering
students.
Table 1. Demographic profile of Respondent (n= 111)
Programmes
Environmental Health
Frequency
49
Percentage (%)
44.1
Architecture
13
11.7
Chemical Engineering
32
28.8
Mechanical Engineering
17
15.3
Total
111
100.0
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International Conference on Teaching and Learning 2018
Descriptive Analysis
This study intends to find out the acceptance of students on the design thinking mini project.
The descriptive analysis was used to answer the research questions and to achieve its
objectives. Firstly, the research question is on the acceptance of the design thinking mini
project. The data collected from questionnaires showed that the students had positive
attitude toward the design thinking mini project (Table 2). The findings revealed that majority
of them agreed that the mini project could enhance their knowledge in understanding
creativity and design that is 66.7% of them (n=74). On the other hand, 60,4% (n=67) also
agreed that the design thinking mini project can develop their intellectual abilities to
recognize connections, redefine problems and envisions and analyse possible practical
ideas and solutions.
A large number of the respondents 54.1% (n=60) also agreed that the mini project could
make them think innovatively about a problem in novel ways whereas none of them
disagree. 56.8% (n=63) agreed that the project motivates them towards action and 63.1%
(n=70) also agreed that with the participation, they could create an opportunity-oriented
personality and openness to change. However, only 0.9% (n=1) who disagreed. A number of
64% (n=71) agreed that contextual understanding that supports creativity and mitigates risks
were gathered from the design thinking mini project.
Table 2. The Acceptance of Design Thinking Mini Project
Enhance knowledge
in understanding
creativity and design
Develop intellectual
abilities
Think innovatively
Motivate towards
action
Create opportunityoriented personality
Contextual
Understanding that
Supports creativity
Frequency
Percentage (%)
8
74
29
2
18
67
24
25
60
26
2
27
63
19
1
23
70
17
2
14
71
24
7.2
66.7
26.1
1.8
16.2
60.4
21.6
22.5
54.1
23.4
1.8
24.3
56.8
17.1
.9
20.7
63.1
15.3
1.8
12.6
64.0
21.6
Neutral
Agree
Strongly Agree
Disagree
Neutral
Agree
Strongly Agree
Neutral
Agree
Strongly Agree
Disagree
Neutral
Agree
Strongly Agree
Disagree
Neutral
Agree
Strongly Agree
Disagree
Neutral
Agree
Strongly Agree
The first and second hypotheses were tested using the correlation analysis and the results
are presented in Table 3. The result indicates that thinking innovatively about a problem in
novel ways have positive relationship towards motivation in design thinking (β=0.388**,
p<0.01). Creating an opportunity oriented personality and openness to change was also
found to be positively related to motivation (β=0.505**, p<0.01).
International Conference on Teaching and Learning 2018
International Conference on Teaching and Learning 2018
Table 3. Result of Correlation Analysis
Variables
Opportunity
Motivate
Think
Opportunity
Motivate
1.000
0.388**
0.505**
1.000
0.320**
Think
.320**
1.000
Note: **Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (two-tailed)
CONCLUSION
This Design Thinking Mini Project is a platform for students to generate ideas, meet potential
customers and build their own products that can develop their intellectual abilities to
recognize connections, redefine problems and envisions as well as analyse possible
practical ideas and solutions. The results of this study have implications for the continued
development of the design thinking mini project. The researchers expected that this kind of
approach in teaching and learning will provide a platform for future enhancement and
strategies to motivate learners to be more creative and innovative thus stimulating out-ofthe-box thinking and thus contribute to innovation in an organisation.
Furthermore, design thinking approach also emphasizes encouraging students to be
involved in every important step to develop creative products and services. It begins with
data collection from a simple market survey to gain the inputs from potential customers that
include their viewpoints and comments on product concepts. Students will learn the stages
in the new development process that covers the ideation until commercialization. It is
evidenced in the findings that motivation can induce the students to think innovatively and
create an opportunity-oriented personality. This design thinking mini project is the motivation
that directly influences the students’ innovativeness.
The teaching of design thinking needs to come together with humanistic skills and not only
focusing on developing problem-solving skills. This pluralistic approach should be
emphasized more in higher learning institutions in order to change the modes of thinking of
the students and prepare them for their future to be able to see the breakthrough of ideas
and be different from others in designing and formulating products, services and processes.
Strengthening the design thinking approach is vital for the learners to construct their
knowledge through motivation imparted by the educators.
REFERENCES
Dunne, D., & Martin, R. (2006). Design thinking and how it will change management
education: An interview and discussion. Academy of Management Learning & Education
5(4), 512-523.
Gambrell, L. B. (2001). What we know about motivation to read. In R. F. Flippo (Eds.),
Reading researchers in search of common ground (pp. 129 – 143). Newark, DE:
International Reading Association.
International Conference on Teaching and Learning 2018
International Conference on Teaching and Learning 2018
Ruggut, J., & Chemosit, C. C. (2009). What motivates students to learn? Contribution of
student-to-student relations, student-faculty interaction and critical thinking skills.
Educational Research Quarterly, 32(3), 16-28.
Simon, H. A. (1996). The sciences of the artificial. 3rd edition. Cambridge, MA:The MIT
Press.
Wattanasupachoke, T. (2012). Design thinking, innovativeness and performance: An
empirical examination. International Journal of Management and Innovation, 4(1), 1-14.
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