Arnav Bhan

20175016
Design Thinking
Prof Sunil Sangra
Wizard Of OZ and Lapeyre critique

When breaking down this article and taking into account the usage of design thinking through
the research process we must first understand what design thinking is. Design thinking is a
non linear and iterative process with a heavy focus on the users and the user journey when
working on a product, it also has a heavy focus on prototyping and ironing out kinks of a
product.

ME310 is Stanford University’s Design thinking course for students and they tied up with
Lapeyre furniture to help solve problems faced by elderly people while using the washroom.
This article accounts the tie up between popular French furniture company Lapyre Furniture,
a leading French furniture company and Stanford University’s design thinking program.

When critiquing the journey of ME310’s design thinking journey we must first classify the 5
main sequences of the design thinking process and then see how ME310 used each of these
steps in the process.
5 steps in Design Thinking.
Empathize
Define
Ideate
Prototype
Test.

Empathize
In the first phase the team put together a full research process to properly understand the
plight of the elderly when it comes to bathroom habits and usage. Through the article it can
be seen that they took 2 main aspects to breakdown the bathroom going process of elderly
people. First they went ahead and defined various washroom activities like using the toilet
and cleaning their face. Through this they identified various processes that would take place
while using the washroom.
One of the more interesting aspects of how they went about this process and how they really
empathized with older people was through their old age simulator where they essentially
restricted their movement and made it more difficult through adding stones on their joints.
This was probably one of the best ways to empathize with older people. The team also
followed older people through their bathroom journey to get a better perspective. They also
made a great decision by visiting nurses and psychiatrists to understand their perspective on
how old people feel about using the washroom.

Define.
In the next phase of their research upon doing extensive research through various methods the
team was able to come up with a few major problems that were hurdles in the ‘morning
routine’. These findings were ideal in context of the research as it really helped them with
their outlook and all the findings could lead to some great ideas that could increase ease of
access while using the washroom for the elderly. The needs they came up with were not
abstract in any way. This makes it easier for the team to ideate their product design since they
have a definitive set of needs.

Ideate
In the ideation phase the team took a good approach by carrying out market research and
seeing similar products out in the market. This helps provide teams with inspiration on how
to go about solving their problem. This process seemed to be fruitful for the team as they
were able to use their research to find a product that would solve a lot of their problems. The
18th century Dressing Table. They then used some of their ‘needs’ that they found through the
empathizing process. After which they made iterations to the 18th century dressing table.

Prototyping
During the prototyping stage, one huge factor they had to work around was the scalability of
production and manufacturing in France and the 1000$ budget they had for production. One
huge problem with this approach is the fact that it often leads to limitations. Although these
limitations are important since scalability and viability is key in building a successful
product. However this dampens the process of being creative and trying new ideas. Which is
why one of my criticisms would be to keep budgets and scalability aside when prototyping
new ideas.

Testing
During this process they made sure they did enough tests on end users as well as themselves.
This strengthened their confidence within the product as well as Lapeyre’s management team.

All in all this design thinking article is a great example of how we should go about building
products. I liked the bit about how they used the 18th century dressing table as inspiration, it’s
interesting to see how we can find inspiration anywhere and how products that were made
over 100’s of years ago with no implication on how it would solve problems is really
interesting and a blue print on how to move forward while building a product.

Works cited