Interactive design thinking portfolio: a tool for user experience designers

Abstract

The necessity and advantages of the iterative process of the design thinking is proven and nowadays its popularity is growing fast among the user experience (UX) designers as a means for problem statement and creative idea generation. Design thinking is considered as one of the main paths toward innovation. The creation of an artifact is through a frequent iteration among empathizing, defining, ideating, prototyping and testing, which needs the utilization of a set of techniques for each stage. Most of the studies are focused mostly on a specific stage of this process. This study describes five of the best methods for each stage, which are chosen based on the recommendation of several high accredited literatures. In order to facilitate the adoption of design thinking process for the UX designers, interactive design thinking portfolio (IDTP) is designed as an effective tool that gives a holistic view of this process and assists the designers with the creation, maintenance and management of their projects. Besides, the possibility of the integration of the IDTP with a bunch of online services is suggested.