Avantika University- Fostering Innovation In Design Thinking

Greek philosopher Heraclitus said "The only thing that is constant is change." Times, tastes and businesses change. All change calls for innovation. Innovation is traditionally defined to be the process of devising a new method, idea or product which is of value to a customer. Innovation can be defined as all of those things, but it is ultimately about staying relevant in the age of accelerated change.

Design thinking, the process of creative problem solving, depends on a fixed set of devices and prescribed structure which puts it in a grave danger of becoming stale and irrelevant. With an increasing number of organizations adopting design thinking, the danger to become outdated is very real. This can be combated with innovation. This is why innovation in design thinking is an important focus in the best design colleges, like Avantika University (a design college in India).

It is easy for well-established organizations to fall into the dangers of a comfort zone and continue prescribing to their known methods of ideating and working. This is a surefire way to a company’s demise. Innovation is necessary for a business to compete and thrive in today’s marketplace.

B. Des colleges in India recognize the industry-wide rate of transformation that is being driven by technological change and want to ensure their students are equipped to face this when they enter the industry as professionals.

The traditional approach to design thinking involves a process of exploration, ideation and synthesis, which often leaves out the human perspective of empathy that is most valuable to the end user to enhance their overall experience. This demands innovation in design thinking by ensuring that design activities include a focus on two things: people and failures. The biggest inefficiency in applying design thinking to a business results from the time lag between thought and implementation. Focusing on two vital elements stated above can help companies reduce their time lag as well as excessive costs.

Innovation in design thinking can be implemented judiciously when the ‘people’ aspect of design thinking that is empathy towards problem solving is adopted. This approach makes the problem solver more in tune and in touch with the problems and thus puts them in a better place to provide solutions. Innovation does not come without risks, the biggest risk being the risk of failure. However, failure is a great teacher and design thinking takes from the learning that failure can provide by systematically encouraging experimentation.

Avantika University believes in the powerful learnings that failing imparts. This encourages their students to explore all their ideas and constantly modify their plans and designs to develop foolproof ones. The question prevalent now is not what to do but how to do it and at Avantika, the focus is on the 'how' while nurturing the young, creative minds.

Avantika is indeed paving new paths for design-led education with its philosophy and unique academic model. To know more about the teaching methodology at Avantika University and how it compliments design thinking and innovation, do log-on to http://www.avantikauniversity.edu.in/.

Gaurav Peshkar I am a Professional Blogger and Content Writer for Avantika University.