Design Thinking and Creativity: Processes and Tools for New Opportunities in People-Centred Innovation

The HCD approach is continuously evolving, regularly taking on new forms in relation to the socio/cultural, technological context and the increasingly specific demands aimed at achieving radical innovation. This leads to a discussion about Design Thinking and a People-Centred approach, given that Design needs to explore increasingly detailed and ambitious application fields and scales of intervention, passing from product design to interactive systems to services and social business strategies, adapting methods and tools in order to accommodate the contributions of other disciplines and other actors. It is in this context that the Politecnico di Milano IDEActivity Center research group was born, active in innovation studies driven by creativity through design, and aimed at focusing on the changes taking place. The IDEActivity method is founded on some models of Design Thinking, creativity as a “lateral thinking” ability, a People-Centred approach which puts people at the centre of the design process, and a method that entails co-participation. The aim of this method is to be a flexible tool able to meet specific needs of small or large companies, or public bodies with very different objectives and configurations.