Bandung, January 9, 2025 — In an effort to foster an innovative mindset from an early age, the Telkom University Community Service Team organized a design thinking training for junior and senior high school students. This event, which took place in November 2024, aimed to introduce design thinking as a foundation for developing human-centered innovative solutions.
The program involved lecturers from the Information Systems (SI), Industrial Engineering (TI), and Product Design (DP) departments, including Faqih Hamami, Faishal Mufied Al-Anshary, Muhammad Iqbal, and Hanif Azhar. Conducted in two sessions, the training encouraged participants to understand and practice design thinking directly.
First Session
In the first session, participants were assigned to play the role of designers and create a wallet design that suited their own needs. They were then asked to interview their group members to gain deeper insights into their needs, habits, and preferences regarding an ideal wallet. The information gathered from these interviews was used to refine their initial designs. This process aimed to train empathy, creativity, and flexibility in developing more relevant solutions.
Second Session
The second session focused on a more in-depth introduction to the five key stages of design thinking: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test.
- The empathize stage encouraged participants to understand users’ behaviors, needs, and challenges.
- The define stage helped them clearly define problems by mapping pain points (challenges) and gains (needs).
- The ideate stage encouraged free and creative brainstorming of various possible solutions.
Participants then proceeded to the prototype stage, selecting the best idea and transforming it into a visualized initial model. This prototype was then tested in the test stage, where user feedback was collected, allowing participants to iteratively refine their solutions based on the received input.
Hanif Azhar, a Product Design lecturer involved in the training, emphasized the relevance of design thinking in cultivating a human-centered innovative mindset. “Through this program, students not only learn the theory but also gain hands-on experience in applying design thinking to develop relevant and impactful solutions,” he explained.
The event received positive feedback from both participants and accompanying teachers, who stated that the training broadened their perspective on solving problems creatively and systematically. Through this initiative, Telkom University hopes to instill a culture of innovation from a young age, preparing a future generation capable of addressing challenges with creative and sustainable solutions.