In 1991 IDEO was established to create products of a creative nature, IDEO initially focused on traditional commercial design designer products such as the Palm V PDA, The Oral B toothbrush, and Steelcase chairs and others.
By 2001, IDEO began using its design method to create management and organizational solutions for organizations such as restructuring, better understanding of customers or creating a better learning environment in schools. The company then began to use this method to find solutions to social challenges such as job creation, literacy, crime reduction, and so on.
What is design thinking?Design thinking is based on six stages:

• Definition of a challenge: for which we want to design an appropriate response or solution, Defining a challenge is sometimes not as easy as expected, But it is the first step towards devising the solution.
• Discovery: The design thinking team conducts field research that explores everything related to the challenge. The discovery process here does not take on the traditional character of questionnaires, It relies on personal interviews and careful observation of people and the surrounding environment.
• Interpretation: At this stage, the data obtained in the discovery phase are interpreted. The process of interpretation often results in the discovery of deeper ideas that explain the nature of the challenge. It may completely redefine it, The interpretation phase should end with the formulation of brainstorming questions on which the fourth stage will depend, These questions begin with the phrase (how can we ….)
• Visualization: After generating the largest number of answers to brainstorming questions, the best answers are selected and a prototype is designed based on them.
• Experimentation: Here the initial solution is applied and people’s response to it is observed, and make the necessary adjustments, This stage ends with the creation of the final solution.
• Development and generalization: During the implementation of the final solution, there is still an opportunity to develop it continuously based on user feedback, At this stage, it is also planned to generalize the solution to the largest segment of beneficiaries. For example, if the solution addresses the challenge of motivating students during the classroom, It is circulated to the rest of the teachers in the school and then to the rest of the schools nationwide.
  Focus on the human
  The most important characteristic of design thinking is that it is human-centered, Meeting human needs and monitoring and taking into account human responses is at the heart of the design process at all stages, from discovery to interpretation to visualization to experimentation.
  I applied design thinking with a group of brothers and sisters to find solutions to some of the challenges faced by Syrian schools in Istanbul and we concluded that this methodology in dealing with challenges not only gives us better opportunities to find solutions, but also establishes a new culture that we Syrians need most at this stage. I summarize the features of this culture as follows:

1. The human being is the foundation of the process of change. Most theoretical solutions fail because they don’t take the human factor seriously enough. For example, it was found that the main obstacle to reorganizing school furniture to give a wider space is the attitudes of the concerned teachers and administrators towards the new organization. Detecting and addressing these situations is an essential part of the solution.
2. The problems on the surface are manifestations of deeper causes. During the discovery and interpretation phases, we find that the challenge we first named has deeper causes and we may redefine the challenge altogether.
3. The criterion for the success of the idea is its applicability. Thinking here only hovers the horizons of theorizing long enough to see the whole picture. He then quickly descends into reality to design and implement the practical solution and see people’s response to it.
4. People have a responsibility to improve their conditions. When we meet people in the discovery phase, We meet them again in the experimentation phase to find out what they think of the initial solution, We instill in them the idea of expressing their needs and feelings and participating in change, whether at the stage of diagnosing or treating the problem.
5. There are no complete solutions from the first time. In our society, we are used to asking for perfection and rejecting solutions just because there may be flaws in them, The design thinking methodology relies on experience to develop the solution.
6. Promote teamwork and team spirit. Design thinking depends on the work of the team, Participants exercise complementary roles, This makes it an opportunity to practice teamwork, He felt the great impact of listening to new ideas and the cooperation and integration of different people.
7. Promote optimism. Challenges that at first glance seem intractable, Studying and understanding them, using brainstorming and collective creativity shows that they have a lot of solutions.
   Design thinking instills the previous meanings in the souls practically and away from preaching or theorizing, The previous six stages are applied through detailed worksheets that take participants step by step to the final design. In our current circumstances full of many and unprecedented challenges, we Syrians need a design thinking methodology to address these challenges with innovative responses.

Yasser Al-Aiti