What is design thinking? – online classes from IDEO and Stanford

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Design thinking is a concept that’s been gaining popularity over recent years. Broadly, it’s a way of taking a human-focused approach to design and problem-solving. Rather than collecting lots of confusing data or making predictions without evidence, it encourages people to understand the true motivations of their audience, be it customers, students, or staff members. Design thinking can also be useful in your own life, such as figuring out which career you want or how to structure your life.

Below are 10 online design thinking classes, from schools like MIT and Stanford and companies like Microsoft and IDEO. Some are free to audit with an optional, paid certificate; others charge a fee but provide a certificate upon completion. Certificate costs range from $16.99-$599, depending on the class and platform.

Here are 10 online design thinking classes.

School: Rochester Institute of Technology

Length: Six weeks

Part of a longer edX MicroMasters program on Design Thinking, this class covers the basics of design thinking, teaching you how to use design to solve problems. It also debunks the misconception that you have to be artistic to implement design thinking and shows you how to think of it as more of a strategy. You can audit the class for free or pay $299 to earn a certificate.  

School: UC San Diego

Length: Four weeks

This class teaches you how to create technologies that people actually like to use, and helps you conduct fieldwork to get a better sense of what people want by asking the right questions in interviews. You can take it for free with a seven-day trial and then will need to pay a $39 monthly fee to keep learning. You can also take other courses in the Interaction Design Specialization. 

School: University of Virginia

Length: Four weeks

In this course, you’ll learn how to use creativity to solve difficult business and organizational problems and come up with bold, new ideas. You’ll follow a model that asks four key questions to prompt design thinking and learn from real-life organizations as examples. You can take this class for free with a seven-day trial and then will need to pay a $49 monthly fee to keep learning. You can also take other courses in the Leading the Modern Day Business Specialization. 

School: McMaster University and UC San Diego

Length: Four weeks 

One of the most popular Coursera courses, this class teaches you techniques to break up tough subjects and concepts. By emphasizing ways to make learning design easier and more effective, this class demonstrates the importance of a human-focused approach to learning. You can audit it for free or pay $49 to earn a certificate. 

Instructor: Alan Cooper, founder of Designit Strategic Design

Length: One hour and 42 minutes

This fairly-quick class focuses on the three pillars of design thinking: understanding your target audience, envisioning an innovative solution, and testing out an idea. Through 55 short lectures, you’ll learn to thoroughly plan out your research methods and storyboard your design ideas. You will get a certificate upon completion of the course.

School: MIT and Microsoft

Length: Six weeks

Geared towards classroom learning, this course shows you how to apply design thinking to a variety of K-12 school settings. The end goal is to find innovative, pragmatic solutions to educational challenges, with the hope of improving schools and school systems. You can audit the class for free or pay $49 to earn a certificate. 

School: University of Virginia 

Length: Four weeks

This course focuses specifically on applying design thinking to nonprofit and volunteer work, using examples from governmental, educational, and healthcare institutions to show you how to create new solutions that can help more people. You can audit this class for free or pay $59 to earn a certificate. 

School: Stanford University

Length: Five weeks

By one of the authors of the bestselling “Designing Your Life,” this course applies design thinking to figuring out the right career path for you. It’s self-paced and offers different exercises to help you sort out what you actually like to do, and then create tangible goals around that information. You can audit this class for free or pay $50 to earn a certificate.  

Instructor: Rob Sutcliffe, UI designer

Length: Three hours and seven minutes 

In 46 lectures, you’ll cover a crucial component of design thinking: human behavior. Using psychology, you’ll learn what motivates people to act, using this knowledge to build community and motivate staff, students, or customers. You will get a certificate upon completion of the course.

Instructor: IDEO U

Length: Five weeks 

IDEO is a leading design thinking firm and IDEO U offers certificate courses on the subject. This one in particular teaches you the steps from designing a plan to implementing and testing it, as well as how to learn from failure. You will get a certificate upon completing the course. This course is part of two longer certificate programs, Foundations of Design Thinking and Advanced Design Thinking.