Jeroen van Erp is the founder of the design agency Fabrique and Professor of Concept Design at Delft University of Technology. What occupies Jeroen is the following question: if God has a hospital in heaven, will it look the same as the hospitals here on earth? The answer will almost always be 'no'. But why do our hospitals look like that? Jeroen explains why and the complexity of systems between designers and users. The basic idea of design thinking is to make a system better through innovative design.

It doesn't stop with the design

The classical way of designing focuses on products: "I grew up with products that you design and you can hold them and let them fall to pieces on the floor," says Jeroen. Nowadays, things work differently. In the past, a company would make a coffee machine and not know anything about the buyer. Today, Nespresso knows everything about you under the umbrella of the "product-service system". Who you are, how often you buy and how old your product is. Jeroen gives this example because the domain of design is expanding. It is no longer just about the design of a product, but also about the service around it.

What can I do with it?

Design Thinking consists of five phases, in which you work from design, to test, to result. Jeroen explains step by step in the podcast how this works and how to apply it in your work. It's a method that makes you think critically, so within Design Thinking it's not quickly good enough. The starting point is different from the average brainstorming in companies: "it's like your swimming certificate, first seven metres under water and through the ring, only then you have passed. You shouldn't want to surface before then".

Links

More about Jeroen van Erp

Fabrique, the company of Jeroen

Read more in one of Jeroen's books

Column about brainstorming by Jeroen

Contact

Do you have questions or input? Please contact Wendy van Ierschot at wendy@viepeople.com.

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