Introduction The first term at UAL has been a new journey for me in learning about design at a global level. I kept questioning myself about what is an ex- perience and how can I improve my ability of understanding people at a greater level to give the best output.

In this essay, I’ll explore about Design thinking, how it’s being impacted by technological advancements and techniques em- ployed by Designers to adapt to it.

In my learning of UX Studio Practices, I have learnt to develop a broader thought process, with attention to details and analysing every factor to the core. For example, looking at an insect’s functionality leads imag- ination to the function of an instrument working at the same pace. As a designer, you have the power to change people’s mindsets and steer behaviour.’’ (Jolene, 2020). And I believe this power comes by develop- ing a deeper understanding of our surroundings and human behaviour.

What is design thinking? Amazon, which is an online market place where buyers and sellers come together.
Amazon does not directly dictate what it sells to consumers, rather customers buying evolves on the go based on the hundreds of options which amazon shows them.
The content created by users i.e. reviews play a bigger role in buying decision compared to product descriptions. Designer’s thinking revolves around a deep interest in developing an understanding of the people. It uses the subconscious as well as the conscious mind, subjective as well as objective thinking, tacit knowl- edge as well as explicit knowledge, and embraces learning by doing (Moggridge, 2010). It’s a powerful tool which not only helps create a new experience design, as I read from interaction design foundation library that, Designers’ work processes can help us systematically extract, teach, learn and apply these human-centred techniques to solve problems in a creative and innovative way – in our designs, in our businesses, in our countries, in our lives (Dam and Siang, n.d.). We are constantly trying to design great and amazing products for people, but at the same time it is very important to keep in mind how the output/ work process can be leveraged to a bigger scale.

Impact of technology on Design is thinking The rate of change induced by technology has exceeded the pace of learning new competencies to deal with it. One of the finest examples is the online giant- Amazon People have a voice today, they can assess goods and services. As a designer it puts the onus on us to empower customers, but at the same time keeping corporate interest in mind. It’s a bal- ancing act and has pushed through accelerated changes in design thinking. Another catalyst for technology has been the current pandemic, which has led to digitalisation of businesses across traditional and non-traditional industries, developing or developed markets.

Amazon, which is an online market place where buyers and sellers come together.
Amazon does not directly dictate what it sells to consumers, rather customers buying evolves on the go based on the hundreds of options which amazon shows them.
The content created by users i.e. reviews play a bigger role in buying decision compared to product descriptions.

Designing a product used to be influenced by only two factors, creating a product with quality material and quality experience. Now, Design required a meaningfulness with the real physical world touch points. That’s how the term of convergence comes in. Online grocery shopping websites are a good example where the brick and mortar retail giants like Target, Costco, Walmart have to quickly launch apps/ websites to cater to the needs to home delivery of groceries while providing an experience similar to their respective physical stores And last not the least

Social media platforms has created new styles of communication and interaction for us and companies which has made a huge impact on the everyday lives of the people. Social media has brought people with common interests togeth- er and expanded the horizon of ideas worldwide. People have started building their interests in different sectors, their minds are open to new innovations making them drowned in the knowledge and decency on the internet. I relate it to a world where humans are being ruled by the excess information on the inter- net, it has turned into a compulsive urge to use the internet for every little thing. On one side it serves you the power of knowledge, but on the other hand it also gives you the power to ruin your own internal abilities.

As we do the Socratic questioning on the read we did in a class- room seminar for weaponized design (Cade, 2018). I agreed with the thought of ‘technological realities are always contested. Examples of wea- ponised design are numerous and horrific. It is critical that user experience design must begin to deconstruct the outcomes of our collective body of work, especially as tech becomes more embedded and less visible or more easily ignored (Saitta, 2016). I assent with what Saitta writes about, developing new de-
sign practices that will help to reduce cases of weaponisation through trade-offs in a system’s design, but practice alone is not enough. These days, designers have a much bigger influence on a product and service of multinational companies or at startups and are accepted to play along with the strategy or marketing teams. The scale of what is being designed has shifted from stand- alone products to whole ecosystems of services, products and people.
Somewhat ironic given the name of the course at UAL and many other institutes as User Experience Design, it was (John Fass, 2020) who gave us a thought to stop referring to people as ‘users’. I connect with the use of the term people as we need to connect to human behaviour in this technological era where scenarios change at an astonishing pace. Keeping pace with the changes Designers are learning and growing their abilities by going deeper in understanding human psychology and using neuroscience to identify neural patterns which affect the thinking processes of people. New learning techniques like EEG, Eye tracking and Focus group discussion are being frequently used as a qualitative approach to gain an in depth understanding of the human brain.

Concluding with the learnings from the studio practise done at university, we adopted a qualitative approach to better under- stand memory using a direct methodology of narrative and arte- fact analysis. There is a great role to build an experience in reality through changing factors which cannot be ignored. We felt the progress in the outcomes, and as said by Professor Dr. John Fass, If there is no entry to knowledge with basic living nature, there will be no substantial exit. Seeing at the three aspects of the connection between design thinking and the impact on technology advancements and tech- niques, I feel technology is an enhancement and it is very import- ant for a designer to know the behavior changes of human being and think consciously to bring a well being.

Refrences Dam, R.F. and Siang, T.Y. (n.d.). What is Design Thinking and Why Is It
So Popular? [online] The Interaction Design Foundation. Available at: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/what-is-design- thinking-and-why-is-it-so-popular? Hellemans, J. (2018). Design and its influence on Social Behavior. [online] Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/@janhellemans/design- and-its-influence-on-social-behavior-22214c4a5640. jolene (2020). Entry 29 Design and Social Behaviour. [online] Jolene’s blog. Available at: https://jolene5.home.blog/2020/04/18/entry-29- design-and-social-behaviour/ Khosla, V. (2012). Vinod Khosla: Maintain the Silicon Valley Vision. [online] Bits Blog. Available at: https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/13/kho- sla-the-silicon-valley-vision/ Moggridge, B. (2010). Design Thinking: Dear Don . . . [online] Core77. Available at: https://www.core77.com/posts/17042/design-thinking- dear-don-17042. Saitta, E. (2016). Dymaxion: Infrastructural Games and Societal Play. [online] dymaxion.org. Available at: https://dymaxion.org/essays/infra- structuralgames.html The MIT Press (2016). The Stuff of Bits. [online] The MIT Press. Available at: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/stuff-bits.