Exploring the impact of design thinking tool among design undergraduates: a study on creative skills and motivation to think creatively

This paper exploring the impact of the utilization of Design Thinking tool in facilitating the development of a group of design undergraduates' creativity skills and motivation to think creatively. This study used a qualitative approach based on open-ended face-to-face interviews. A group of 55 design undergraduates from a Malaysian university was recruited, who were equally divided into 11 design teams, with each team having to solve the problems faced by alocal community. A stratified sampling method was employed to choose two members from each group, totaling 22 students as the interviewees. In the interviews, open endedquestionwas asked to probe their experience on how Design Thinking had facilitated their creative thinking and motivation to be creative. The qualitative analysis of the interview data revealed that the Design Thinking approach helped the design students to be both creative and highly motivated, thus enabling them to propose and develop practical, innovative designs. Clearly, such findings suggest that both factors are intimately linked with one another. The study shows that it is important for design educators to utilize the Design Thinking learning strategy to synergize the creative skills and motivationto be creative especially in design education in developing competent, responsible future designers who able to serve the society more effectively.