Development and evaluation of the documentation templates to support the design thinking process

This paper aims to assist learners in effectively documenting, transforming, and managing natural language-based information during the Design thinking (DT) process. Further, it seeks to aid evaluators in ensuring traceability and capturing design rationale when assessing the process and outcomes of DT. To achieve this, it presents templates that facilitate documentation and assessment. The effectiveness of these templates was evaluated through an empirical study involving 20 undergraduate students in a design thinking workshop. Analysis of documented templates, questionnaires, and interviews reveals the positive effects of templates on documentation and assessment activities and justifies using proposed documentation templates. The templates can be used as a support tool for process-based documentation as well as assessment activities during the early stages of the DT process.