Dr Iain Macdonald
Associate Professor, Head of Department, Design Innovation, Maynooth University
Dr. Threase Finnegan-Kessie
Assistant Professor, Department of Design Innovation, Maynooth University
A ground-breaking university course is embracing the concept of design thinking to help shape the future of retail and eCommerce.
Customer centric approaches are playing an increasing role in shaping the future of retail and eCommerce. Within that, experts point to greater integration of design thinking — a problem-solving methodology that helps designers understand user needs to develop solutions for products that better meet customer requirements.
Design innovation that understands customer needs
Dr Threase Finnegan-Kessie, Assistant Professor and MSc Programme Director at Maynooth University Department of Design Innovation, says there is great potential for design thinking to transform the retail and eCommerce sectors as it “shifts the focus from simply selling products to understanding and meeting the deeper needs of customers.”
In a sector where community engagement is increasingly important, Dr Finnegan-Kessie points to Starbucks Community Stores initiatives. These stores are designed with local communities to address specific needs. Similarly, Patagonia engages the customers through their Worn Wear program, which encourages the repair, reuse and recycle of Patagonia gear and promotes sustainability.
Variety stimulates really deep learning.
Intensive learning in design thinking
The Department of Design Innovation at Maynooth University is leading the way in customer centred design by providing MSc Design Innovation students with the skills to make valuable contributions across the retail sector. The course attracts people from all stages of working life and diverse backgrounds, including those from other degrees, those already in work, returning from a career break or upskilling.
Associate Professor Dr Iain Macdonald, Head of the Department of Design Innovation, says: “There is a whole spectrum of different people coming to work together, and that variety stimulates really deep learning.”
He says the programme, with two days of intensive face-to-face learning a fortnight, particularly appeals to people already in employment “who can come and learn with us.”
Diverse backgrounds
After launching in 2014, the course was named best new post-graduate programme in Irish education. “Its aims and ambitions are to take students from different backgrounds and look at human-centred issues and learn a process, define a problem and then create products and services that can be tested and taken to market,” says Dr Macdonald.
Dr Finnegan-Kessie says: “One of our biggest success stories is a GP who came to the course, got a sense of what design thinking can do and, along with a classmate, set up a successful eCommerce business called BeyondBMI.
“It highlights how you can come to this course with passion and interests and use this as a space to develop and meet people that you can collaborate with.”
Find out more about the MSc Design Innovation Programme at maynoothuniversity.ie/design-innovation/why-design-innovation
