Be it at any level in the organization; design thinking offers the necessary tools for you to be an innovative thinker and unveil creative opportunities out there. But, what does it take to unlock the transformational power of design thinking?
For this, you must understand a simple thing – Power lies not in what it motivates us to do but in who it encourages us to become. So, to be a design thinker, you need to experience design.
Design thinking is a five-step human-centered process to undertake creative problem-solving. Broadly, design thinking involves understanding the user’s needs and giving them a solution. When utilized right, design thinking can help you create products and services that can prove helpful for your users.
Unfortunately, sans this knowledge, you fail to see these opportunities. Thus, you need design thinking training. For this, you must enroll in one of the top design thinking courses. The internet has a myriad of design thinking training online programs.
So, which of them is the best design thinking training course for you? We did our research and shortlisted a few of the best design thinking courses online. So, let us get started and address these courses one by one.
16 Best Design Thinking Courses & Classes
- Design Thinking for Innovation – Offered by University of Virginia – [Coursera]
- Experiencing Design: Deepening Your Design Thinking Practice – Offered by University of Virginia – [Coursera]
- Design Thinking in 3 Steps – [Udemy]
- The Design Thinking for the Greater Good: Innovation in the Social Sector – University of Virginia – [Coursera]
- Design Thinking for Beginners: Develop Innovative Ideas – [Udemy]
- Develop your innovation – Certified Design Thinking Bootcamp – [Udemy]
- Complete Design Thinking Masterclass | eBook included – [Udemy]
Bonus Design Thinking Classes
- Learning Design Thinking – [LinkedIn Learning]
- Mastering Design Thinking – [Massachusetts Institute of Technology]
- Postgraduate Diploma in Innovation & Design Thinking (E-Learning) – [Emeritus]
- MicroMasters® Program in Design Thinking – Offered by Rochester Institute of Technology – [edX]
- Design Thinking: A Toolkit for Breakthrough Innovation – [Kellogg]
- Innovation Through Design Thinking – [London Business School]
- Design Thinking and Creativity for Business – [Insead]
- Theories and Applications of Design Thinking:– Offered by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University – [edX]
- Design Thinking – [IDEO]
16 Top Design Thinking Courses Online
1. Design Thinking for Innovation – Offered by University of Virginia – [Coursera]
| Offered by | The Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia |
| Enrolled | 364,034 students |
| Duration | Approx. 6 hours to complete |
| Instructor | Jeanne M. Liedtka |
| Paid | Yes |
| Certification | Yes |
| Return or refund policy | 14 days from the date of payment |
| Cons | The instructor can work a little on his delivery. |
The Darden School of Business developed this design thinking class at the University of Virginia and is imparted by their reputed faculty. This course will give you hands-on training and discuss plenty of stories from different organizations that utilize design thinking to uncover compelling solutions.
Learning Outcomes
This design thinking certification online course provides you with an overview of design thinking and working with a model comprising four key questions and different tools that can help you understand design thinking with a problem-solving approach.
Some things you will learn here are:
- Using design thinking to generate innovative ideas
- Preparing to see and take action anytime an opportunity strikes
- Learning what design thinking is and understanding when to use it.
- Considering the different ideas find the ones that can bring massive outcomes.
This design thinking training online is a part of the four-part specialization, Leading the Modern Day Business Specialization. This is part 2 of the same specialization.
Prerequisites
This is a beginner-level design thinking course online. So, no prior experience is required to take this course.
2. Experiencing Design: Deepening Your Design Thinking Practice – Offered by University of Virginia – [Coursera]
| Offered by | Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia |
| Level | Beginner-level design thinking class |
| Duration | Approx. 11 hours to complete |
| Instructor | Jeanne M. Liedtka, Jessica Eldridge, and Karen Hold |
| Paid | Yes |
| Certification | Yes |
| Return or refund policy | 14 days from the date of payment |
| Cons | More practical training could be included in the course. |
This is another one of the top design thinking courses developed at the Darden School of Business. This course will take you through the six key phases of the design journey. It includes:
- Immersion,
- Sensemaking,
- Alignment,
- Emergence,
- Imagining, and
- Learning in Action.
Across each of the six phases of this best design thinking training, you will explore how design thinking can significantly impact innovators and motivate them to bring their authentic selves into the innovative conversation when design thinking is done well.
Further, through this design thinking class, the instructor will bridge the gap from beginner to pro. More so, it will solidify your skills and will enable you to materialize design thinking’s transformational promise.
Learning Outcomes
A few things you will learn in this design thinking certification online are:
- Understand the impact of design thinking on outcomes
- Developing a Personal Development Plan (PDP) to chart your progress
- Familiarity with the six critical phases of design thinking
3. Design Thinking in 3 Steps – [Udemy]
| Rating | 4.4 |
| Enrolled | 87,544 students |
| Duration | 1.5 hours on-demand video |
| Instructor | Alan Cooper and Designit Strategic Design |
| Paid | Yes |
| Certification | Yes |
| Return or refund policy | 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee |
| Cons | The course is very elementary. More informative topics should be included. |
The next best design thinking certification is an Udemy bestseller. This is the best design thinking course online, wherein you will learn design thinking precisely from the people who have been behind their invention.
The brain behind this design thinking training online is Designit, a global strategy firm with a team of designers that enable organizations globally to adopt and learn a human-centered approach to innovation.
This is an incredibly interactive design thinking class, wherein you will discover a different approach to strategic problem solving to help you give your customers the experiences they love.
Across the course, you will work on a real-life project that will equip you with all the vital tools to become more innovative, effective, and collaborative.
Learning Outcomes
Some things you can learn in this design thinking class are:
- Applying the design thinking framework for creative problem-solving
- Understanding the problems from a customer’s perspective
- Create prototypes for early idea testing before investing your time and money in it
- Guiding groups to brainstorm new and innovative ideas
- Planning and conducting effective design research, including user interviews
- Making a plan to take your idea forward
- Identifying the design search objectives
- Employing a storyboard for the communication of ideas
- Planning and conducting research, including interviews
Prerequisites
For this best design thinking certification course, you will need:
- Desire and willingness to understand the needs of the customer
- A timer
- Pen, pencil, highlighter, and a notebook
Who should take this course?
This design thinking class will benefit people who have heard about design thinking but do not know how it works and what it is. So, if you aspire to learn about design thinking while working on real-world projects, this is the ideal course for you.
Further, anyone who aspires to refresh and solidify their understanding of design thinking will benefit from the course. Lastly, business leaders who wish to learn what the designers do will also find this the best design thinking course online.
4. Design Thinking for the Greater Good: Innovation in the Social Sector – University of Virginia – [Coursera]
| Offered by | University of Virginia |
| Enrolled | 35,916 students |
| Duration | Approx. 8 hours to complete |
| Instructor | Jeanne M. Liedtka |
| Paid | Yes |
| Certification | Yes |
| Return or refund policy | 14 days from the date of payment |
| Cons | The course is great, but there are not many supplementary resources available except for the book. |
Are you aspiring to work in the social sector or an NPO? Is solving the problems of the people you serve becoming challenging for you? Well, to overcome this problem, you must enroll in this design thinking certification online course.
This course equips you to understand the issues, generate ideas worth testing, and iterate toward finding solutions that can make a difference. In this best design thinking course online, you will learn about the global stories from diverse areas, such as education, healthcare, and government.
So, the course will help you understand the techniques, tools, and mindset required to employ design thinking to unveil creative solutions in the social sector. The design thinking class was drafted at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business in association with the Batten Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
Learning Outcomes
A few things this best design thinking training course will teach you are:
- Learning what design thinking is
- Knowing how and when to use design thinking
- Preparing to see and take action as and when an opportunity strikes
- Using design thinking to generate innovative ideas
- Taking several ideas, you generate and determine the ones that can bring in excellent outcomes
Prerequisites
This design thinking certification online is a 100% flexible beginner-friendly course. So, you need no prior experience or knowledge to participate in the course.
5. Design Thinking for Beginners: Develop Innovative Ideas – [Udemy]
| Rating | 4.4 |
| Enrolled | 44,697 students |
| Duration | 1-hour on-demand video |
| Instructor | Laura Pickel |
| Paid | Yes |
| Certification | Yes |
| Return or refund policy | 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee |
| Cons | There is some problem with the final assessment. |
Consider a problem at work that you had to tackle recently. How did you approach this problem? Were you overwhelmed by the possible solutions? Did starting with the solution perplex you? If yes, this design thinking course online from Udemy can help.
Across the course, you will solve several design challenges. Every section in the course contains activities, which can help you use the different steps of the process to the challenge. You can also work on a workbook as you progress with the course. you progress with the course.
This is a National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) CPE-accredited course and will fetch you 1.8 NASBA CPE credits.
However, to earn credits via this design thinking class, you must:
- Score seventy percent or higher on the final exam
- Complete all the videos in the course
Learning Outcomes
It is a bestseller design thinking certification online course to teach you:
- How to apply the five-step design thinking process to a design challenge in the organization
- Empathizing with your users via observations and interviews to formulate a human-centric approach to a problem
- Defining the core problems by analyzing and synthesizing the information acquired via the empathy work
- Ideating the solutions to the problem by brainstorming
- Prototyping the ideas rapidly towards identification of the best possible solution for your problem
- Pitching the design thinking to your organization or team using storytelling
- Testing the prototypes with users to acquire feedback on the proposed solution
Prerequisites
A few prerequisites associated with this design thinking class are:
- Familiarity with the skills of the professional
- Time and patience to take the course
Who should take this design thinking course online?
This design thinking training online is meant for:
- Employees who need a structured way to devise innovative ideas that appeal to the audience
- Human resource team that needs to devise a more human-centered approach to their workplace training and programs
- Product managers are responsible for motivating their team to focus on user experience anytime they release new features
Please bear in mind; that this course is not for formally trained designers who already have a high-level understanding of the design thinking process.
6. Develop your innovation – Certified Design Thinking Bootcamp – [Udemy]
| Rating | 4.3 |
| Enrolled | 10,323 students |
| Duration | 2.5 hours on-demand video |
| Instructor | Marcin Stasko |
| Paid | Yes |
| Certification | Yes, you get a design thinking certification online |
| Return or refund policy | 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee |
| Cons | Compared to the several courses on the internet, this one lacks production quality and content. |
This design thinking course online is designed to depict the phases of the design thinking process. After every step in the course, you can follow it up with a project.
The good thing about this course is the instructor is incredibly responsive. So, you can ask questions, and your doubts will be resolved then and there.
More so, some exams and projects can help you challenge yourself and assess your learning. Once you are done with the complete Bootcamp, you will bag a certificate.
Learning Outcomes
A few things you will learn with this best design thinking certification course are:
- Developing an array of products, services, concepts, processes, etc., for end-users
- Optimizing the ability to innovate
- Developing advanced brainstorming
- Leveraging diverse innovation ideas
- Connecting with the customers and end-users by catering to their actual requirements
Prerequisites
To take this design thinking course online, you only must possess the motivation to develop some innovation.
Who should take this course?
This design thinking class is meant for:
- Education and business students
- Project managers and their teams
- Coaches and people who wish to have their startup
- Anyone who wishes to create new projects
- Anyone wanting to better their ideas
- Project managers
- Anyone wishing to boost the brainstorming process
- Anyone who aspires to develop prototypes
7. Complete Design Thinking Masterclass | eBook included – [Udemy]
| Rating | 4.4 |
| Enrolled | 7,393+ students |
| Duration | 4.5 hours of on-demand video |
| Instructor | Andy Woynarowski |
| Paid | Yes |
| Certification | Yes |
| Return or refund policy | 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee |
| Cons | The course is a little bland. The instructor should try to include more engaging techniques to make the course interesting. |
An excellent thing about this design thinking certification online course is that it is a concrete course. There is no fluff in the course.
In this course, you will study the contents of Andy’s design thinking book. This is a hands-on course, and you will have ample theoretical concepts and practice questions that you will study in the course.
Across the course, you will learn thirty methods that have been fully integrated into the design thinking process. Further, the course has 94 resources that you can download.
Overall, it is the most comprehensive course that aims to teach you everything that you ought to know about design thinking. Moreover, you will be working on an actual business project, and via this, you will attempt to create the restaurant experience of your dreams.
Learning Outcomes
Some things you will learn in this design thinking training online are:
- Understanding your customers
- Using the knowledge of the market to better their products and services
- Managing and delivering comprehensive design thinking projects to get value for the price
- Becoming a pro and getting more work from the clients
- Pitching your projects to the investors
- Tackling any design challenge that comes your way
- Progressing in your career dramatically with the unique knowledge that the course offers
- Performing intensive customer research to understand the customer’s perspective and synthesizing and using the results
Prerequisites
To take this design thinking certification online course, you must have:
- An internal desire to understand your customers
- Willingness to be more innovative
- Ambition to learn new design skills and carve an impact on the market
Who should take this design thinking course online?
This best design thinking certification course is meant for:
- Anyone who needs a fresh and updated look at Design thinking to know how to work on it
- Designers who work closely with their clients to establish a great impact and deliver incredible results within projects
- Business owners who aspire to reach their customers on a real level and amplify their experience
- Product owners who wish to have a thorough understanding of the design thinking process and use it to better their services or products
- Professionals utilize design thinking tools and methods routinely but need a fresh outlook on things.
- Researchers who aspire to deliver a fantastic customer experience
Top Design Thinking Courses – Bonus Picks
1. Learning Design Thinking – [LinkedIn Learning]
Randall Elliott presents the next design thinking certification online course. This is a brief 33-minute course. Several practical examples and exercises in the course help you solidify your understanding of the practical concepts.
Learning Outcomes
In this design thinking class, you will learn:
- How to take a human-centered approach to design
- How design thinking is used to empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test, and refine
- Purpose of each design phase
- How to apply design thinking to your planning and design processes
- Methods to uncover the needs of your customers
- Defining the findings
- Creating innovative solutions
- Deriving insights
2. Mastering Design Thinking – [Massachusetts Institute of Technology]
This design thinking course online is a three-month course, which will need an effort of 6-8 hours per week. Once you are through with this design thinking training online, you will earn a verified digital certificate from the MIT Sloan School of Management. The course also counts towards an MIT Sloan Executive Certificate.
Who should take this course?
This course is meant for individuals and teams who aspire to learn a systematic, proven approach to new product development. Further, anyone who desires to cater to innovation, growth, and a fantastic customer experience, including cross-functional and functional teams, will find this course helpful.
These include:
- Product Manager, Marketing Manager, Growth Manager, R&D Manager, and Product Head
- Senior Designer, UX Designer, Design Engineer, Creative Manager, UX Design Consultant, Art Director
- C-Suite executives including CEO, COO, Managing Director, Founder, President, Chief Strategy Officer
- Even Innovation and Growth Consultants will benefit from this design thinking course online.
Learning Outcomes
A few things you will learn with this design thinking training online course are:
- Concepts that drive design thinking
- Creating a prototype
- Submitting the project ideas around user innovations
- Translating the needs into product specifications
- Identifying the customer needs and the user groups
- Present your final ideas
- Getting real-time feedback
- Picking the proper development process
- Building product architecture
- Analyzing the economics of innovation
3. Postgraduate Diploma in Innovation & Design Thinking (E-Learning) – [Emeritus]
The following design thinking course online is brought to you by Emeritus. It is a nine-month-long, online course, which will require an effort of four to six hours every week.
The course comprises 200 Video Lectures, 24 Assignments, 15 Discussions, 17 Industry Examples, and 20 Live Online Teaching Sessions. There is also a capstone project that you’ll be working on in the course.
Once you are through with the course, you will earn a digital diploma from the Emeritus Institute of Management. (In affiliation with MIT Sloan, Columbia Business School, and Tuck School of Business).
Why is this a suitable design thinking certification online for you?
From businesses and industries to governments and organizations, there is a growing change in the world around us. This makes the innovation curve even more critical.
So, via this one of the top design thinking courses (comprehensive program), you will acquire all the tools that you possibly need to integrate the people’s needs, and systematic inventive thinking required for business success.
Learning Outcomes
When you finish this best design thinking training, you will be in a position to:
- Conduct an in-depth needs analysis for the root cause of a problem.
- Come up with innovative solutions for a workplace issue.
- Put in the rules of Design for Environment (DFE)
- Apply the proven frameworks for innovation
- Perform a financial analysis of a creative solution
- Solving real-world problems
- Conduct a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) for a creative solution to a problem
- Define the principles underlying SIT methodology while identifying real-world examples
Course Module Structure
I – Innovation of Products and Services: MIT’s Approach to Design Thinking
II – Breakthrough Innovation Through Systematic Inventive Thinking
III – Strategy is Innovation: How the Leaders of Tomorrow Create the Future
IV – Capstone Project
4. MicroMasters® Program in Design Thinking – Offered by Rochester Institute of Technology – [edX]
The next one on our list is the design thinking course online by the Rochester Institute of Technology. This course is a cluster of 5 graduate-level courses. It will take you eight months to complete and will need an effort of 8 – 12 hours per week.
Having this MicroMasters program certificate will provide you with all the techniques and process knowledge to innovate and solve problems in the workplace.
Learning Outcomes
A few things you need for this best design thinking training are:
- User-centered research skills
- Knowledge to gain empathy through observations and interviews
- Methods for evaluating and applying user feedback
- Ideation and visualization techniques to generate targeted and creative solutions
- Strategies to understand user context necessary to identify and verify the business problems
- Testing models and prototypes to identify preferred solutions
5. Design Thinking: A Toolkit for Breakthrough Innovation – [Kellogg]
The next best design thinking training is an eight-week program, which needs four-six hours every week.
Who should take this course?
In this design thinking class, you will learn the drill that goes into problem-solving, giving a professional advantage in every career or industry. So, the course will benefit:
- Product or service managers looking for an innovative, consumer-oriented strategy
- C-suite professionals, heads of business, and entrepreneurs
- Designers who want to address people’s needs
- Consultants
- People working on transformational business models
Learning Outcomes
A few things you will learn in this design thinking training online course are:
- Unpacking your assumptions about problem-solving
- Knowing the drill to approach new opportunities with the human experience
- Learning to apply design thinking fundamentals
- Finding a solution that is technologically feasible and economically viable
- Developing an in-depth understanding of the full design process
- Knowing how to transform an idea into an innovative product or service
- Gathering hands-on experience with key methods and tools, including the Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD)
- Learn how design thinking is applied to come up with innovative business models
- Discovering how design thinking can nurture your creativity
- Familiarity with synthesis, ideation, prototyping, and storytelling to create and communicate offerings that address customer needs
- Overcome resistance to new ideas
6. Innovation Through Design Thinking – [London Business School]
The next design thinking class is presented to you by LBS. It is a six-week online course that needs an effort of four to five hours every week. The objective of the course is to provide you with practical techniques and tools to enable you to solve the innovation challenge.
Learning Outcomes
This design thinking course online will teach you:
- Create innovative solutions for your specific business problems
- Identifying the principles of design thinking
- Exploiting a whole new market while protecting your current one
- Knowing why innovation is important to you
- Defining and framing your innovation challenge
- Applying the design thinking frameworks
- Exploring possible futures
- Bettering creativity with design thinking techniques
- Devise the right plan to gain support from stakeholders
- Using experimentation and prototyping
- Understanding the pulse of your customers
7. Design Thinking and Creativity for Business – [Insead]
This design thinking class will take you on a hands-on journey to equip you to develop the creative-thinking skills necessary to innovate in any organizational context.
Learning Outcomes
This design thinking training online will teach you:
- Skills necessary to sustain creative and design thinking capabilities
- Acquiring the managerial levers and mindset required to develop an innovative organizational culture
- Knowing how to put design thinking into actions
- Learn to solve problems creatively
Who should take this course?
This is the best design thinking course online for;
- Senior executives
- Team leaders and managers
- Executives
- Participants coming in groups/teams
8. Design Thinking: Theories and Applications – Offered by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University – [edX]
Next, we have a five-week, self-paced course, which provides fundamental knowledge about design thinking. It demystifies design thinking as a process for solving complex and wicked problems.
Prerequisites
There are no prerequisites to take this design thinking course online.
Learning Outcomes
A few things that this course will teach you are:
- Knowing the importance of design thinking in solving complex and wicked problems
- Applying the design thinking approach to solve complex and wicked problems
- Recognizing the theories and practices of design thinking
- Application of the appropriate design thinking tools
- Forming the requisite attitude to be an adept design thinker
9. Design Thinking – [IDEO]
IDEO has an array of design thinking courses. In addition, they have self-paced certificate programs, which will benefit students of all skill levels and understanding.
You can browse through their available courses and make your selection of the best design thinking class for your needs.
Conclusion
So, these are the sixteen top design thinking courses. You can take a good view of each of them, even view their supporting platform, and then pick one design thinking course online that appeals to you the most. Happy Learning!
