Unit 1: Introduction to Design thinking with AI tools - Practice Quiz

1 What is the primary focus of Design Thinking as a problem-solving approach?

2 Which stage typically begins the AI project life cycle?

3 Creativity is best defined as the ability to:

4 Which of the following best describes an invention?

5 Innovation is most accurately described as:

6 A problem that is unclear, complex, and has no single correct solution is called a:

7 Which trait is most associated with effective design thinkers?

8 How many stages are in the widely used Stanford d.school Design Thinking model?

9 Which is the first stage in the Stanford Design Thinking model?

10 Which activity best represents the 'Ideate' stage of Design Thinking?

11 Design Thinking as a concept was popularized largely through the work of which organization?

12 Design Thinking is considered which type of process?

13 Which of the following is a common career role linked to Design Thinking?

14 Why is it important to monitor AI innovations continuously?

15 In the AI project life cycle, what is the purpose of the data acquisition stage?

16 Which of the following best encourages creativity in a team?

17 In which stage do designers build a low-cost model to test their idea?

18 A problem with a clear definition and a known correct solution is called a:

19 Design Thinking can be applied to which of the following?

20 Which mindset helps design thinkers embrace uncertainty and mistakes?

21 A team building an AI-based crop disease detector has gathered thousands of leaf images but the model performs poorly on rare diseases. Which stage of the AI project life cycle most directly needs revisiting?

22 During which phase of the AI project life cycle is the metric such as accuracy or score primarily used to judge whether the solution is ready?

23 A designer insists on watching real users struggle with a ticket machine before proposing any fix. Which core design thinking principle does this best reflect?

24 Why does design thinking encourage building quick, rough prototypes early rather than perfecting a single idea first?

25 A student combines an umbrella with an LED light to make walking at night safer. This act of generating a novel, useful combination is best described as an expression of:

26 Which situation best demonstrates 'divergent thinking' during a creativity session?

27 A researcher creates the first-ever working device that converts body heat into usable electricity. In design terms, this original creation is best classified as an:

28 A company takes an existing video-call technology and successfully redesigns it into a widely adopted telemedicine service. This is best described as:

29 Which statement best distinguishes invention from innovation?

30 A city planner faces a problem with no single correct answer, shifting requirements, and many stakeholders who disagree. This is best classified as a:

31 Solving the equation has one clear method and answer. This type of problem is best described as:

32 Design thinking shifted over time from focusing mainly on physical product aesthetics to addressing broad human and organizational challenges. This shift best illustrates its:

33 Which factor most contributed to design thinking spreading beyond design studios into business and management?

34 Which characteristic best captures the fundamental nature of the design thinking process?

35 A bank wants to redesign its mobile app around actual customer frustrations. Why is design thinking a suitable approach here?

36 A designer freely explores unusual ideas and stays open to being wrong when evidence appears. Which trait of effective design thinkers does this reflect?

37 Which behavior best shows the 'collaborative' characteristic valued in design thinkers?

38 In the Stanford d.school five-stage model, which stage immediately follows 'Define'?

39 A professional researches user behavior, maps journeys, and tests interface prototypes to improve product usability. Which role best fits this work?

40 Why is continuous monitoring of AI innovations important for a design team building AI products?

41 A team building a fraud-detection model finds that after deployment, the model's precision drops steadily over six months even though no code changed. Which phase of the AI project life cycle is most directly responsible for detecting and remediating this issue?

42 During the AI project life cycle, a stakeholder insists on skipping the 'problem scoping' phase to save time and moving directly to modeling. What is the most likely long-term consequence of this decision?

43 Design thinking is often described as 'human-centered.' Which scenario best demonstrates a violation of this core principle despite following a structured process?

44 Which statement best captures why 'embracing ambiguity' is treated as a principle rather than a weakness in design thinking?

45 A researcher distinguishes 'divergent' from 'convergent' thinking. Which combination correctly maps these to phases of a creative process?

46 Two teams solve the same design brief. Team A produces an idea that is novel but useless in context; Team B produces one that is useful but entirely conventional. Under the standard definition of creativity, which team's output qualifies as creative?

47 A company creates a working laboratory device that demonstrates a new physical principle but has no market, no manufacturing plan, and is never sold. In the invention-innovation framework, this output is best classified as:

48 A firm adapts an existing e-commerce checkout technology into the healthcare appointment sector, generating substantial new value there. This is best described as which type of innovation?

49 Which scenario most clearly illustrates the difference between sustaining and disruptive innovation?

50 A city planner must address homelessness, where stakeholders disagree on the definition, there is no clear stopping rule, and every attempted solution changes the problem itself. This is best categorized as which kind of problem?

51 Which characteristic distinguishes a 'tame' problem from a 'wicked' one even when both are complex?

52 Design thinking evolved from being seen primarily as a designer's cognitive activity to a broadly applied organizational methodology. Which shift best explains this evolution?

53 Herbert Simon's contribution 'The Sciences of the Artificial' is historically significant to design thinking primarily because it:

54 A manager argues design thinking is 'just brainstorming.' Which counterargument most accurately captures the nature of design thinking?

55 When is design thinking LEAST likely to be the appropriate methodology?

56 A designer repeatedly reframes the problem statement after each round of user feedback rather than defending the original brief. Which characteristic of design thinkers does this best demonstrate?

57 Which pairing correctly links 'empathy' with a distinct but complementary design-thinker trait, avoiding conflation of the two?

58 The Stanford d.school model (Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test) and the Double Diamond model both represent design thinking. What is the key structural insight the Double Diamond emphasizes that a flat five-step list can obscure?

59 In the d.school model, a team gathers rich user quotes and observations but writes a vague, solution-biased problem statement. Which stage failed, and what is the downstream risk?

60 An organization wants to embed design thinking across product, marketing, and operations rather than confine it to a single UX team. Which role is most specifically suited to driving this cross-functional adoption?