______________ is the first step in design thinking.ADefineBIdeateCPrototypeDEmpathize

The first step in design thinking is D: Empathize.

Explanation

Empathizing is crucial as it involves understanding the users and their needs, feelings, and experiences. This step encourages design thinkers to set aside their assumptions about the users to gain deeper insights into their experiences and challenges. By conducting interviews, observations, and other forms of user research, designers can collect qualitative and quantitative data which informs the later stages of the design process.

Empathy helps to create human-centered products and solutions, ensuring that the design effectively addresses the target audience's true needs. This stage sets the foundation for the design process, guiding subsequent phases such as defining the problem, ideating solutions, prototyping, and testing.