Design Thinking Implementation in Tourism Map Peter Ardhianto 1 and Christian Moniaga 2 1 Visual Communication Design, Soegijapranata Catholic University, Indonesia & Ph.D. Program in Department of Digital Media Design, Asia University, Taiwan 2 Architecture Department,Soegijapranata Catholic University, Semarang, Indonesia 1 peter.ardhianto@unika.ac.id, 2 christianmoniaga@unika.ac.id ABSTRACT This study aims to describe the use of design thinking methods on the design of tourist maps. The lack of literature discussing the design thinking process in map design is also the reason this research.The use of design thinking in this study served to convey the character of the Semarang Chinatown in map design to help tourists, tour guides, as well as economic progress and strengthening the identity of the area. The characteristics of the Chinatown area include history, culture, commerce, business, culinary, and religion. The objectives to be achieved in this research are visual communication design solutions through design thinking in a specific and useful map design area through the process of applying design thinking. This study uses design thinking methods, which include empathy, definition, ideate, prototype, and test. The results of this study found that most visitors had difficulty finding street names. At the define stage, it found that several personal factors influence the design that can solve the problem at the empathy stage. At the ideate stage, it found that the most appropriate choice to represent the map was to use a 3D map model. At the prototype stage, it found that by using the technique of folding two folds parallel and doubling, this made it easy for maps to be stored and seen anywhere. In the testing phase, it found that the design of the tourist map helps tourists find the desired place and tour guide in showing and explaining historical and cultural locations and landmarks. Keywords: design thinking, map deisgn, tourism map, pecinansemarang. 1. INTRODUCTION Tourist maps are things that often found in every tourist spot. Tourism map can be one of the useful promotional media to develop place branding. The ease of using digital maps is now helpful in finding ways if someone gets lost. [1]. Tourist attractions with unique characteristics such as Chinatown Semarang have a lot of potentials that can promote. Semarang Chinatown, located in the center of Semarang, Central Java province - Indonesia, is a tourist area with authentic [2]. The various characteristics of the Chinatown in Semarang require a tourist map design that can display and inform the characteristics [3]. unfortunately, now the Semarang Chinatown region does not have a tourist map, so many visitors and business visitors lost in finding a particular alley or location. The design thinking method is considered appropriate to be a bridge from the Semarang Chinatown tourism map design. Design thinking, which is a human-centered thinking process, becomes the right means to produce designs that can be close to its users CONVASH 2019, November 02, Surakarta, Indonesia Copyright © 2020 EAI DOI 10.4108/eai.2-11-2019.2294884