This week we were introduced to the brief for our final project for this module a pitch presentation. This presentation would be on an idea for a product or service with the aim of securing investment to take the idea to the design stage. To create this presentation we would need to come up with an idea and then validate it through desk and user research. We would not have to create a design for our idea just have enough information and evidence in the idea to allow us to pitch it to potential investors or in our case a panel of designers.
One of the most challenging parts of this brief is to come up with the initial idea, with no limitations on what that idea could be and the only requirement that it could be developed into a viable product or service the possibilities are endless. Too many possibilities makes it hard to narrow them down to a single idea but having no idea can be a bigger challenge. To help with this we covered several techniques to help come up with ideas and I want to look at some of these in more detail and see if there are any others we didn’t cover.
I started by looking for some further information on ideation techniques and found a piece (https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/introduction-to-the-essential-ideation-techniques-which-are-the-heart-of-design-thinking) on the Interaction Design Foundation website. This looked at what they describe as the essential ideation techniques as there are hundreds of possible ideation techniques and it is impossible to look at them all. Even though less was a list of essential techniques I still contained more than twenty different techniques. Here I am going to look at those that caught my attention and that I think I might find useful. A lot of these techniques are designed for groups but with a little modification to the method could easily be used alone.
Brainwriting is like brainstorming although it is done in a group, you have a set amount of time to write your ideas on a piece of paper before you pass on your piece of paper to another person. Someone them passes on their piece of paper to you and you try to elaborate on the ideas on the paper. Again, you do this for a set amount of time before swapping pieces of paper again. After a few swaps you can take all the pieces of paper and see what idea were created.
I really like this idea as it really uses all the skills of everyone in the room and it forces you to change focus quickly as you hand over your initial ideas and must start working on a totally different set of ideas. With everyone ideating and then working on each other’s ideas the best ideas would quickly come to the fore and by not only creating initial ideas but also following them up and elaborating on them the final idea could come as a mix and match from other ideas. I feel this technique would get the creative ideas flowing and could be a lot of fun especially for a design team.
An idea generating technique taken from the world of film, storyboarding is where you create a series of sketches to show a story or situation. In film a storyboard is used by a director as a visual aid to show the cast and crew how a scene should look and feel. Emotion is an important part of a storyboard and as you go through it you can concentrate on how people are feeling at different points. For generating ideas, you could either sketch out a situation to see where a person might need an idea to solve a problem or if you have an initial idea, you can look at what this would need to have to solve the user’s problem. Stories are a key part of a product and are hugely powerful by looking at how your idea could work in context it is easier to see what features it may need or even whether it has a place at all.
While storyboarding may be more useful in deciding on the viability of an idea and making decisions on what a product or service needs to offer. It is a very useful ideation technique as you can start to visualise the design in use and how it will be used. By concentrating on the emotions of the users in the scenario you can start to identify the pain points and frustrations that need to be solved making you design relevant and useful.
This is the ideation technique of gamifying the ideation process and putting rules and limits in place to get ideas flowing. On option is called the Anti-problem which is very like the worst way technique we looked at in class. Rather than look for the worst way to solve the real problem in the anti-problem you ideate to find solutions to the opposite of the problem. For example, if the problem was the amount of traffic around schools you might ideate ways to increase traffic around schools. Looking at opposite of the problem can take the pressure off trying to solve the real problem and encourage novel ideas. When finished you can look at these ideas and see if any could be swapped around to provide a solution to the actual problem.
I really like the idea of the anti-problem and the worst way the almost ridiculous nature of trying to ideate solutions that work against what you are trying to do really eases the pressure. By stepping away from the actual problem (but remaining within the same topic area) it allows you to have some fun with what might seem silly ideas. However, some of these ideas could when looked at from the opposite direction could form the seed of an idea that could solve the genuine issue. If not at least you will have had a bit of fun doing it and a break from continuously looking at the same problem and not going anywhere.
Another gamified solution that I have used in the past is Crazy 8s, this is particularly good for coming up with lots of ideas quickly. The technique itself is simple you take a sheet of paper and divide into eight sections. In each section you must sketch out a solution to a problem, but you only have one minute for each sketch. This time pressure means you cannot quality test your ideas you simply have to go with whatever comes into your head and while inevitably some of your ideas will be thrown away you only need one idea that has potential to get you started.
The joy of this technique for me is the fact it takes very little time (8 minutes) so you don’t lose any real time if it doesn’t provide you with a great idea. Also, it is very visual you don’t write ideas down or say them out loud you draw them, and this encourages a different way of thinking. I have used this technique a few times and I really enjoy it and I have found that at least one of the ideas that I have came up with has had enough merit to justify further consideration.
Here I have looked at three potential ideation techniques out of hundreds described online, the technique you choose will really depend on what stage of ideation you are at and what results you are hoping for. But whatever you are looking for there will be an ideation technique that will help if you hit a roadblock in the design process.
Sometimes coming up with ideas for a project is easy other times it can feel impossible. Fortunately when you are struggling there are a range of different techniques you can try to help get ideas flowing. I have only looked at a very small number here and as well as these techniques other simple things like taking a step back from what you are working on and doing something else can really help you come back to the problem with a new group of fresh ideas to consider. Ideation can be tough but a mixture of techniques, breaks and creative thinking can help to overcome creative blocks.