| Author: | Javed Khan |
| Learning Line: | Digital Transformation |
| Course: | DT4: Data-driven Design |
| Week: | 3 |
| Competencies: | understand the principles of user-centered design know (part of) the process of user-centered design |
| BoKS: | 4K1 – The student is familiar with user-centered design principles and processes and knows how to apply them in specific (business) contexts. 4K3 – The student understands how to conceptualize possible and functional alternatives for an AI & Data Science product. |
| Learning Goals: | conceptualize possible and functional alternatives for an AI & Data Science product based on user research insights. |
Introduction
An important step in the design process is to come up with creative ideas. Typically this step takes place after attempting to discover users’ needs (also known as user requirements elicitation). In trying to come up with ideas that will address users’ needs, essentially a designer, or a group of designers, are engaging in a divergent thinking activity. Divergent thinking, simpy means thinking of several potential solutions to explore the entire, if possible, solution space.
In Design Council’s “Double Diamond” model of the design process (Fig.1) the step of coming up with several creative ideas, would be the “Develop” part of the process, which Design Council defines it as: “The second diamond encourages people to give different answers to the clearly defined problem, seeking inspiration from elsewhere and co-designing with a range of different people.“
One common method to generate several ideas, potential solutions to address users’ needs, is the brainstorming method. Some important tips when it comes to brainstorming are:
- understand it is a process: in the first step you are interested in generating as many ideas as you can
- avoid early criticism of ideas
- try to combine and build upon other’s ideas
- finally you can group and rank the ideas
Here is a video summarizing the process and presenting a method to prioritize ideas:
When it comes to trying to generate many creative ideas with a group, what typically happens, is that people, group members, are afraid to disclose their ideas because they are afraid that they are not good enough, or creative enough. This social fear is a threat that can severely stiffle the process. Therefore, one has to make sure to create a safe environment, in which participants feel safe and comfortable to speak out their ideas. One method that helps in creating an open and inviting environment is known as “Bad Ideas”. Here is an article about what is the “Bad Ideas” method, why it works, and how to conduct it: Worst Possible Idea – article from Interaction Design Foundation.
But what if you are alone, you are a single designer trying to generate ideas? Here is a video describing a technique you can use:
Some other sources to deepen your knowledge in the topic:
- ACM’s Creativity & Cognition (C&C) conference
- Interaction Design Foundation article: Stage 3 in the Design Thinking Process: Ideate
- List of brainstorming methods
To summarize, generating ideas to find out a high-level solution to address users’ needs is a key part of the design process and probably one of the most important steps of innovation. In this web article I presented some tips for brainstorming and gathered web resources for you to further explore this topic.