Reminder – blog’s need to be updated
To hand in on 11th January
Research and supporting material (40%)
Body of work (60%) which includes
- CV (PDF & designed physical copy)
- Proposal document
- Slide deck of product pitch
Week 12 – product pitch day (this will be assessed). Dragon Den type of session
- 5 in a group
- 5 min pitch
- 5 min Q&A
You’re going to pitch a digital product
What is that?
- Website (something substantial)
- Native application (phone, watch…)
- Web app, SaaS
- eBook
- Printed book
- Cards
- Physical Product
- Packaging System
- Game (app, board game)
- Connected product (A physical product connecting to the internet, transmitting, or receiving but not an interface: it relies on the internet to make it work)
Quote – “If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.” – Albert Einstein
Idea Generation
You should think way outside the box in idea generation. The best way to start is pie-in-the-sky thinking. Come up with the absurd and work that back to reality. You may critique yourself too much and not put it on the page: this is counter-intuitive to the idea generation process. Be wild with your thinking and somewhere in there you’ll have the proper idea.
Take Risks – always explore multiple ideas and approaches to a design problem and don’t be afraid to fail. If there is an unusual or novel way to do something, try it out. It’s easier to simplify and dumb down an idea than it is to make a boring one exciting
Methodologies
Mind Mapping
- Logical associations
- Categories
- Fast
- Visual order
- Radiates out from central issue/problem
Brainstorming
- Spontaneous
- Good where time is limited
- Encourages discussion
- Encourages free thinking
- Unexpected ideas
- Collaborative
Write down every idea from a post-it notes and stick it on the wall. A literal approach to ‘throw it on the wall, see what sticks.’ You’ll have viable ideas and rejected ones. Maybe the viable ideas will be linked. It lets you step back and look at things properly to get to your final idea
Visual thinking
- Google images
- Designspiration
- Niice
- Moodboards
Sketching
- Quick
- Very visual
- Easy to interpret
- Easy to edit/add to
- Lots of iterations
Connections
Particularly useful when setting out your own project. Make connections between different factors involved in the project.
(Human need, target audience, medium)
e.g., education + 25-34 + platform game + smartphone = A casual language learning aimed at young professionals who have to collect words and assemble sentences to progress to the next level
Associations
- Pull a random word or image and generate ideas for anywhere between 30 seconds to 2 minutes, then pull a new one and go again
- Mash two ideas together by generating a lift of different elements, then write examples around each element
Also see this technique for random associations – https://bit.ly/2ZE25KA
Worst way
Come up with the worst possible solution to the problem. Benefits to this are relieving anxiety around ideas being good enough by flipping the concept. Can be undertaken collaboratively with competition around who thinks up the stupidest and most unthinkable idea. Then try to invert your results
Unintended Consequences
Another n=inverted way of coming up with an idea in negative brainstorming. This is an exercise in discovering negative or unintended consequences of a product
What if? What might be?
Simply asking questions or re-phrasing a design problem with different words can take the onus off expecting a solution and allow you to explore possibilities
Inspiration
Inspiration can be triggered by the mundane. Go for a walk or explore a new area of discipline. Another approach is to break a topic or problem into smaller pieces. The smaller questions can lead to more open discussions and could involve into larger ideas.
Osborn Checklist
The Osborn Checklist covers all aspects of the thinking process
- Scatter
- Combine
- Adapt
- Modify
- Put to another use.
- Eliminate
- Rearrange
Look on Miro for S.C.A.M.P.E.R Board Template
Quote – “The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible.” – David Ogilvy
*Create first, edit later. You can’t do both at once*
Next week – Research and Pitching (with examples)
For next week – Come up with a great idea! (Start idea generation)
Group Task – I was online this week so couldn’t participate. Task is to choose one methodology and try it out.
Summary/Reflection
This week I found the lecture useful for how to generate ideas, as sometimes it’s difficult to come up with ideas that seem original and will go far with research and presentation. For me I think I find it useful to research and read material to inform and backup my ideas and visuals. I also like to brainstorm on paper to showcase my ideas and get them all out. I also find scribbling and doodling on paper a good way to get my ideas flowing which seems a bit odd but works for me.
Update on Project Proposal Deliverable
I have the whole document typed up and a basic invoice example typed up in a Word Document. This week I plan to focus on the designing the document up on Figma, with the invoice designed up alongside this.
Below is the title page and revision history page designed up. I’m going with the curved line design as I think it helps the eye follow through the document. I choose the teal and green colour palette to have a neutral and natural tone to the document that I would imagine would match the ‘Hill Street Belfast’ brand. Typeface is ‘Montserrat’ as I think it’s an easy type to read.
