This week we talked about Idea Generation.
Firstly we were given the brief for our next deliverable, ‘Product Pitch’. We will present these pitches on Week 12 of our module. The pitch must be 5 minutes and no longer, this will then be followed up by a Q&A from our lecturer and guest.
The presentation must be a pitch for an idea you have for. a digital product. A digital product can be anything from a substantial website to board/digital game. Therefore basically anything we want.
We were told that we should take risks and not worry too much about realism when coming up with ideas as it easier to dumb your ideas down to a practical level than make something safe, exciting.
The rest of the lecture discussed 9 idea generation techniques to motivate us to get started on coming up with ideas. The 9 are as follows;
- Mind-Mapping- this is is a fast way to come up with ideas, allowing your mind to flow with ideas and is automatically categorised. However I feel like it is easier to get good ideas from mind maps when you already have a subject or topic of a product in mind. Not so much with a blank slate.
- Brainstorming- Brainstorming allows for spontaneous ideas, it is also a collaborative idea generation technique as it is completed in groups. It allows people to bounce ideas off each other and discuss.
- Visual thinking- involves creating a moodboard with something like pinterest. This is useful when you need ideas on layout and colour not really the idea itself, personally.
- Sketching- Sketches are really useful for quickly developing ideas for product you have already decided on. They are easy to edit and you can keep ideas flowing.
- Connections/Associations-Connections involves taking different factors such as people, hearts, planes and coming up with a product idea to connect these. Associations involves using a random word generator/ image. Generate as many ideas as you can think of in a set short time. Then move onto the next word/image. I think this is a really useful technique as it is quick and easy to set up. It can also be a done individually or in a group.
- Worst Way- this involves coming up with the worst possible way to solve a problem, this can ease the stress you feel at the beginning of idea generation. To turn this technique into a good idea generation try to invert your bad idea to something that could work.
- What if?… – Focus on asking questions or thinking of problems without thinking of solutions just yet. It opens the floor up for some risky and different questions you can then try to make a solution to.
- Inspiration- this technique means putting coming up with an idea on the back burner and to go outside and take in your surroundings, try something new, people watch and you might have a Eureka moment. This idea may not be very productive for quick idea generation but it can be a great way of getting yourself into the mindset to receive ideas.
- Osborn Checklist- The obsorn checklist also known as SCAMPER was a list made by Alex Osborn for creating new products from old products. This was something I used when doing my technology a-level and it proved more useful when I already had a product in mind.
The main goal of this list was to just get us thinking, doesn’t matter if they’re good or realistic ideas that is something you can worry about at the next stage.
Workshop
In this week’s tutorial class, me and a group of my classmates used a random word generator to quickly produce product ideas. Coming into the workshop after our lecture I think had us all feeling a little daunted and unsure of our creativity. But once we got sat down in our groups, decided on our technique and got started, It wasn’t long before I warmed up and gained more confidence.
The technique we used was a mix of brainstorming and associations. We used a random 3 word generator I pulled up on my laptop, we each had a stack of sticky notes in front of us and we just started saying things out loud. After we came up with an idea we said it out loud, wrote it down and set it in the middle of the table. We got into a flow of just coming up with ideas and we all gained more confidence as we went along, so much so we kept this going for nearly about 50 minutes.
We then used a class whiteboard to stick all our ideas up. One of us then took each post-it down, we discussed it as a group and then organised them into groups of bad, good and very good ideas.
The image below is of our ‘bad ideas’,
The next image is of our good ideas,
The final image is of our ‘very good ideas’
Each of us then took one idea from the very good pile to research for the product pitch deliverable at the end of this term.
The idea I decided to research was an ipad app to help people with arthritis and tremors with their handwriting. The app would show them guided stretches to help the overall care of their wrists and hands.
Next Week
Research further into chosen idea.
Proposal Document update
This week I made mock ups of the cover page of my Proposal Document. These were based on the sketches I did last week.
option 1
option 2
option 3
There is parts to each design I like and dislike therefore the design and style I will continue with through my proposal document will be a combination of these three.
Option 1
Likes: I like the lines separating the sections and the version number and date at the top of the first line.
Dislikes: I don’t like the border, I thought it would look more professional but there’s just too many lines on the page. I wanted to have a monochromatic colours and the title would be a different colour to draw attention to it but I don’t think the colour choices were correct.
Option 2
Likes: I think the monochromatic look was done much better in this design. I like the vertical text on the side and the border as it reminds me of an old book spine which I think creates a classier look.
Dislikes: The only dislikes I really have is i’m not sure on the blue scheme, it looks quite cold. It could also be the shades of blue I used and I might experiment with this.
Option 3
Likes: I really like the colour choices in this document, they are bright and command attention. I think I also prefer having sans serif typefaces in the body of the document. It makes it appear more professional and easier to read.
Dislikes: I think I should make the client that I’m designing for more prominent like in the second option.
Changes
I decided to continue developing the second option but I changed the colour scheme from monochromatic blue tones to a only 2 colours, green and blue. I think the muted green tone, brings down the brightness of the proposal and adds a nice contrast to the blue. I decided to go for a different colour scheme for my proposal than my brand colours because I saw this as an opportunity to adopt a more professional, muted style for an important document. I also think this shows my client that I can tend to their particular styles and wants instead of pushing my own into their designs.