This week we started looking at Ideation and Research for our new Pitch Project. We started off looking at ideation methods.
When we use any of these methods, it allows us to take something we are interested in, something that is impacting our generation or an observation and be able to identify the problem and create a solution. Some examples of this are how we can design to help make an impact on the Sustainable Development Goals or a current issue in the world such as Climate Change, Pandemics or other topics that are normally reported on the news.
The first kind of method we looked at was looking at the most terrible answers for “How might we relieve stress in a working environment?” The benefits of this method is relieving anxiety around ideas being good enough by flipping the concept.
Using materials such as Google Images and Pinterest we can create mood boards filled with inspiration to generate ideas and visually think of ideas
Sketching allows us to easily and quickly interpret our ideas on paper and create multiple iterations which we can edit and add to
Mind mapping allows you create many ideas from one central issue quickly. Not everyone uses this approach however it allows you to dump lots of ideas and then discard the ones you don’t not want or need.
A brain storming method is very spontaneous and can be completed quickly in groups which encourages discussion, free thinking and collaborative work which a lot of the time allows you to discover new or unexpected ideas.
The Connection method is a combination of 4 factors; Human need, target audience, medium, device. With these factors we are able to create a solution. For example the humans need is education, the target audience is 25-34, the medium is a platform game and the device is a smartphone. The solution to these four connections could be a casual game for language learning aimed at young professionals who have to collect words and assemble sentences to progress to the next level.
The associations method involves choosing the problem and then picking a random word which is not necessarily directed connected to the problem. With your random word, you then mind map associated work to that and from that mind map you pick 4 words that have stemmed off
For example, we were shown one the final years had completed where they had picked the word “Umbrella” and then off that they had the words Academy, coat, drop and group. Once they had their 4 words, they could then brainstorm ideas off those words such as the word “group” they created ideas to do with collaboration and then card sorted all the ideas to get some final solutions.