Getting Better Ideas Faster

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Use these practical methods to help you brainstorm better, smarter, and more effectively, no matter the timeline. Using these methods, you can approach a design problem with the right questions so you can focus your creative energy on finding solutions.

Transcript of Getting Better Ideas Faster

How to Brainstorm more effectively

How DesiGn conference / 06.08.10

t: @cHanGeorDer / e: DksHerwin@msn.com / BloG: cHanGeorDerBloG.com

better ideas faster

David sherwin, frog design

Brainstorms at inDeX by @boetter / 49915119 cc license share remix on flickr

better ideas faster

quantity breeds quality

from Understanding Comics by scott mccloud — read this!

quantity plus qualitybig ideas, low fidelity

better ideas faster

nixie clock by randomskk / 3535050466 cc license share remix on flickr

better ideas faster

quantity plus qualitybig ideas, low fidelitydesigning your deadlines

at tHe very last minute

just enough ideas

some otHer conference

proBaBly runninG late

some other Guy

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identify your client’s actualproblems

strateGy

better ideas faster

what business problem are you trying to solve?

we’d like you to create a new logo and color palette for our restaurant…

?

stated marketing and design needs are symptoms of larger, systemic business problems.

we’d like you to create a new logo and color palette for our restaurant…

why?

problems live in different orbits within a client organization.

Marketing + brand strategy

Design strategy

Tactics

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Business problems

Marketing + brand strategy

Design strategy

Tactics

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Business problems

problems live in different orbits within a client organization.

we’d like you to create a new logo and color palette for our restaurant…

?

Business proBlem

sales have dropped 20% over this past year. what should we do?

we’d like you to create a new logo and color palette for our restaurant…

?

?

?

?

?

our signage is hard to read—should we try and redo it?

we need a more effective website to attract new customers?

our service and menu needs to be improved?

should we consider search engine ads?

Business proBlem

sales have dropped 20% over this past year. what should we do?

you should be thinking outside the box, but inside the strategy.

!BrainstorminG tip #1

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turn those problems into ideation questions

articulation

better ideas faster

how many designers does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

sales have dropped 20% over this past year. what should we do? not a DesiGn proBlem

we want a new identity system for our restaurant.

!

!

!

we need to redo our signage, it’s hard to read.

we need a more effective website to attract new customers.

Business proBlem

sales have dropped 20% over this past year. what should we do?

sales have dropped 20% over this past year. what should we do? not a DesiGn proBlem

can you create a new identity system for our restaurant? not a DesiGn proBlem

we want a new identity system for our restaurant.

!

!

!

?

what is the essence of this new restaurant identity?

Business proBlem

sales have dropped 20% over this past year. what should we do?

sales have dropped 20% over this past year. what should we do? not a DesiGn proBlem

can you create a new identity system for our restaurant? not a DesiGn proBlem

a DesiGn proBlem!

What is the essence of this new restaurant identity?

what metaphors provide the appropriate meaning for the new identity?

Articulating a design problem will suggest related questions that can be answered by design.

iDeation Questions

what emotions would a person feel when s/he encounters the new identity?

what metaphors provide the appropriate meaning for the new identity?

iDeation Questions

Articulating a design problem will suggest related questions that can be answered by design.

How does motion—online & in the real world—support the meaning of this new identity?

what emotions would a person feel when s/he encounters the new identity?

what styles of typography would best support this feeling?

what metaphors provide the appropriate meaning for the new identity?

what textures and graphic elements would best support this feeling?

what color schemes best express the agreed-upon meaning & emotion?

what materials would best express the meaning & emotion in print?

what style of photography or illustration supports the meaning you’d like to convey?

iDeation Questions

DesiGn eXecution

Articulating a design problem will suggest related questions that can be answered by design.

!

!

!

?

what kind of website functionality would encourage repeat business?

we need a more effective website to attract new customers.

?

Business proBlem

sales have dropped 20% over this past year. what should we do?

Starting with the right questions will steer you towards the right answers— by design.

!BrainstorminG tip #2

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Brainstorm using ideation questions and timeboxing

iDeation

better ideas faster

what is timeboxing?

short, structured sprints to reach stated ideation goals

20 mins

Brain-storm

BiG iDeas

how timeboxing works

David sherwin / challenge: technoyoga / time limit: 120 min / this page: first 3 timeboxes

20 mins 40 mins

Brain-storm

BiG iDeasevaluate

Determine app

content

how timeboxing works

David sherwin / challenge: technoyoga / time limit: 120 min / this page: first 3 timeboxes

20 mins 40 mins

final clean

sketcHes

Brain-storm

BiG iDeasevaluate

Determine app

content

rouGH wire-

framesevaluate

60 mins 80 mins 100 mins 120 mins

evaluaterefineD

wire-frames

visual DesiGn

tHinkinG

how timeboxing works

practice makespermanent

why timeboxing works

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Determine app

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the more time you provide yourself during a brainstorm, the less likely you’ll be able to focus.

!BrainstorminG tip #3

timeboxing + brainstorming methods

using new and unusual brainstorming methods in timeboxes prompts novel ideas

mind mapping

visualizing connections between seemingly disparate pieces of information

sean Baker, pictoric, and lenny vella, ’peeps creative / challenge: free association / time limit: 60 min

sean Baker, pictoric, and lenny vella, ’peeps creative / challenge: free association / time limit: 60 min

word listing

an alternate type of mind map with more structure and faster results

mark notermann / challenge: out of Gamut / time limit: 60 min

One important goal of this mark is to communicate an aspect of colorblindness to normally-sighted people. The website <http://www.vischeck.com/vischeck/vischeckImage.php> has a utility to test for colorblind perception. These screenshots are from tests based on the two most common types of colorblindness.

mark notermann / challenge: out of Gamut / time limit: 60 min

picture association

collaging together found images to spark new design ideas

Jarred elrod / challenge: never tear us apart / time limit: 60 min

brutethink

forcing connections between your area of focus and a totally unrelated word

matt mcelvogue, frog design / sketched this last time i presented this talk

idea inversion

taking an idea and envisioning its exact opposite—this isn’t easy!

Jessica thrasher / challenge: opposites attract / time limit: 60 min

freeform sketching

drawing pictures, words, and layout ideas in an free-form, associative way

meta newhouse, newhouse Design / challenge: one line logo / time limit: 30 min

meta newhouse, newhouse Design / challenge: one line logo / time limit: 30 min

role playing

act out how a product, service, or event would influence consumer behavior

Donnie Dinch, meg Doyle, claire kohler, mark notermann / challenge: touch screen of Deaf rock / time limit: 60 min

deconstruction

tear apart the bits and pieces that make up an existing design, then quickly reassemble them

David sherwin / challenge: i’m feeling really, really lucky / time limit: 60 min

future- casting

remove all reality constraints, working backward from what’s impossible to what’s possible

mark notermann / challenge: future-casting / time limit: 60 min

10x10

sketching in one hour at least one hundred doodles, which are then analyzed for novel ideas

David sherwin / challenge: 10x10 / time limit: 60 min

By settingimpossible goals, you’re more likely to create ideas that are truly unexpected.

!BrainstorminG tip #4

30 days in 30 minutes

a method for learning to timebox as a teamthree timeboxes: 8 minutes ideation / 2 minutes critiqueone person is “the client,” everyone else designs

Donnie Dinch, meg Doyle, claire kohler, mark notermann / challenge: storybook ending / time limit: 30 min

Donnie Dinch, meg Doyle, claire kohler, mark notermann / challenge: storybook ending / time limit: 30 min

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Connect existing ideas to discover better ones

syntHesis

better ideas faster

idea clustering

group and merge ideas, seeing which ones enhance the others around them

scamper

Substitute somethingCombine it with something elseAdapt something to itModify or magnify itPut it to some other useEliminate somethingReverse or rearrange it

—alex osborn & Bob eberle

Don’t fall in love with your first ideas. act like you’re speed dating until you run out of time.

!BrainstorminG tip #5

best practicesbetter ideas faster

Capture big ideas with simple tools first.

as the fidelity of an idea increases, you’re not brainstorming. you’re executing a design.

almost a year of post-it notes

from Dawn lozzi’s desk at

frog design—can you guess

how many are here?

Keep a toolkit for your daily sketching needs.

all you need is a pencil and an eraser, but a sharpie or two doesn’t hurt…

this toolkit is from leah Buley at adaptive path.

the blue pencil can be used for reference sketching,

then photocopied without showing up. the red and

warm gray markers are good for highlights.

Express your ideas in ways that travel beyond the page.

sing, dance, paint, act—use motion to create new perspectives on plain old words and pictures.

Designer scott scheff and i created a 30-second commercial for a fictional

record store in nyc—with a flip HD camera and a glue-huffing puppet oD’ing

while listening to the pixies’ “wave of mutilation.” Deadline: 30 minutes.

Write it, then draw it. (Or vice versa.)Get it all down. pictures hold more information—and possible interpretations—than anything ever said out loud.

graphic facilitation by emily chang / 2591901494 share + remix cc on flickr

Sketch like a designer, not like an artist.

you can sketch a comp in a matter of a minute or two that adequately expresses any design idea. (not the execution!)

Designer Jake rae created this sketch in a

few minutes for a in-class challenge. is any

other information necessary to convey what

the execution would require?

parting thoughts

intuitiondeepens with practice

intuition doesn’t come from rote repetition

intuitionfuels great design

“ plans are no substitute for the real thing… Process is a means to an end.our purpose is to create.”

— mark rolston, frog design

Questions?

David sherwindksherwin@msn.com

@changeorder

slides for this talk

will be posted to

changeorderblog.com

Creative Workshop is out november 2010

from How Design press

Better ideas faster | ©2010 David sherwin

all rights reserved.