Ideation Fundamentals
Techniques to ideate and boost innovation in designs.
Hand-On Exercise on practical ideation techniques that you can use in your work environment to be an effective UX Designer!
Ideation is the creative process of generating new ideas, which can be accomplished through a variety of ideation techniques, such as brainstorming, body storming, and sketching. If done right, ideation is the one that helps founders and executives determine the right problem to solve and how to solve it. Ideation sessions help you to challenge assumptions, think outside the box, and explore uncharted territory.
In the ideation, you’ll explore and come up with as many ideas as possible. Some of these ideas will go on to be potential solutions to your design challenge/problem and some will end up on the reject pile. At this stage, the focus should be on the quantity of ideas rather than quality. For the sake of innovation and creativity, it is essential that the ideation phase should be a “judgment-free zone”.
In preparation for ideation, you can create a list of “how might we” questions related to your problem statement. The “how might we” methodology breaks your problem statement down into actionable segments, framing it as an opportunity rather than an obstacle.
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Let’s take a look at some of the most popular ideation techniques used by designers.
1. Brainstorming
Brainstorming is one of the most used tricks in the book when it comes to generate new ideas as a group. In a brainstorming session, you verbally bounce ideas off at each other in the hopes of finding a blended solution. The smaller the team about 5 to 7 people, the more focused and effective the conversation.
Rules of brainstorming are shown in the below picture
2. Bodystorming
The bodystorming technique gets you to physically experience a situation in order to spark new ideas. If you’re struggling to get close to the problem, bodystorming is a great way to generate genuine user empathy. Set up a physical experience resembling the problem you are trying to solve, using people, props, or a digital prototype. Based on your own interactions with, and reactions to this environment, it may be easier to come up with ideas.
In the above example, the users are testing a new musical instrument prototype. Using our body to act out situations and interactions will help us to sense the world besides just thinking about how we would sense the world.
3. Sketching/Sketch storming
Sketch storming is designed based on the Pictionary game. Much like Pictionary, sketch storming users will sketch their ideas, but initially do not use any words or symbols. Define a problem in the format of “how might we” and put a time limit. Start rough sketching/diagrams to express ideas/potential solutions and explore the design space. After sketching is done each team member will explain their ideas.
4. Method 6–3–5
Method 6–3–5 is a form of brainstorming in which six people write down three ideas in five minutes. When the five minutes is up, team members pass their sheet onto the next person, so that their peers can build off their ideas. This activity is completed in silence to avoid anyone employee from dominating the discussion process and placing each employee on a level playing field. At the end, the members will select the best three ideas for a problem.
The ideation workshop should leave you with a pool of new ideas to work from. You’ll then need to evaluate which ideas are feasible and worth taking forward. Eventually, you’ll create prototypes and test them on real users.
Tips / Best Practices
- Identify and practice the techniques that work best for you
- Before starting the session, have a clear understanding of who your customer is and what problems you are trying to
- The smaller the team, the more focused and effective the session will be. Invite around 5 to 7 people
- Don’t worry about being exact, let your mind and ideas flow!
- Don’t judge the ideas too much, it will reduce the motivation of participants
- Focus on quantity over quality of ideas
- Wherever possible represent ideas visually
- When converging, be open to the possibility that modifications or a new option may come out of the discussion
Checklist
- Clearly list out the problems
- Set the context clearly
- Select members with different backgrounds, for example: pick developers, designers, product managers, etc
- Pick a note-taker who writes down the ideas and key points
- Use a timer and respect it
- Identify the winning solution through data (preferable)/voting
Related Topics
Quick Question
Select the phases where we can do an ideation session
1. While synthesizing the research data
2. Doing the wireframes
3. Deciding on the layout
Leave your answer in the comments section below!
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