Solo or group ideation?

The question what is the best way to organise and run the ideation workshop sometimes pop up: Solo or group activity? But what is best cannot be easily answered because ideation often requires a mix of individual and group creative contributions, and alternating between them. Also ideas are shaped by social interactions that provide inspiration and emotional satisfaction. Even those who say group ideation doesn’t work find that initial solo brainstorming followed by group brainstorming can improve the quantity and quality of ideas generated. In short, most ideation blends group and individual activities, but the challenge is how to blend them. So the answer to the question solo or group ideation, is both/and rather than either/or. That is, as experienced in the workshop, the quality of solo ideation improves with exposure to others’ ideas and a variety of answers.

One idea at a time

Think you can juggle twelve sparky ideas today? Working on multiple ideas simultaneously? Can you have too many ideas at any one time? Think again - this approach to ideation has its drawbacks, and may be unsuitable for more distinct problems. It could be related to, for example, avoidance, procrastination, lack of self discipline or choice overload through GenAI. Or it could be not knowing what your values are, it could be lack of true motivation and lot of wishing instead of action. But no matter the ideation experience, it is good practice to keep notes on all ideas and focus and pick one idea - just one - and develop it and present something catchy. And remember, nobody can figure out if ideas will be successful - ideas are just suggestions, not final plans or outcomes.

A sketch is a sketch is a sketch ...

In the digital age, where keyboards and touchscreens dominate everyday design activity, freehand drawing might seem like "old school". Arguably, however, digital drawing is just a different medium with different capabilities and to draw digitally is performing the same mechanical action as to draw traditionally. That is, the foundations are the same and the aim is the same. Moreover, it could be said that the digital medium affords more control over the design process allowing designers to focus on creativity rather than medium-specific techniques. Also, digital image generators have the advantage of making things look sharp, shiny and pretty, and delivered at speed. However, in the studio, the pencil remains a hands-on tool for generating and communicating ideas. In fact, research shows that hand-drawing is a complex cognitive process that allows for more deliberate thinking as well as greater spontaneity. Also, to draw, and write by hand can offer more time or opportunity to explore and reflect on ideas and express them visually, be it in the format of a sketchbook, creative journal or mind mapping. Furthermore, the physical act of freehand drawing is multi-sensory, feeds imagination and recalls memory while addressing both the rational and emotional sides of the design task. Indeed the sketch is a go-to tool for speculation. And so, practise freehand sketching or lose it!

Originality in the age of AI

GenAI has rapidly become a starting point in the ideation process as AI systems are capable of generating novel ideas that surprise even the most creative designer. Yet the generative models used to produce texts, images, videos, or other forms of data, may result in designers producing ideas that seem to lack originality. That is, the assumption that original ideas are manifestations of human thinking. If so, GenAI might challenge or compromise a designer's creative identity leading to digital dissociation with reality. That is, digital technology makes the designer feeling somewhat detached from the traditional material world. What is then originality in the age of AI when knowledge production, which includes creative action becomes increasingly distributed, collaborative and mediated by technology? When collaboration between human and machine heralds a democratic design process where "everything is design"and "everybody is a designer".* Integrating design and AI, then, suggests a rethink of the conception of originality and its relationship to design. Indeed, what makes, or who is a designer in the age of AI? * Already back in the 1960s, designers, such as the Archigram collective were interested in how the consumer could be part of the design process, not just a recipient.

GenAI's impact on ideation

While the workshop raises the awareness of the range of ideation tools available to designers viz. words, sketching, modelling and computing, design, as a practice, is inherently intertwined with technological progress. And so designers necessarily are adjusting to and adopting new ways of generating and communicating ideas - the latest being GenAI technologies such as ChatGPT and Midjourney. As a result designers, both in education and professional practice, find that GenAI is influencing the ways they go about ideation. But more than this; the rapid advancement of GenAI programmed to create new "original" content by learning from vast datasets, is having significant transformational affect on both design thinking and practice. Moreover, adoption of GenAI, as a data rich tool, is likely to help quicken the pace of, and to lower the cost of improvement and innovation in the design industry. It is also likely to challenge traditional studio-based teaching and learning transforming design education.

AI tool as agent for change

Designers are increasingly using AI in their role as agents for change to society*. That is, designers, together with AI have the capacity to influence or act in the world of design (largely defined). The human-AI collaboration, or interactive agency is now an everyday activity, from education to professional practice to an extent that text-to-image generators, for example, have become purposeful, goal-directed agents in themselves or, to borrow terminology for sociology, agents of intentional action. The rise of AI opens up the debate to what extent AI has autonomous agency. What seems certain though is that AI agency is impacting the role of the designer progressively shifting their roles from that of primarily producing a material good or service to that of ideator and facilitator addressing human needs and wants with emphasis of what is unique to human agency, notably equitable, sustainable and ethical concerns.* 41% of British architects are using AI in some way, in RIBA AI Report 2024.

Lines of thought

'Taking a line for a walk' - a quote from the artist Paul Klee suggesting moving freely without hindrance and by which the line is described as 'a dot that went for a walk' - a point shifting its position forward. As such, the line is an evocative metaphor for generating and capturing an idea, such as  'on the back of an envelope'. Or, the metaphor of lassoing, that is, capturing an idea like catching an animal by throwing the ring of a lasso over its head. Or, to quote Henri Matisse: 'drawing is putting a line around an idea'. Such sayings underline the dynamic nature of the line. Or, to quote Klee again, 'a drawing is simply a line going for a walk', where the line becomes a symbol for the imaginary lines of projecting an idea. But what about expressions such as 'draw the line' meaning 'to never do something because you think it's wrong'. This connotation seems quite contradictory to Klee's notion of taking a line for a walk. Or, 'walk the line', a prison term which means 'follow the rules, stay out of trouble'. Again the opposite meaning of a line that represents moving freely. A line, then, can be interpreted figuratively or literally. Lines of thought.