Practising ideation

The world of design is an endlessly bountiful place where ideation is a form of positive creative energy that generates an abundance of ideas. Although everything starts with the idea, the "Aha!" moment, the key to success towards idea realisation is how the idea is expressed and communicated to others. Successful idea communication, then, highlights the effective use of ideation tools (speaking, writing, sketching, modelling or computing). These tools make up a set of skills, skills which improve with practice. Ideation tools, then, are resources embodying practical know-how.

Analogue deprivation

'I have no problem working with digital technology' says Margaret Calvert, the graphic designer who invented the road signage system for British roads. But, she continues, 'Everything I do is initially hands on, working at a much slower pace, allowing time to think'. Working at a slower pace, then, in the analogue format, or hands-on, suggests more time to think when ideating, without discarding digital technology. Pehaps what Calvert is telling us, freely interpreted, is that working hands on at a slower pace at the early stages of the design process may be as important as getting enough sleep. Or, for an individual designer working wholly with digital ideation tools, this may amount to a kind of sleep deprivation?

AI, VR, AR and MR as ideation tools

Of the four categories of ideation tools (words, sketching, modelling and computing), computing is fast becoming a powerful means of generating and communicating design ideas that goes beyond traditional CAD systems or rendering and editing software. Thus artificial intelligence, AI, is already making inroads in designing behaviour for AI powered objects, for example, robot vacuum cleaners, smart devices to help save energy or enforce safety, or software for creating new cooking recipes without cultural bias. Equally exciting is the potential of virtual reality, VR, augmented reality, AR, or mixed reality, MR, as ideation tools. VR games are showing the way whereby users, unlike traditional user interfaces are immersed and able to interact with 3D worlds. AR is exemplified by the Google glass, and MR by the Microsoft HoloLens. But while these technologies brings both similar and different experiences, as ideation tools they could be seen as complimentary rather than competing technologies.

Ideation and screen language

The ideation workshop exemplifies discovery-based learning through the use of ideation tools, or learning by doing, with the know-how which is manifested in cognitive skills as well as work practice. In this pursuit, the participants experience what it means to gain access to and become a member of the design community. And as today's design community is heavily engaged in the use of computing (Information and Communication Technology), both in terms of learning and  professional practice, many ideation tools now operate in the digital culture which has developed its particular screen language and whether expressed and represented in text, images, sound or other media. Moreover, the workshop highlights how designers have to be familiar not only with digital technology but also be apt at finding data, both on- and off-line which can be used or transformed to build something new, and whether abstract, concrete or visual, in a process that is akin to assemblage, bricolage or collage.

Creative sampling

Creative sampling is a technique most commonly associated with music making, such as changing the pitch of a sample which can be anything from a series of notes to sounds from toys or slamming doors, as long as it does not infringe someone else's copyrighted music. Now could this creative technique be adopted, adapted or modified for generating design ideas? For example, and using the analogy of a music making, take a specific individual element of frequencies, melodies, or lyrics as point of departure. Then change it around using techniques such as iteration, stretching or compressing. Record the process, for example, using pen and paper to create a visual map or diagram that captures the flow and development of the emerging ideas. The creative jumping-off point can be either sampling from an external source, for example, in building design, elements of wood joints, or from an internal source, say elements from your own sketchbook.

Algorithms as ideation tool

When algorithms, the building blocks of programming, are being used to help create, does it mean that software, including mobile apps, turn designers into "editors" rather than "writers" of original script, reacting rather than acting to what the computer generates (unless the designer writes computer codes themselves)? But does it matter whether the design comes from an algorithm or from traditional moves of creativity? But as designing with the help of algorithm depends on computer language, that is, any algorithm's output depends on its input and parameter settings, algorithms can be seen as another ideation tool in the long tradition of artists and designers using a variety of means to help them create, for example, artists using assistants to help them create their works, or, as claimed by Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein: "One does not create a work, one constructs it with finished parts, like a machine.”

Ideation tool for what?

While there may be an element of artistic self-expression in the designer's use of ideation tools, the strength of the tool chosen (words, sketches, models, or computing, or combinations thereof) in practice-based or practice-led creative environments, lies in the way it helps the designer formulate the problem in hand in what then becomes a solution-driven process. Throughout this process of identifying the problem, of generating, developing and communicating the idea, the choice of ideation tool(s) can be crucial in persuading interested parties to help realise the idea.

What ideation tool?

Designers use a range of ideation tools, broadly grouped into four: Words, Sketches, Models and Computing. But while the choice, and use of ideation tools by an individual designer is largely subjective, there are many influential factors. Some influences are direct, for example, design teachers, who, particularly in designers formative years may act as role models, while other influences are based on professional skills, knowledge or beliefs. Moreover, some designers are acutely aware of what ideation tools influence their work and may openly discuss the influence, and either at the generative or communicative phase of the ideation process, while others might be reluctant to acknowledge what influences are at play. However, open or hidden, the influence of ideation tools on designers' ideation processes may be worth further investigation, particularly in the digital age with complimentary ideation tools such as virtual reality, VR, or augmented reality, AR. How does choice of tool manifest itself? How can it's impact be demonstrated. When is it significant?