Ideation interaction

Virtual platforms and video calls have become commonplace yet their queues of monologues cannot match the directness and rigour of in-person conversations, as exemplified by the ideation workshop. It is when the participants interact in the real studio, with the power to improvise and cross-talk that the creative juices start flowing and ideas spark. The in-person interaction electrifies the ideation process, forces the participants to think at pace and enriches the conversations from which the participants learn from each other. Virtual platform meetings may have their place in formal or business-like contexts but rarely sits comfortably in creative environments as virtual discussion can only superficially compensate for the full three-dimensional chemistry of face-to-face conversations. With the body language and all the tiny cues that form the visceral insights that come from in-the-flesh interactions missing, how to tell whether the participants are fully engaged in or really understand the ideas discussed?

Ideation learning

Ideation is a process of generating and communicating new ideas. It’s a process, not a single event, a process involving critical thinking as well as imagination. Ideation, then, is not just about having that “Aha!” moment, it is about being prepared for that moment, then knowing what to do when it happens. While the "Aha!" moment can happen anytime and anywhere, the ideation workshop encourages participants to use a range of ideation tools in a learning environment, a space set aside for creativity, typically the design studio. So ideation is also a learning process in using conceptual tools in order to better generate, articulate and express new ideas. But ideation is not about evaluating ideas. The real test of ideation lies in the ability to communicate ideas to another. That is, when you sketch out an idea from start to finish in simple visual/verbal language that even a child can understand (that is, a child with enough vocabulary and attention span to understand basic concepts and relationships), you force yourself to understand the concept at a deeper level and relationships and connections between ideas. In this way, the ideation workshop provides an opportunity to learn new skills and ways of thinking.

Ideation workshop as adventure

Setting time aside for ideation, and in an informal way, that is, focusing on generating ideas towards finding a solution for a given design problem, means opening up oneself to the adventurous practice of uncertainty. Adventure not in the sense of excitement associated with danger or a reckless action but rather an unusual or daring experience, to quote from OED as to the meaning of the word in English. Experiencing ideation, then, is to practise creativity purposefully, a process of going backwards and forwards drawing from past knowledge, observation and experience (memory) combined with present thoughts, skills and activities in order to generate new ideas, which run forward not backward. The adventure, then, lies in what was before and after, and what is the difference between the two. And the consequence of the difference should we pursue the idea towards realisation. Only the realisation of the idea, of making it happen, can overcome the uncertainty of the idea.