Use it or lose it

There’s an old rule in neuroscience that does not alter with age: use it or lose it. It is a hopeful principle when applied to ideation tools because it implies choice. Designers possess both the knowledge and the technology to identify and redress the changes in how they use ideation tools in everyday practice. That includes the physicality of tools and the sense of touch that afford spatial and sensory awareness in the ideation phase also allowing for ideators to return to first thoughts, to check information and learn from re-examination. The question, then, is what happens to design as a reflective practice, and designers ability to use analog tools when the use of digital tools or drawing and reading on screen become the deafult position? Why make notes, draw and read on paper, or build physical sketch models when digital tools seem so much more efficient, and less messy? Yet if designers work to understand fully what they might lose, alongside the new capacities that the digital age has brought the design field, there seems as much reason for excitement as caution.

Machine learning and ideation

Machine learning, a branch of artifical intelligence, AI, and related to computational statistics, is based on the idea that computer systems can learn from data, without being explicitly programmed, identify patterns ("object detections") and make decisions with minimal human intervention.This may suggest machine learning could be a useful tool for practising designers when making decisions about idea implementation. But for a machine to aquire a lot of information ("data mining") and making data-driven predictions or decisions is not the same as humans being capable of generating original and sustainable ideas because machine learning, from a computationalist perspective, in its attempt at mimicking the human decision making process, is not conscious of its own computations, and therefore lacking "human conscious". So while machine learning may help develop and implement ideas, and become an ideation tool, it doesn't replace human intervention in idea generation.

Sketchbook speculation

Will Alsop, the British architect (1947-2018), was a keen sketcher from the very start of his career, saying "You can speculate in your sketchbook – you're allowed to think about anything, with or without a client.". An ideas-driven architect, Alsop was also known to use painting, before he began to work on a new project, to clear his mind, think freely and create an uncontaminated design approach (his office walls typically included large paintings of colourful abstract compositions). Or, as he put it, "One of the reasons for painting is that you are not really in control of what you are doing - and that interests me a lot. Instead of having a specific starting point, which perhaps, in architectural terms, would lead through to a series of logical thoughts working towards a designed building, you can start anywhere."

i-sketch and we-sketch

A sketch is a sketch is a sketch. Or is it? There may be an assumption that all idea sketches are for sharing with others. Not necessarily so. There are reasons why a designer may prefer to keep their sketches private, and reasons why they show and share their sketches with colleagues or clients, and whether face-to-face or online, including, for example, drawing on a whiteboard in an ideation session. In the first instance, we may call the activity i-sketch, and in the second, we-sketch. Such distinction may have implications for education too in that students should feel free to decide what sketches should be displayed and shared with others, and which should remain a private record of ideas. But whatever category, freehand sketching is a powerful means of ideation that improves with practice.

On why sketching still matters

Michael Graves, the US architect (1934-2015), argues that 'Architecture cannot divorce itself from drawing, no matter how impressive the technology gets. Drawings are not just end products: they are part of the thought process of architectural design. Drawings express the interaction of our minds, eyes and hands.' Continues Graves:  'The referential sketch [and he argues there are three types of architectural drawing; the "referential sketch", the "preparatory study" and the "definitive drawing"] serves as a visual diary, a record of an architect’s discovery. It can be as simple as a shorthand notation of a design concept or can describe details of a larger composition. It might not even be a drawing that relates to a building or any time in history. It’s not likely to represent “reality,” but rather to capture an idea.' Moreover: 'These sketches are thus inherently fragmentary and selective. When I draw something, I remember it. The drawing is a reminder of the idea that caused me to record it in the first place. That visceral connection, that thought process, cannot be replicated by a computer.' Further: 'As I work with my computer-savvy students and staff today, I notice that something is lost when they draw only on the computer. It is analogous to hearing the words of a novel read aloud, when reading them on paper allows us to daydream a little, to make associations beyond the literal sentences on the page. Similarly, drawing by hand stimulates the imagination and allows us to speculate about ideas, a good sign that we’re truly alive.' Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/02/opinion/sunday/architecture-and-the-lost-art-of-drawing.html

Experimental tools

"There is no such thing as a failed experiment," said the American inventor and futurist Buckminster Fuller, "only experiments with unexpected outcomes." This quote may also apply to design ideation when explorations count for more than discoveries, and when curiosity is more useful than knowledge. Moreover, ideation, as an inquisitive process, goes beyond mere thought experiment, that is, when ideation has an intended physical outcome, the designer, (or the design team, in collaborative design), has an intention to perform the experiment too. In this, ideation tools (words, drawing, sketch modelling, and computing) become experimental tools too for generating, developing and communicating ideas.

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.