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? 

Uber tool

Does the ubiquitous networked info-media environment encourage designers to look for and source ideas from the web rather than creating ideas through independent thinking and doing? Or feeding the creative process with online ready-made images through easy, speedy clicks rather than using more fiddly and time-consuming ideation tools such as freehand drawing and sketch modelling? But as the web and engineered digital environments, such as virtual reality games, gain design importance, is there a risk that the power of computing becomes an Uber tool for shaping and communicating ideas but with reduced human reflection or deliberation? Or, when algorithms produce solutions, is critical thinking or the human hand just getting in the way?

Physical ideation

While the written design brief encourages responses using words (written and spoken), words alone are insufficient to express visual ideas. And so it is good ideation practice to remind oneself of the material aspects of design by using physical ideation tools such as pencils, card, modelling clay and scalpels for making drawings, collages or sketch models. That is, a reminder that ideation is also a physical hands-on activity, not just a verbal experience.