Hands, eyes and mind: Ideation as a holistic process

The workshop highlights the use of ideation tools, that is the use of words, freehand sketching, physical modelling and computing in generating and communicating ideas. But the usage is not just in the context of tools being practical or necessary for producing texts, images or artefacts: The tools are also thinking tools. This becomes clear when ideators, who, at first, may be less skillful in using the tool/s in a routine technical sense but through familiarisation, application and practice the ideator will gain confidence in creative engagement and action increasingly shifting attention to ideation as a holistic process. Eventually, through practice the tool/s become an almost automatic extension of the ideator's hands, eyes and mind. In other words, the ideation workshop demonstrates how thinking and doing support each other and become one enhancing the ability to generate new ideas and artefacts.

Advantage workshop

The ideation workshop opens up the mind for speculative investigations and experiments and whether they function as mere representations, serious or ironic proposals or conceptual models. That is, hands-on use of ideation tools (words, sketching, physical modelling and computing) stimulates ideators to express, articulate or materialise their ideas giving them shape, form or substance resulting in proposals for, say new products through exploring new technologies, methods or materials. This multitudinal approach to generating and developing ideas has a further advantage in that the ideation process is not necessarily driven by what the market wants, or is perceived to want, that is, commercially driven experimental design, but can equally enable the designer to envision new things for consumers for which there is not yet a conscious need or desire, that is, designer-centric or autonomous experimental design.

Ideation and innovation platforms

Communicating ideas is part and parcel of the ideation process. To have an impact, the idea must be externalised and made known or targeted to an intended audience, be it specific or general. In the communication phase, which is not necessarily the final stage of ideation as ideation is typically an iterative rather than a linear process, the ideator has to work out which is the most appropriate medium, from traditional channels to the latest dissemination technology. In a culture of digital ecosystems, including innovation platforms, or spaces for learning and change, such platforms can be used as tools for growing and building ideas to tackle challenges and opportunites at various levels; private or public, local, national or global. And as such platforms are not rigid or predictable supporting an open innovation process, they can lead to unexpected directions or tangible results which may be a good thing for ideators.

Ideation: solo or collaborative act?

The participants in the workshop can either work on their own or together with another participant or participants forming a duo or small team of ideators. This is a voluntary arrangement based on personal preference but does the choice make a difference to the ideation process and if so is ideating solo, or on one's own a more selfish act than ideating in a collaborate mode. Conventionally thinkig suggests that generating ideas is an individual pursuit where imagination, creativity and talent are most fruitfully manifested where "novelty" or "originality" are key words of achievement signifying single ownership of the idea. Generating ideas in a group, on the other hand, may seem more of a social activity where the dynamics of two or more individuals collaborating may produce more inclusive ideas covering a wider perspective of the design task or problem in question where the objective or vision is shared. As there is no conclusive evidence what mode works best, and ideation is contextual too, this suggests that ideation operates in either mode, or in combinations thereof. That is, the ideation process could be staged so there are a number of acts where the solo or collaborative mode alternates. This mixed mode of ideation is evident in design practice where individuals start ideating own their own but then come together to share and discuss their ideas. If there is a convergence of ideas, this then implies co-ownership of the ideation outcome by two or more ideators.

Experiencing ideation

The workshop's objective is to offer a hands-on, studio-based experience of generating and communicating ideas for a specific purpose using a range of ideation tools, viz, words, sketching, modelling and computing. Through this multi-sensory creative engagement - where emphasis is laid not only on the appearance of surfaces but contrasting effectss of solids, voids and textures the participant ideators become author, director and producer of their own thoughts and ideas.The ideas are then presented and shared in a joint session. This is in contrast to "brainstorming", a group-thinking activity where the participants are asked to come up with as many new ideas as possible to a given problem within a short period using words only, and often on post-it notes which are then shared. In short, the ideation workshop encourages the participants to engage the full range of human senses to become experimental designers through their own experiments, rather than just "talking design".

Digital dependency

Today, design is an activity infused with a wide range of technology from CAD and the Internet to big data and social media. As a result, a series of complex interactions of people, places and data are creating, planning and building environments with the help of digital tools. Digital interactions, then, produce data that feed the creative industries and design ideation. Using digital tools have enabled designers to generate and communicate more realistically ideas and visions of possible futures. But as data is increasingly used as both tool and motive for design work, there are concerns. For example, CAD and 3D printing highlight the digital dependency on visualising and communicating ideas whereas social media question what happens to interpersonal interaction in built environments where virtual and real phenomena compete for attention. In this context, the ideation workshop offers an opportunity to gain greater awareness of the role and use of ideation tools in the digital culture.

Tool connectivity

Before the modernist movement of the 1920s, the creative process was firmly held in the designers' hands as they were the ones to translate ideas into drawings and gave them the formal expression.Then, as modernism progressed in the post-war years, and the complexity of society increased and made new demands, many other considerations beyond the formal, which also constitute the design process, were recognised resulting in a shift towards user-centred design and multidisciplinary design teams. In addition, the advancement of computer and telecommunication technologies, which brought the the micro computer into the design studios in the 1990s saw digital tools, and notably CAD becoming part and parcel of the design process, from first thoughts to final outcomes. But equally important for the ways designers work has been the expansion of the internet and social media broadening as well as speeding up the design process, including ideation. In contemporary technology and media-driven societies, where ideas, images and texts constantly interact with each other, the new digital tools, including computer modelling and 3D printing have enabled connectivity between designers and end-users on an unprecedented scale facilitating collaborative and participatory design. The new tools, moreover, help designers to expand creative boundaries, both conceptually and practically.