Abstract:

Design Thinking is important across the disciplines. The model from the Stanford Design School has five components.
Empathy>Definition>Ideation>Prototyping>Testing

Empathy is getting to know and understand your customer. It requires observation and engagement. The second component is defining the problem to a manageable opportunity. Many people want to look at problems such as the 2030 UNESCO Sustainable Development Goals. They are far too large and, in order to start work, they need to be brought down to size. It is best if you can bring the problem down to one person, one family, and one village.

The author has presented papers on these topics, (Empathy 2017, and Definition 2018) at ICERI. This paper is on the third component in the Stanford model: Ideation. This paper is on; some methods of ideation, as there are many. Below is a simple matrix of ideation that is the spine of this paper. There are more types, but this will help to understand some of the strengths and weaknesses of different types.

Ideation Matrix
- Dispersed/Quantity
Corners
World Café
Ten Inconveniences
- Dispersed/Defined
Five-minute sketches
Interview
- Dispersed/Multiple skills
Individual Videos
- Centered/Quantity
Affinity
- Centered Defined
Build with different sets of materials
Focus Group
Group Sketching
- Centered Multiple Skills
Five pieces of trash
Product Architecture

Readers may be familiar with the pictures of post-it notes from a brainstorming on books about Design Thinking. This is just one method and there are many. The author has experimented with others using a number of different methods each of which will be described in the session. One of the things that many do not recognize is that ideations can achieve different things. For example, affinity work with the traditional stickies or post-it notes tends to be a centralizing or grouping force that works with many ideas and combines them into centralized groups.

Corners is used to generate hundreds of ideas in a very short amount of time. The author has tried it multiple languages in multiple locations and it always provided many ideas. When you generate that quantity of ideas, the problem becomes how to sort through them.

Conversely, if you want more developed ideas, the five-minute sketches work really well. Here you have people developing detailed sketches of individual ideas. Continuing with the ideas that are widely dispersed, the use of videos has proven to be powerful and use multiple talents as the individual can conceive of a video in many different ways.

You can tap into other forms of creativity such as building with different sets of materials, which on the matrix is centered and defined. If you want it dispersed, try the five pieces of trash exercise for creativity.

The presentation will focus on different types of ideation, and how they can be used. Sometimes it is good to use them in sequence but then you must give thought as to whether you want to be centered or dispersed, and how many ideas you want to deal with. You can affect what is going to happen with the set up in each case. If you take a dispersion technique like the Corners and tell people that they are not allowed out of certain bounds, you may not get the dispersion you want.

The author starts from a large number and then does more and more focused ideations.
This should be a chance to learn about different types of ideations and how to do them as well as when to use them.

Keywords:

Design Thinking, Creativity, Ideation, Corners, Five Pieces of Trash.