Idea generation techniques

• • Brainstorming usually involves a group discussion to produce ideas or solve problems.
  • It is a good technique for generating ideas and stimulate creative thinking whether you have a lot of ideas to begin with or your mind is ‘blank’.
  • Helps organise and gather ideas into a more manageable structure.
  • If undertaken as a group, it is effective in exploring different points of view.
  • Focus is on quantity not quality.
• • Planning — identify the purpose of the brainstorming session, consider the size of the group, invite suitable people to take part.
  • Conducting — get group to rephrase the question, have a warm-up session, establish rules, set a time limit, avoid moments of silence and maintain momentum, record every thought.
  • Summary — discuss most unusual ideas, disregard weakest ideas, and identify most promising ideas.
• • Morphological analysis is structured way of generating new ideas which helps to explore multiple different options for the product that may not have been thought of otherwise.
  • Headings are arranged into columns and options under each heading then populate each row.
  • The user can then choose an option from each row to inspire their design.
• • Planning - analysis of problem/product, identify factors that will be/are important to solving the problem or improving the product, generate a range of different options for each factor, produce a matrix.
  • Using - randomly or systematically select an option from each factor to produce different alternatives.
  • Summary - disregard weakest ideas and identify most promising ideas.

  
• pencil for a walk is a technique which involves drawing an unbroken line, often with rounded corners or edges, to help create unusual shapes to inspire a design.