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Palak Hirave
Palak Hirave

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Design Thinking : Ideate

#designsystem #designthinking #create #design

This step is all about creating "How might we...?" questions and brainstorming as many ideas as possible for them.

How - there is a possible solution
might - many possible solutions
we - together

We want to make our HMW related to the user and their needs. We also need to make sure that we do not make it too specific so that we can generate a broad range of ideas and we would also make multiple HMW questions in order to get more diverse solutions.

We can then host a brainstorming session to gather as many ideas as possible. Some things to remember are:

  • One person speaking at a time

  • Focus on user needs

  • Brainstorm headlines and basic explanations, no over explaining or elaboration

  • Think visually

  • Don't bring judgement

  • Quantity over quality

  • Throw in as many crazy/unrealistic ideas as possible

  • Stay open-minded to all sorts of ideas

  • Listen to everyone

  • Bounce ideas off eachother

  • All ideas and opinions shared without fear

Some other things that are in the ideation process can include

  • Brainstorming
  • Reverse Brainstorming (coming up with the worst ideas possible)
  • Storyboarding
  • Mind Maps

Common Brainstorming Rules & Methods

  • Time-limited sessions
  • Clearly display the question
  • 4-6 people (more would be difficult to work together with at once)
  • Keep necessary materials at hand (post-its, markers, whiteboard)

6-5-3 method

6 people generate 3 ideas in 5 mins(time limited)

       How Might We...?

  | Idea 1 | Idea 2 | Idea 3 | 
1 |        |        |        |
2 |        |        |        |
3 |        |        |        |
4 |        |        |        |
5 |        |        |        |
6 |        |        |        |
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Now the way that this works is that each person writes down an idea in each of these columns and they have five minutes to do so. Once the time is up, they pass the paper to the person to the right of them and take the paper from the person who is to the left of them. They will then write ideas in the next row, either building on what was already written or coming up with something new. You keep on doing this till all the rows and columns are full and by then you should have a large selection of ideas to work from.

Next steps - prototype & test

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