Ideation: Getting Creative with Design Thinking

One of the key steps to design thinking is ideation. It's the opportunity to get a little crazy, letting ideas flow without inhibition. There should be no objections or "we can't do that"s, yet. It's all about letting the creative juices flow.

One of the best ways to tap into your creativity is by being visual. Even if you don't consider yourself the best artist, drawing our your ideas can help visualization where words fall short. So, draw, doodle, add color. Post-its or blank paper work. You don't have to be intricate. Don't worry about the quality of the drawing, focus on conveying the idea (Project Invent, 2018).

When doing the above visualization, it is important to go for volume. The more ideas you can put on paper (or post-it), the more you break through the "what's possible" barrier. Go nuts with the ideas. Think big. Again, no constraints.

In addition to visually representing your ideas, categorizing them physically helps with organizing them mentally. So, after the initial stage of getting the ideas visualized, it helps to layout those ideas in groups. One way to do this is with post-its; a mini-doodle or phrase can represent your idea on a post-it and those post-its can be stuck to a wall or white board with a heading over the top.

Another way I like to group ideas is digitally; may favorite software to use is illustrator. Ideas can be grouped on "Artboards" and saved in a variety of formats including .jpg, .pdf, and png. Below are different ideations of a logo proposal for an engineering consultant firm in Salt Lake City.

A final consideration in the ideation process is that it is easily and often revisited. Ideation by its very nature is a rough draft. It a multiple-solution generating process, not a "we have to find the answer now" process. In testing prototypes, you may find that the first idea you try is the answer; you may find that it's the 100th. The reality is it will probably not be an exact execution of any of your first doodles but rather a variation or or amalgamation of several.

So when ideating, let you imagination (and your drawing hand) run wild. Ignore constraints and barriers. Believe that anything is possible. For inspiration, watch Will Smith's take on being realistic.