PxS'12 - week 3 - creative design
- 1. EPFL, spring – week 3! creative design
- 2. overview ➝ upcoming review: March 19th ➝ present three ideas based on the design brief " (sensors + personal, environmental, social health) ➝ course expectations: " goal is not programming but interactive prototypes ➝ review interview drafts ➝ review pictures ➝ creative design lecture ➝ sketching workshop
- 4. upcoming review ➝ everystudent has 5 minutes to individually present in a professional way, i.e. formal setting his/her own three ideas ➝ each idea 1.5 minutes time ➝ use your elevator pitch" (ca. 30 seconds starting with a hook (the problem), max.150 words and passion) ➝ plus e.g. powerpoint slides for illustration ➝ add more details about the solution ➝ include how you got the idea? ➝ e.g. from interviews, background research (references), brainstorming, observation receive constructive feedback from experts
- 5. EPFL, spring – week 3! creative design
- 6. goals of this lecture ➝ understand role of creativity in design ➝ identifying and vetting boundaries ➝ know some methods for creativity, and where to get inspiration ➝ scenarios ➝ link between creative and analytical ✱ attribution: this lecture is based on Angela Sasse’s (UCL) adaptation of Janet McDonnell lecture
- 7. creative design methods ➝ creativity is .. ➝ often thought of as an ability to think of alternatives... ➝ A more profound notion of creativity is that of being able to change one s view of things, and of oneself, to the point of attempting something you thought was impossible, beyond you. Creativity in design methods shows itself in the originality of ones questions, aims, classifications, processes, etc. J.C.Jones, Design Methods, Wiley 1980, p.xviii
- 8. design boundaries ➝ designers are concerned with problem setting and problem solving ➝ how can this be when there are functional requirements to be satisfied? ➝ don t confuse problem and solution ➝ don t confuse primary functional needs with sub- problems arising from the perspective taken ➝ functional requirements may be negotiable
- 9. thinking outside the box
- 11. confusing problem and solution example: Brian Lawson describes being given a design brief to design an extension to a family home. ➝ The initial brief was rather vague … ideas of adding an extra bedroom or study … but house was already large enough for all the family to have their own bedrooms and there was a study …site was cramped… valuable garden space would be lost … considerable expense … ➝ At one meeting ideas of being able to accommodate grandparents were discussed to the sounds of very loud music from one of the teenager s bedrooms … it gradually emerged that the house was big enough … it needed dividing up better acoustically … ➝ The actual solution was initially suggested as a joke … buy the teenagers some headphones.
- 12. confusing primary functional needs with sub- problems arising from the perspective taken example: Solving the problem of how to deal with car exhaust fumes in the channel tunnel get cars through tunnel drive cars put cars on through tunnel train deal with fumes
- 13. (even) functional requirements may be negotiable … Jørn Utzon s design for the Sydney Opera House … won the competition despite NOT meeting the stated requirement for numbers of seats in the principal auditorium. photo taken by Bjarte Sorensen
- 14. creative design methods for divergence expanding the problem boundaries a selection of methods for individuals or teams: ➝ why? why? why?: Ask a string of questions (like a tiresome toddler) until the thread runs out ➝ using a dialectic: take an idea (thesis), imagine the opposite (antithesis), generate a new idea from compromise (synthesis) ➝ random/chance: open a book , select a word from a dictionary, select a picture, etc - at random and use what is found to stimulate ideas about the problem ➝ transformation (many variations): look up a term in a thesaurus and consider the words associated with it
- 15. more on divergence the most well known method for teams: ➝ brainstorming: increase number and diversity of ideas cross-stimulation of ideas between team ➝ procedure & rules ➝ any statement is OK ➝ no in-depth evaluation initially (chairperson enforces this) ➝ some criticism is OK ➝ each idea noted briefly - elaboration only to support this ➝ evaluation ➝ ideas immediately useful ➝ areas for further exploration: e.g. functional aspects of a silly idea ➝ new approaches to the problem
- 16. creating design team visions seeking inspiration from other disciplines ➝ theatre ➝ roleplaying, getting different perspectives on the problem ➝ scenario enactment ➝ improvisational comedy ➝ different games, constraints ➝ visual Images ➝ usingmetaphors creatively ➝ escape from verbal constraints
- 17. don’t limit yourself to words artwork by Scott McCloud
- 19. various other techniques ➝ brainstorming ➝ 6 thinking hats etc. ➝ matrix ➝ mind map ➝ KJ (affinity diagrams) ➝ paraphrasing ➝ analogies ➝ free associations
- 20. IDEO s innovation process 1. understand ➝ market, client and technology – later maybe challenge constraints 2. observe ➝ real people in real situations – what latent needs do they have 3. visualize ➝ new concepts and customers - using brainstorming, prototypes, storyboards, make a video 4. evaluate and refine ➝ quick iterations of prototypes, test and challenge, plan series of improvements 5. implement ➝ longest phase – commercialisation of new concept
- 21. IDEO on understanding and observing ➝ Don t ask people what they think about an idea! ➝ too polite, observing protocol, politics Fine is a four-letter word ➝ cannot articulate, lack vocabulary, diagnosis of a problem is not the same as knowing a cure ➝ not the customers job to be visionary ➝ IDEO solution - ➝ Innovation begins with an eye
- 22. metaphorical design The primary function of metaphor is to provide a partial understanding of one kind of experience in terms of another kind of experience. This may involve pre- existing isolated similarities, the creation of new similarities, and more. G.Lakoff & M.Johnson, Metaphors We Live By, p. 154 ➝ in the context of using metaphor to encourage new ideas metaphor is used simply as a linguistic tool to open up the imagination - to see the work situation in new ways ➝ also: starting point for design model " (conceptual design)
- 23. metaphors we live by - an example mind is a machine mind is a brittle object ➝ We re still trying to grind out ➝ Her ego is very fragile. the solution to this equation. ➝ You have to handle him with ➝ My mind just isn t operating care since his wife died. today. ➝ He broke under cross- ➝ I m a little rusty today. examination. ➝ We ve been working on this ➝ She is easily crushed. problem all day and now we re running out of steam. ➝ The experience shattered him. ➝ I m going to pieces. ➝ His mind snapped. Lakoff & Johnson pp.27,28
- 24. metaphorical design! e.g. in future workshop ➝ Ideas may come up during a future workshop - in brainstorming for example - that the facilitator can exploit. ➝ participants are encouraged to explore the correspondences and differences between a situation and a metaphor. ➝ Kensing & Halskov Madsen give the example ➝ all we do is inventory control to invite comparison of libraries with warehouses leading - through differences - to a comparison of libraries with shops
- 25. generating visions ➝ is central to participatory design – designing systems through the co-operation of designers and users Both artists and scientists operate on the physical world as it exists in the present … Designers on the other hand, are forever bound to treat as real that which exists only in an imagined future and have to specify ways in which the foreseen thing can be made to exist. J.C.Jones, Design Methods, p.11 ➝ is used in shifting focus ➝ from users doing their current work ➝ to helping them to develop ideas about future ways of working ➝ takes place during ➝ future workshops ➝ metaphorical design exercises
- 26. scenarios as tools for visions ➝ story of how users will interact with system ➝ day in the (future) life of …" (see example scenario) ➝ write scenarios ➝ on storyboard: for walkthrough, checking ➝ act out: in participatory design workshop – particularly effective to get groups of users to discuss varying requirements and identify concerns ➝ produce video (e.g. Steve Masters) ➝ danger: scenarios instead of requirements capture – they must be validated
- 27. summary points ➝ deep understanding of the problem and ruthless examination of constraints are essential to define boundaries of design problem. ➝ design solution is derived within those boundaries. ➝ creative approaches help to find solution within design space. ➝ inspiration is good for creativity, but ➝ … there are systematic ways of getting inspiration. ➝ derive several solutions and compare how well they fit requirements, and how users respond to them.