"Making small changes in how we think, will make BIG changes to the User Experience"
The main focus of today was to look at alternative ways to brainstorm for a project and pitch a fake scenario. The beginning of the day will focus on coming up with lots of ideas then diverge and close down to get to the final idea.
The first task we had was to build the ultimate flying machine:
rule 1. Use all of the paper
rule 2. No additional materials allowed
rule 3. No test flights.
In my pair these were the first initial ideas we had:
Frisbee - wouldn't fit specifications. Paper Aeroplane - Pretty. paper ball - Practical.
Our gut instinct is to go to a paper aeroplane cause we know it works and looks good, but any answer is correct.
The second task we were given a phoney brief of creating a shop window display for John Lewis. To help us break down the brief we used the method of drawing a ' Tom and Jerry' diagram. The idea of this diagram is to distinguish the different aspects of a brief. Jerry wants to get cheese (goal) but on his way he gets caught in a mousetrap (issues). even when he is trying to get to his cheese. tom is creeping up on him (blockers).
The second task we were given a phoney brief of creating a shop window display for John Lewis. To help us break down the brief we used the method of drawing a ' Tom and Jerry' diagram. The idea of this diagram is to distinguish the different aspects of a brief. Jerry wants to get cheese (goal) but on his way he gets caught in a mousetrap (issues). even when he is trying to get to his cheese. tom is creeping up on him (blockers).
As designers its our job to work out how we might fix these issues/blockers and so we went through each issue and worked out how to overcome the overcome each of the blockers the brief gave.
The next activity we were set to think of as many things that can be made with a circle in the span of a minute. We often would think of an eight ball but never any of the other numbers. Some people may think of a Sun/Moon but never go on to think of Jupiter,Venus etc. This shows how we may miss ideas if we don't explore all of the potentials to begin with.
Crazy eight was the next task. after going over the brief we had to get some ideas down on paper. We split the paper into eight different sections. Each section he had 40 seconds to write down and build on an idea. As stupid as it may be, its important to jot it down. It can always be removed later.
After writing down my eight ideas I shared and compared them with my partner to come to a conclusion on the overall strongest and interesting four between us both. We then made a X Y diagram depicting levels of impact and effort. From low impact, high impact, low effort and high effort we had to place our idea where we thought it would fit best on the grid. the more centred the idea the more do-able and effective the concept is.
After writing down my eight ideas I shared and compared them with my partner to come to a conclusion on the overall strongest and interesting four between us both. We then made a X Y diagram depicting levels of impact and effort. From low impact, high impact, low effort and high effort we had to place our idea where we thought it would fit best on the grid. the more centred the idea the more do-able and effective the concept is.
After concluding on the strongest ideas we had one more task to pitch our developed idea into a final outcome of a faux newspaper that we have to present to our client. After creating the paper we shared our task with the rest of the group for feedback.
This workshop was an incredibly interesting session with lots of very useful techniques to help me generate early on ideas in any project. The speaker Christina was very easy to talk to and Since the workshop we have planned a tour of her department in the BBC with a small group of other willing students to get a better talk to the staff about what they do at the bbc.
