You’ve heard of design thinking, right? It’s solving problems by empathizing with users, defining their needs, ideating solutions, and testing. But how do you come up with those brilliant ideas that make your users go wow? That’s where design thinking ideation comes in.
Indeed, design thinking ideation is the stage where you unleash your creativity and generate as many ideas as possible without judging or filtering them. If so, how do you do it effectively?
In this article, we will show you how to master the design thinking ideation phase, using relevant tools and techniques to help you spark your imagination. Right now, let’s start your discovery with us!
Table of Contents
What Is Design Thinking Ideation?
Design Thinking Ideation is definition a part of brainstorming idea process!
Design thinking ideation is the third phase in the design thinking process, allowing you to create tons of ideas to solve a user problem. Indeed, this stage doesn’t require finding the right and final idea but the broadest range of possibilities.
You can use brainstorming or mind-mapping techniques to explore new angles and build on each other’s wild ideas. Basically, the design thinking ideation process encourages innovation and focuses on the quantity of ideas rather than quality. As a result, you can easily make your idea collection varied.
Why Is The Design Thinking Ideation Process Important?
From our experts, design thinking ideation is where the magic happens. It’s where you bridge the gap between understanding your users and solving their problems. Plus, once you answer different design thinking ideation questions, you can easily break free from conventional approaches and find amazing solutions for your problems.
As a designer, ideation is your playground. You will have a chance to experiment with wild, crazy, and even impractical ideas. It is simply because you never know what might lead to a breakthrough. In other words, you can freely embrace innovation and diversity effectively.
Here’s a benefit list when running your design thinking ideation, including:
- Mention different aspects: Every team member has something valuable to offer, whether their expertise or creativity. By tapping into their diverse views, you can discover new solutions.
- Strengthen teamwork ability: Design thinking ideation exercises are not solo sports, which require a team effort, where everyone has a voice in the outcome. By collaborating and communicating, you can build trust among your team members.
- Bring a wide collection of ideas: Ideation lets your ideas flow, no matter how crazy or impractical they seem. The more ideas you have, the more chances you have to find the best one.
How To Prepare For Design Thinking Ideation Stage
Design thinking ideation is not something you can just wing. It requires some planning and preparation. Before you jump into this phase, you need to set it as a productive and creative session. If so, let’s check our detailed guidance in this section.
Change your scenery
If you want to think differently, you need to act differently. And that starts with changing your surroundings. Don’t settle for the old place, the office, or your home. From our experiences, you can go somewhere new, exciting, and inspiring. As a result, these places can give you new sights and sensations, which is ideal for sparking new ideas in your mind.
Bring a relaxed ambiance
Whether you have a good design thinking ideation template, it’s important to work in a comfortable environment. Indeed, when you’re not strictly focused on the problem, you are more likely to find a solution. It also means that when you are relaxed, you can easily let your imagination run wild.
On the other hand, the best ideation sessions seem stress-free and fun in all situations. And, of course, all your team members or participants feel welcome to play.
Prepare a list of “How might we…?” questions
Before you start a design thinking ideation, you can make a list of “how might we..” questions based on your problem statement. The “how might we” framework helps you turn your issue into a possibility. But how to work with them?
Well, think about the words “how might we…”; it might suggest an available solution, but no hint is supported. You should have a direction to follow but also easily explore and experiment.
3 Common Design Thinking Ideation Techniques
Creative matrix
The first suggestion in our design thinking ideation techniques today. It is a cross-functional collaboration method that promotes intersections of categories and themes.
You can start by defining your challenge, such as “How might we double our revenue next year?”. Then, it’s recommended to create a grid with various rows and columns that relate to your challenge. In this case, you can draw several suggestions like “excellent customer service,”; “discounts,” or “rewards” to fill in the grid fully.
As a result, there will be a diverse set of ideas that can help you solve your challenge in innovative ways. From our experience, this matrix helps you think outside the box and discover new opportunities for your design.
Round-robin
A round-robin is a simple but effective method to generate a lot of ideas. This method allows everyone to share their thoughts, which prevents one person from dominating the discussion. It is great to improve your teamwork effectively. Moreover, the round-robin helps you spot flaws and gaps in your ideas to strengthen the final results.
Mind mapping
The final solution in our design thinking ideation methods is mind-mapping brainstorming. From our experts, it is one of the leading idea-generating solutions, which can be used flexibly in any field, including studying and working. With a central idea and relevant branches, you can easily draw all your thoughts, as well as their strong connections.
Check out: Ultimate Guide To Round Robin Brainstorming
FAQs
What is ideation in design thinking?
Ideation is a creative stage in your design thinking where you need to generate as many ideas as possible. With this phase, it’s recommended to focus on the number of ideas rather than the quality, which is beneficial for collecting amazing solutions.
What are the 3 stages to ideation?
Indeed, the ideation will cover the 3 stages, including generation, selection, and development. Normally, you should follow this process to optimize your performance with design thinking ideation.
What are the 4 methods of ideation?
If you want to work with ideation, you can use the 4 following techniques:
Mindmapping
Brainwriting
Round-robin
Creative matrix
Is ideation the same as Design Thinking?
Absolutely No. Ideation is the third stage in the design thinking, which allows you to gather a wide collection of ideas and thoughts towards a specific problem. It is also the phrase requires more innovations compared to the others.
Conclusion
Our blog has just provided a comprehensive view of design thinking ideation, as well as how to use it to improve your idea-generating performance. You can combine various design thinking ideation techniques to make your design outstanding easily. Wish you have the best experience!