Day 2

1
Day 2

• Creativity and idea generation

2
Objectives

• Learn about obstacles to creativity and how to
  break them
• Learn and practice useful techniques for
  generating new ideas
• Apply these techniques to solve interface
  problems and add value to software
• Learn how to conduct and participate in group
  brainstorming sessions

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Obstacles to Creativity

• We are taught to conform
• We look for a single best solution
• We try to take the most direct route
• Fear of failure
• Thinking you were born uncreative

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Some quotes worth keeping in mind

• You cannot dig a hole in a different place by
  digging the same hole deeper. Edward de
  Bono
• A problem well stated is half solved.
  John Dewey
• If at first you dont succeed

5
Some quotes worth keeping in mind

• You cannot dig a hole in a different place by
  digging the same hole deeper. Edward de
  Bono
• A problem well stated is half solved.
  John Dewey
• If at first you dont succeed try again a
  different way
• The nun who taught Marilyn in grade 5

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The first step

• Define your problem
• Define your problem as specifically as possible
• State the problem in terms of how you want some
  situation to be better
• Some examples
• I want each potential client who views our
  portfolio to see the projects weve worked on
  that are most like their needs
• I need a more intuitive way to allow users to
  select portion size of foods so they can see
  nutritional content
• I need a way to provide context-sensitivity
  information to my users without them having to
  search through an entire Help file

7
Choose some creativity techniques

• no constraints
• break the rules
• reversal
• adopt and adapt
• random word
• incubation

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No constraints

• An example
• Imagine you have a website that sells gourmet
  foods. How could you get more people to buy more
  gourmet food items if there were no constraints
  limiting you?
• As you think up ideas, dont judge them
• Record your answers

9
An idea from the no constraints technique

• Each time a shopper looks at an item, another
  customer magically appears to tell them how good
  it is
• This could lead to the use of testimonials

10
Break the rules

• An example
• You are redesigning a website for a company that
  manufactures printers for small businesses and
  consumers
• Pose a question that would break the rules
  for example, What is the worse thing you could
  do if you want to help customers select the
  printer that matches their needs
• One idea show customers printers that dont
  meet their needs

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Reversal

• An example
• Imagine you are designing interactive maths tools
• You might think of this reversal What if instead
  of selecting Help from within the maths tools,
  users instead select tools from within Help?
• Lead to a system where, after a lesson, you
  could choose from tools to help you

13
Adopt and adapt

• An example
• You need to design a toolbar but there are too
  many for each to be displayed at once
• Think of how this kind of problem is solved
  elsewhere
• You might think of a cupboard that has a lazy
  susan and then you might adapt this idea to an
  interface

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Random word

• An example
• You want to create software to teach people to
  play the guitar
• You use the word skip as your random word
• One idea might be to record an audio that skips
  the guitar part students could use it to
  practice playing the guitar part
• Children like to skip during breaks at school,
  maybe you could add some kind of play time
  between lessons

15
Incubation

• State the problem
• Do some homework on it
• Tell your brain to go seek
• Forget about it
• Wait while continuing on doing other things
• sometimes a solution will just pop into your
  brain

16
Group Brainstorming

• Guidelines
• Groups of people, no more than 15 if possible
• A secretary, who keeps track of each idea
• A facilitator, who tracks the time and keeps the
  session moving along
• A white board, blackboard, or large notepad
• Markers or chalk to write ideas
• A large conference table
• Notepads and pencils for each participant

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Running the session

• State the problem. Take as much time as necessary
  to state the problem clearly
• Write down the problem to be solved prominently
  and display it where everyone can see it
• Set a time limit of 20-30 minutes for idea
  generation
• Encourage the group to come up with both wild and
  normal ideas

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Evaluate the ideas

• Sort the ideas and determine which are best
• Erase duplicated ideas first or those obviously
  impractical
• Rate each remaining idea as excellent, promising,
  and presently unworkable
• Resolve disagreements by voting

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About todays lab

• Applying the techniques
• A 2 mark exercise on the required reading (you
  can use your textbook)
• Make sure you read the suggestions on the website
  regarding things you could do by the next class