Ideation as a Process
Ideation is one of the steps in the Human Center Design process. It can come in the form of brainstorming, listing out ideas of improvement or new designs, and or sketching. It is the most creative part, in my opinion at least, of HCDE.
The ideation process to me is finding a user group, finding a problem within the group, and creating a solution. When I say finding a problem I mean looking for ideas to help make the lives of the user group easier or more efficient. For example, if my user group were buisness owners who also had a pet dog, I would want to create a way for dogs to be fed during meal times even when their owner has a long night at work.
Now that I have an idea of making a machine that sends out certain sized portions at certain times of the day I can start sketching what my idea would look like with an emphasis on the different functions on my machine. When doing my sketch, I like to use a lot of arrows pointing at each function and explaining that it does. That way when other users are reviewing my design they know how it all works and critique what I have so far. If you are able to be critiqued and can re-design that is when you would add all the inputs from the critique and make any necessary changes that’ll help improve the device. From here you can move into the prototyping stage.
One of the bigger issues I had with the ideation process was the actual drawing of the device. I never found myself to be an artistic person. Until this day I still use stick figures, don’t doodle in my notebook, and only color stuff with pre-designed drawings on it. But what I learned from the assignments in my HCDE 210 class is that it’s not about the actual skill of drawing but how well you can portray to the user or person making the prototype what the device is and the features that are included. That is why sketching is so important because it doesn’t require the same level of skill as drawing. Michael DiTullo refers to sketching as a way to process and organize thoughts, which is actually what you do when you put the ideas in your head onto paper. Sometimes it is hard to communicate an idea you have in your mind but sketching helps push that into the outside world. Sketching can be a method to help communicate your ideas and transport it into the view of others.
Sketching is a big part of the ideation process. It is how we bring our ideas to life. The same ideas that help make our lives easier. There are so many tools and devices that have been made or in the making that we never really took the time out to consider where did it even come from. After taking this class I realized that designers can come from different fields of backgrounds as long as they can find a solution to a problem.
