HCDE 210 - Public Communication
Human centered design is the “advancement of systems and technologies for people and communities to create accessible, sustainable, and prosperous futures”, according to the University of Washington.
> here’s the link to find UW’s HCDE page: https://www.hcde.washington.edu/about/mission
The human centered design process has five steps:
Research
Ideate
Prototype
Evaluate
Produce
*taken from the HCDE 210 Slides*
If you’re taking HCDE 210 at UW, you’ll get familiar with this diagram that details the human centered design process!
For human centered design, ideation is an integral part of the design process. After research, designers use the goals and needs that they have discovered to generate ideas through ideation. According to Todd Reilly, a video maker on YouTube, ideation is a system similar to those found in nature in which ideas are like seeds, and they are constantly being created and germinated. In the system, the surrounding environment filters through the idea creator to the idea, and once the idea exists, it goes back to the environment where it may recombine with other ideas.
> here’s the link for Todd Reilly’s YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBF8VF2hMgQ
*Ideation as a system similar to those found in nature through flowers*
Ideation is the creation of ideas. It involves creativity through problem solving with relevance and novelty. Relevance has to do with how well designers solve a problem, and novelty looks at the degree of uniqueness and originality.
Sketching is used in ideation as a way of thinking, processing thoughts, and organizing them. Sketches help push ideas into the world, and they are used as a vehicle for communication. Sketching can be in the form of low-fidelity doodles or high-fidelity art with shading. Sketching is used because it is often quick and cheap. It helps designers document and communicate their ideas.
*Doodle of car vs. Art with shading*
There are two types of ideation ideas: divergent ideas and convergent ideas
Divergent ideas are when designers expand their thinking to develop various different options.
*Divergent — different types of exercise*
Convergent ideas are when designers take their ideas they’ve created and narrowing down to focus on a specific area.
*Convergent — different types of exercise are narrowed down by specific swimming strokes*
When ideating, it might be difficult to come up with ideas, but there are strategies to overcome the drought of ideas. Osborn’s checklist has ideation strategies to help designers overcome designers block. These include modification, magnification, minimization, substitution, rearrangement, and combination.
Here are other ideation strategies:
Use pen/don’t erase when using pencil
Use alternate tools (thicker markers, softer pencils)
Don’t rely on visuals alone -> add text and labels
Defer judgment!
Quantity > quality
Energize to be in the right mindset
Be mindful of the space in which you’re designing
Encourage wild ideas! (helps with spurring creativity)
Lastly, feedback is a very important part of the ideation process. With the feedback from others, a feedback loop of ideas is created. Thus, one person’s idea turns into that of a collective group. This gives designers the ability to build and elaborate on their ideas!