Alright. It's time to throw down here. Mig Ryes style.
We've gotten so far a lot of theory, a boatload of technique. Now, we put it all together. How do you get started on a project? So you need to build an app... What do you call it? What color should it be? What should it...
Settle down there. There's a method to this creative madness.
Step 1 - REQUIREMENTS: What is this thing supposed to do? Who's it for? WRITE THAT DOWN! If you know that you need for six year olds to be using this thing you're making, write that down.
Step 2 - THEMES: Are there any obvious themes you can think of? Anything goes here. Just throw it down, get the juices flowing. Make those barely logical jumps you'd usually get funny looks for, and write those down.
Step 3 - IMAGES: Take some of those crazy ideas and start looking for visual inspiration. Few designers pull their ideas just out of the ether. It's usually triggered by something they saw back whenever, or by active search [some call this creating a "mood board"].
Step 4: CHECK YO SELF: Ok. So maybe you got some good images there. You've got a few ideas that make sense. They're not too directly associated [like calling a flip cup game "Flippy"], but they're not too far out there. See if they have legs! Can you use more of the same language elsewhere in your project?
Step 5: START DRAWING: Ok, now you're rollin. From here on in it's using all those naffy grid techniques, maybe some Photoshop magic [we call them "chops"] and getting those ideas onto paper...er... screen.
So yeah. Basically, go until you reach the end, then stop.
*Just to remind you all. This is freeing. Having a process, having some kind of constraints to work within, that's one less thing to think about. You work within the process and get creative on the inside. Just as developers have frameworks to work within, designers can create their own frameworks. Steps to take, rules to follow.