OUGD501 - Target Audience Research

Target Audience Research

Idea Generation Techniques among Creative Professionals Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2009

The Methodology 

- the aim of the study was to learn about current practices within product design and to aide the development of tools to support these practices.

- 10 designers were interviewed with 9 being from three different companies and 1 person being freelance.

- The interviewees has different levels of professional experience and came from a a range of backgrounds

- The diversity of backgrounds within the participants suggests that much of what was observed within the study is not nessecerily unique to product design.

- Each participant described their creative process from project definition to completion and explained each stage within the process. Examples of recent projects were asked for.

- They had to describe techniques used to generate initial ideas for projects or techniques they would use in general. 

- The benefits and limitations of the different techniques were also asked about.

Design Cycle Model 

- Almost all the interviewees described their whole creative process when asked about it. This suggests that designers considered their overall design process as a creative process, whilst also saying how being creative throughout the cycle is important.

- From responses another creativity model was created.

- This model creates distinction between the design cycle and idea generation process. It is broken down into three distinct sections to reflect how the design cycle is broken down for time management and for the ability to meet deadlines.

- The Idea Generation Model reflects the fluidity of idea generation within the concept stage of the design cycle. Within this a designer refines and generates ideas and leaves the circle when an idea is ready to implement.

This model suggests:

- inspiration is needed throughout the idea generation process to allow designers to form creative ideas

- research means searching the domain to generate divergent concepts 

- in the represent phase the initial ideas are made into an externalised form

- concepts are evaluated and refined in the refine phase allowing for the convergence of concepts

- These concepts can lead to new research and knowledge

- Within this a concept represents a working definition of a problem or potential solution.

Results 

- from interview answers all idea generation techniques were listed 

- these were condensed into categories 

- the 19 idea generation techniques were placed into the Idea Generation Process Model depending on what the techniques was used for, either inspiration, research, representation or refinement.

- Some fell into multiple categories

Common techniques for designers within the:

Inspiration Phase 

- include passive searching, encompassing themselves in the material, socialising, and incubating.

- Passive searching without a concept in mind such as searching through magazines, blogs an the internet. 

- Immersion in information relevant to the project, by looking at all the collected information in their projects space 

- Socialsing allows new ideas to come through 

- Incubation allows inspriartion to be found and information to settle

Research Phase

- gather knowledge and information to help come up with possible solutions 

- empathy with the user is needed so user research is important with forced analogies used to create larger research areas.

- active searching for specific information through the web, books, magazines etc

- sketches and documentation either physical or electronic are used to help generate ideas in the next phase

Represent Phase 

- physical objects are used to represent ideas through sketching, acting, word lists, storyboards and prototypes.

- sketching and documenting ideas helps to conceptualise ideas and allows the to be shown / explained to other people 

- word lists mean designers can define the important bits that will be within the design and can be aesthetic or functional elements

- storyboards include information about users and show individuals through this information

- Quick prototypes use materials to show rough ideas and are not finalised outcomes.  

- If creating something that is outside the designers domain then it is important to elicit expertise

Refine 

- ideas are converged through evaluating the concepts e.g. group crits or self critique

- ideas are reduced during this stage 

Co- Creation 

- Collaboration and brainstorming happen in all parts of the idea generation process

- Collaboration is working with others to create ideas

- Brainstorming is one of the most popular techniques as 80% mentioned the technique within the study. As many ideas as possible are generated within a period of time.

Limitations of some of these techniques 

Collaboration effective when everyone is together however it is harder to share ideas when apart.
Current collaborative technologies e.g. video conferencing, do not meet user needs leading to a reversion to traditional techniques e.g. emailing.
Finding people with expertise on a domain outside their own proves difficult so software to aide this process is needed 
To reflect on work a system for storage and retrieval is needed with with easy searching 
In active searching people cannot always find information or it doesn't exist, so a tagging system on information sources would useful
An expertise search engine would allow for information to be gathered that is currently not available.
Immersion in information is easy for an individual if in the same location as the material , similarly if working in a group however when people are apart it becomes more difficult. A tool to replicate these locations is needed for people to view and continue adding to them.

Other techniques discussed: