This document outlines principles and techniques for ideation and design workshops. It discusses constraints to consider in design like technology, business needs, and materials. It then describes a research plan involving observations, insights, and prototyping. Brainstorming rules are outlined emphasizing quantity over quality. Specific brainstorming techniques are also presented like brainwriting, rule breaking, and questioning. The document concludes with examples of design principles for different products focusing on being short, memorable, and differentiating.

1. Ideation &
Design Principles:
Ye Olde Design
Workshoppe
Dan Saffer, Kicker Studio

3. CONSTRAINTS
Technology
Business
Context
Materials
Tools
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RESEARCH PLAN
RESEARCH OBSERVATIONS DISPLAY IDEATION PRINCIPLES REFINEMENT PROTOTYPE
STRATEGY Images
Data
Impressions
STRUCTURED
INSIGHTS
"Findings"
Models
Patterns
Stories
Personas
"MAGIC"

4. Ideation

5. Brainstorming rules
• No bad ideas, no criticism
• Stay focused: Stray ideas into “parking lot”
• Don’t spend a lot of time on any one idea
• Use the whole room
• No multitasking
• Start with a warm-up exercise

6. Brainstorming sprints
• Fixed time limit
• Quantity, quantity, quantity
• Reward quantity, not quality!
• Breaks (even small ones) between sessions
• Drawing, dammit. This is design!
• Focus on pain points and opportunities

8. Brainstorming
Techniques I

9. Brainwriting
Each person writes down or sketches the
beginning of an idea silently on a piece
of paper. This could be as simple as a
single word or a shape. After three
minutes, the person passes the paper to
his neighbor, who continues the idea.
This repeats around the circle until it gets
all the way back around to its originator.

10. Break the rules
Rather than ignore the project’s
constraints, you list them out and
one-by-one proceed to figure out
how to break them.

11. Force fit
Distill the problem down to two words
that are in opposition, then put those
words together into a phrase. For
example, “intense peace.” Then
ruminate on what exists in the world
that embodies that phrase, then try to
apply it to the project for inspiration.
Nature and art often work well for this.

12. Poetry
Reduce the problem down to a haiku
or bento poem. Such a small form
makes you figure out what are the most
important parts of the problem.

13. Brainstorming
Techniques II

14. Questioning
Start with a very general concept and
keep asking two questions: how and
why. For example, “We are going to
build a social networking site.” Why?
“So record collectors can exchange
albums.” How? “By uploading their
rare albums.” How? Etc.

15. Swiping
Swiping is stealing the best ideas from
another field or domain. It starts by
abstracting your problem (“This is
about finding something small”) and
asking what other products or fields
have ways of doing the abstraction.

16. Laddering
Laddering means either moving “up” to
a level of abstraction (“What is this
problem an example of?”) or moving
“down” to something concrete (“What
is an example of this problem?”).

17. Bizarro World
Pretend you wanted to make the
opposite product or the opposite
outcome. Invert everything: what is
good is bad, what is desirable isn’t, etc.

18. Clustering concepts
• Cluster similar concepts around activities,
characteristics, metaphors, etc.
• Name the clusters
• Consider collapsing similar concepts or
stringing together concepts
• Do an initial sorting of concepts

21. Design principles

22. Why design principles
• Help pick the right concept
• Help make design decisions
• Can be longer lasting than product itself
• Helps find the Buddha Nature of a product

24. Canesta gestural
entertainment center
• Use it on a date
• As lazy as possible
• A bottle in one hand
• Beat the remote

25. Charmr
• Wear it during sex
• Make better use of data
• Easy to learn and teach/No numbers
• Less stuff
• Keep diabetics in control
• Keep diabetics motivated

26. Design principles
• Short
• Memorable
• Cross-feature
• Specific (no “Easy to Use”)
• Differentiator taken together
• Non-conflicting

27. THANKS.
dan@kickerstudio.com
odannyboy on twitter