When we set out to develop this Wikipedia of creativity and innovation we started from this premise: the uncertainty in which we live now forces us to provide ourselves with new tools and weapons to fight in an excessively competitive, changing and global market. It is more necessary than ever to detect new possibilities, connections and delicate, unexplored relationships (rather than superficial and obvious ones) in order to move past the problems and the contexts to achieve a projected perspective that can be translated into solutions, products, services, projects or business lines.
Designpedia, the manual of creativity and innovation, was developed by Thinkers Co. It is a compilation of tools structured in such a way as to solve problems using the principles of design.
If we understand creativity as an innate capacity in everybody that can be trained (like memory or muscles), then the ability to generate new associations from known ideas and concepts would usually produce an original solution (original meaning unique). In this context, Designpedia rests on two pillars:
• The provision of an organized compilation of visual tools to apply in problem solving, idea generation and project development with the aim of boosting connection and concept definition skills.
• The provision of a user manual that includes examples of how to apply these tools with a view to conceptualising solutions in an entrepreneurial development context and facilitating basic activation procedures.
In general terms, the aim of the Designpedia is to provide an information point, a consultancy forum that supplies equipment which will be useful from early stages of grasping the nature or challenges and goals to seeking and developing solutions.
Designpedia is aimed at a range of professionals, depending on their previous level of contact with the Design Thinking world:
• Beginners: here it will be of use as an introduction to the use of a philosophy and methodology destined to become increasingly widespread and useful in business.
• Practitioners: in this case it is a document that makes a repository of tools available to them to help them work.
• Experts: they will use it as a Wikipedia to support them in broadcasting and encouraging praxis.
Designpedia is constructed on the capacity of design to conceptualise: using only simple tools we are able to generate innovation in a flexible and systemic way, that is, to identify the value to be passed to our customers or users with restricted resources. The final goal is to clearly define driver concepts and ideas that we can develop and implement.
Depending upon the type of company involved, Designpedia will be useful in a variety of ways:
• For start-ups or entrepreneurs it is a toolbox for grasping and developing ideas and projects.
• For SMEs it acts as support for developing and taking decisions.
• For large companies it provides an alternative for systemically developing, identifying and defining solutions.
The importance of grasping how important it is to understand the Design Thinking concept as a whole and the use of Designpedia in project pre-development cannot be overstressed. Rather than to provide a substitute for execution design or for a professional’s work implementation tools, the aim is to buttress and support the inclusion of thought and conceptualisation processes that reduce mistakes and facilitate the project launch from the hands of the development team.
The purpose of this manual is to provide the reader with an overarching view of a working framework based on the design process and tools and models used in applying solution conceptualisation, so that the work is read as an unbroken whole.
Designpedia consists of a collection of information units that are complimentary and not necessarily mutually exclusive. What you are reading is not a manifesto or a plodding activation procedure, but rather a reference manual that will help you in your day-to-day activities and provide precisely what is necessary.
• Readers who wish to gain a deeper understanding of the principles and basis of Design Thinking should read pages 16 to 25, and then continue reading consecutively, or alternatively they should access other units that fit their choices and requirements.
• Those who wish to understand the application model of the tools presented here are advised to start reading from page 26 to grasp the tool units and the way they can be tracked down before use.
• Readers who seek to identify a starting point in understanding the complexity of the business problem/challenge concerned should go straight to the tool unit as mapped out.
• Readers already equipped with the skills and tools needed to grasp and perceive their business problem/challenge in depth should go directly to the unit corresponding to the exploration tools.
• It would be a good idea for those lacking skills in idea building to study the idea formation and prototype-building tools in their entirety in the construction unit.
• We suggest that readers interested in gaining a more in-depth understanding of concept validation and grasping their clients’ opinions should refer to the test tools.
• And it would be better for those seeking simplified action models directed at actual, specific goals, to begin reading the application itineraries where they will find examples based on the use of a set number of tools (as a minimum).
