Concept generation methods

Methods are an integral element of the design process, enabling designers to structure the development process of a product. The most successful concept generation methods are deliberate thinking processes designed to help designers find the inspiration to build upon their research and produce new ideas and fresh insights. Below are some of the most successful techniques, which can help define concepts, aid communication across design teams, and share viewpoints with all the stakeholders. None of these methods is guaranteed to solve a problem, but they can assist designers in finding ideas without having to wait for an uncooperative muse.

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a technique used by design teams to generate ideas more rapidly and effectively. It is a highly efficient method of generating surprising and innovative concept proposals rather than the production of a list of familiar, orthodox ideas. Individuals can use brainstorming, but it works best when used by groups of people. Brainstorming is most effective if everybody involved keeps to the following simple ground rules:

• State the problem or scenario to be discussed clearly and concisely.
• Be visual—draw ideas or represent them with whatever is to hand.
• Number your ideas, and set a target of ideas to be generated.
• Stay focused on the task.
• Keep the ideas flowing.
• Approach the problem from different viewpoints.
• Defer judgment.
• Have one conversation at a time.
• Go for quantity, the more ideas the better.
• Every idea is valid.

Brainstorming concepts is said to promote the creative productivity of design teams by helping them generate and evaluate ideas through teamwork and collaboration. Here, the discussion by Stockholm designers Propeller focuses on a specific product, the Kapsel Media Center.

Attribute listing

While brainstorming is a general idea generation method, attribute listing is a specific idea-finding technique in which you need to:

• Identify the key characteristics, or attributes, of the product or processin question.
• Think up ways to change, modify, or improve each attribute.
• Draw these changes and then compare and contrast them with theinitial product or process.

Analogical thinking

Analogical thinking is the transfer of an idea from one context to another context. Direct analogical thinking brings together a problem from one domain with familiar knowledge of another domain as a way to gain insight. For example, Georges de Menstral invented Velcro after noticing plant burrs on his dog’s fur.

While all designers refer to precedents in design through actual objects, books, and magazines and think analogously all the time, analogical thinking can be a conscious technique if you deliberately ask questions like these:

• What else is like this?
• What have others done?
• Where can I find an idea?
• What ideas can I modify to fit my problem?

Bone Armchair (left), 2008, and Bone Chair (right), 2006, by Joris Laarman. An example of analogical thinking, whereby the artist was inspired by the material and structural qualities of bone tissue to create a range of furniture. Using a biomimetic technique, the process takes its inspiration from the efficient way that bones grow, adding material where strength is needed and taking away material where it’s unnecessary.

Idea checklists

There are a number of checklists written specifically to help solve problems creatively. Typical questions include:

• Combine—Blend? Combine components? Combine purposes? 
• Modify—Change meaning, color, form?
• Magnify—What to add? Extra value? Duplicate? Multiply? Exaggerate?
• Minimize—What to subtract? Miniaturize? Lighten? Split up? 
• Put to other uses—New ways to use as is? Other uses if modified?
• Rearrange—Interchange components? Turn on its head?

Breaking the rules

This method enables a designer to temporarily rewrite the social, cultural, or physical rules impacting on the problem at hand. To use this method you should:

• List all the taken-for-granted assumptions surrounding a problem and the unwritten “rules” that govern your way of thinking.
• Find ways to challenge the rules by asking—Why not? What if? Take inspiration from nature and the world around you. In your problem-solving you could oppose, contrast, transfer, reverse, distort, contradict, substitute, superimpose, change scale, combine, empathize, and so on.
• Escape these rules and free-associate to generate novel ideas, bypass a law against them, or imagine a different rule. Be playful and free yourself from conventions and preconceptions.

Lateral thinking

This series of techniques, popularized by leading design thinker Edward De Bono, attempts to change concepts and perceptions by rejecting traditional step-by-step logic. Popular lateral thinking techniques include:

• Challenge—Here you challenge the status quo, not to demonstrate that there is anything wrong with the existing situation but simply to enable you to explore concepts beyond those parameters.
• Random entry—A product is chosen at random and you attempt to draw parallels between that and the design issue you are working on.
• Focus—Here you carefully observe the inadequacies in existing products with the aim of creating better end results. For example, combining notebooks and desktops led to Personal Data Assistants (PDAs).
• Provocation—In this technique you make some provocative statements using exaggeration, reversal, wishful thinking, and distortion to anygiven product.
• Escape—This is used to get away from expected product outcomes. Denying expectations can help you create better products.

Mind mapping

A mind map is a diagram used to represent ideas linked to, and arranged radially around, a central key word or idea. Designers use mind maps, sometimes referred to as concept maps, to generate ideas and help their problem-solving and decision-making processes. Mind mapping involves writing down a central idea and thinking up new and related ideas, which radiate out from the center. By focusing on key ideas, and then looking for branches out and connections between the ideas, you can map out your knowledge in a manner that will help reframe your knowledge.

General rules for successful mind mapping include:

• A central multicolored image that symbolizes the mind map subject.
• Themes that provide the main divisions.
• Lines that support each key word are the same length as the word and “organically” connect to the central image.
• Printing to give each word used clarity.
• Single key words uncluttered by adjectives or definitions.
• Color for vividness and memorability.
• Images each worth a thousand words.
• Enclosure of each theme with an outline that hugs the shape createdby the branches.

Mind map, by Angela Gray. This diagram is used to represent words, ideas, and tasks linked to, and arranged around, a central key word or idea. Mind maps are used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and are a useful creative tool for designers.