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Ideation Techniques
The most essential ideation techniques used to generate various ideas are brainstorm, brain dump and brainwriting. Let
us learn about them in detail.
Brainstorm
It is very popular with design teams because they can expand in all directions. Although the team has rules and
moderators to keep them on track, they can use out-of-the-box lateral thinking to come up with the most effective
solution to any design problem. Through brainstorming, they can take multiple approaches—the more, the better—
instead of just exploring traditional methods and encountering the obstacles that come with them. A large number of
ideas are collected so that various options are available for solving the problem.
Brain dump
Brain dump is very similar to brainstorm, however, it is done individually. It enables the people involved to open their
hearts, put down their thoughts on a piece of paper. Participants write down their thoughts on paper or post-it notes
and then share their thoughts with the larger group at a later stage.
Brainwriting
Brainwriting is also very similar to a brainstorming session and is called "individual brainstorming." In this case, only
the most confident team members share their thoughts, while introverts keep their thoughts private. Brainwriting gives
introverts time to write them down instead of sharing their thoughts aloud with the team. Participants write their
thoughts on paper, a few minutes later, they give their notes to another participant, and then the second team member
jots down his ideas or adds on to the previous member’s ideas, and so on. In this way, all participants pass on their
records to others. After about 15 minutes, the papers are collected and are available for immediate discussion.
Empathy Map
Empathy is the first step in design thinking because it enables designers to understand, empathise, and share user
feelings. Through empathy, we can put ourselves in consideration for others and understand how they feel about their
problems, or situations.
Before we begin to figure out what the problem is or try to solve it, it’s always a good idea to “walk a mile from the
user’s point of view” and understand the user. A very useful tool to do this is the Empathy Map. An Empathy Map is a
collaborative visualisation used to clarify our understanding of a specific type of user. It helps to:
Create a common understanding of user needs.
Help in decision-making.
Deepen understanding and gain insight into user behavior.
The traditional Empathy Map is divided into 4 quadrants (Says, Thinks, Does, and Feels), with the user or person in the
middle. Empathy Maps provide an overview of the user as a whole and are not sequential.
The Says quadrant contains what the user says aloud in an interview.
The Thinks quadrant contains what the user is thinking about his/her experience.
The Does quadrant depicts the actions of the user.
The Feels quadrant denotes the user’s emotional state, often represented as an adjective along with a short sentence
for context.
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