imagination

Everybody has ideas, everybody has imagination. Everybody could have a good product idea. So what makes the different between a product designer and a casual inventor? Being a product designer means that being able to find new ideas again, again and again. The problem is how does a product designer find ideas?

Looking form a different point of view often drives you to new ideas. Most people stick with proven ways to do, since it has been proofed that it works. But sticking with this how could you generate new ideas? It seems very hard to me. I think a product designer should discover new points of view, by accepting everything he knows may be wrong. The easiest way to gain new points of view is to break your routine life style. Change your habits, change your transportation way, use bike rather than car or use car rather than bike for a while. Try to start new things, go holidays, experience different cultures, start new hobbies.

Playing is another way of getting new ideas. Like a child try to use things other than their purpose. Making models or mock-ups without any plan and purpose, letting them to develop while you are playing with them is a great way to learn and have experience about it. We know that always there are more than one correct solutions, playing with existing solutions could give a product designer chance to discover new solutions. Free sketching is also another technic to discover new lines.

Exhibitions, design magazines, forums, online blogs are places where you can get good ideas. It doesn’t mean that the good design should be all new. Sometime a minor improvement will make a great design. Checking out other designer works, ideas and learning how they are thinking you will improve your ability to approach problems from different points of views. Also it is not only other product designers we can learn; we also can learn from nature as itself a great design. There are very nice examples, a famous one is Velcro: The idea came to him one day after returning from a hunting trip with his dog in the Alps. He took a close look at the burrs (seeds) of burdock that kept sticking to his clothes and his dog’s fur. He examined them under a microscope, and noted their hundreds of “hooks” that caught on anything with a loop, such as clothing, animal fur, or hair.

While we are searching new ideas desperately we may not realise what we are having. Sometime we need to stop and think to realise what the idea is. Sometime we solve problems in our dream; a famous example is classic design of the periodic table of the chemical elements, Dmitri Mendeleev invented the table in his dream. The other very famous example is Salvador Dali, he would lie on a couch and put a glass on the floor, then carefully place one end of the spoon on the edge of the glass and lightly hold the other end in his hand. As he drifted off the sleep, he would naturally relax his hand and release the spoon. The sound of the spoon falling in to the glass would wake him up and he would sketch the bizarre images that he just started to drift through his half-sleep semi-conscious mind.

Exploration to new materials also is a good way to get new ideas for product designers. Not only new materials but also new technologies would be good start point for an innovative product. Following science magazines, going exhibitions and networking are some ways to get these informations.

Be provocative, do things with unexpected way rather unusual. Try to mix things which are normally not used together. This makes a product designer more imaginative and creative, and less rational and judgemental.

Another technic is called brainstorming; frankly I am not a fun of brainstorming. Also there are some brainstorming technics people find them very useful. According to Max Ringelmann’s studies people work in group spend effort %30 less than when they work on their own. A large body of research suggests people using group brainstorming may have inadvertently been stifling, not stimulating, their creativity. When they are working together they aren’t as motivated to put in the time and energy needed to generate great ideas, and end up spending more time thinking inside the box.

Did you know before Alexander Fleming at least 18 people may have had the opportunity to discover antibiotics? The key point is to understand the potential of your ideas and your observations. Observation and thinking about observation can lead you to great ideas.

To sum up, as a product designer you may find some of these technics useful, some less useful. It is important to use them in a correct situation as well. I think being a product designer is not a day job it is a life style. To being creative you need to live creative.