Conceptualization Process or Thinking Up of Ideas
Design is a creative juggernaut, filled with lines of code and endless meetings. But let's not forget the core of it all: ideas and problem-solving. This process of generating ideas is known as Ideation. It's not some fleeting thoughts during lunch breaks; many design projects explicitly set aside time for this brainstorming session.
The design team gathers information from everyone involved, including designers, users, usability engineers, and other stakeholders. Although everyone's input is valuable, the team focuses on those most affected by specific parts of the project.
For example, let's consider The Whyze Group, specialists in customer experience design services. They identified a missing link in their client's after-purchase service. By ideating, they came up with solutions to fill this gap in the client's customer experience. The goal was to optimize the customer's journey from making a purchase to receiving their goods.
Ideation usually focuses on emotional and general experiential factors, such as the pleasure of using an E-Commerce site. Designers target enhancing these aspects rather than focusing solely on usability and other design principles.
Ideation Methods
Some popular methods for structured ideation include the 6-3-5 Method, brainstorming sessions, rapid sketching, and storyboarding. These techniques help generate ideas, visualize them, and foster collaboration within the team.
Design Thinking Approaches
Design thinking embraces empathy, interdisciplinary collaboration, and various ideation techniques. By understanding users' needs, collaborating across disciplines, and utilizing efficient problem-solving tools, designers can create exceptional, user-centered experiences.
Additional approaches like lean UX, human-centered design, and playbooks help standardize design practices and make the process more efficient.
Ideation occurs throughout the design process, bringing together ideas generated during focused exercises aimed at discovering novel methods, approaches, and ways to improve the user experience. With so much information unearthed during projects, there has to be a moment when it all comes together, gets analyzed, and transformed into practical solutions that make products enjoyable to use.
(Wiki) Ideation(Slideshare) Structured Ideation and Design Thinking(Book) Ideation(Sources) [1], [2], [3], [4], [5]
The design team at The Whyze Group, specialists in customer experience design services, utilized ideation methods such as brainstorming sessions and storyboarding to address a gap in their client's after-purchase service, aiming to optimize the user's journey from making a purchase to receiving their goods. To create exceptional, user-centered experiences, designers employ design thinking approaches, which combine empathy, interdisciplinary collaboration, and ideation techniques, along with lean UX, human-centered design, and playbooks to standardize design practices and make the process more efficient.
