Introduction to HumanCentered Design: Conceptual
Design and Prototyping
EPICS High School Workshop
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
William Oakes and Carla Zoltowski
Creativity and Brainstorming
 Creativity is a divergent thinking skill in which we
postpone judgment and try to see a situation from
as many different perspectives as possible.
 Brainstorming is a term used for the creative
generation of many ideas.
 Why Do It?
 Creativity and brainstorming can be applied in
many situations. Certainly important at the
beginning of the design process, it can also be
applied to any form of problem solving. It is
particularly helpful in getting “unstuck” when your
problem solving bogs down. It is also applied in
trouble-shooting and failure analysis to develop
the possible hypotheses that will make up your
differential diagnosis.
Expanding the Design Space
Brainstorming
Brainstorming can be done individually
or as a team
Team brainstorming = Taking
advantage of the contributions of the
team
Sum is greater than the individuals
Theory is to stimulate our brains to use
our whole brain to expand the options to
include the best solution
Brainstorming rules
 Explain the entire procedure to the team
 Choose one facilitator
Records ideas and participates in the generation
of ideas.
 Record ideas that are easily visible to the whole
team.
 Rotate around the group with each person
getting to add one idea per rotation.
Let members say “pass”
Move quickly.
 NO value judgments. Write ALL ideas down
Facilitator treats ALL ideas the same
 Continue until the entire team is passing
Brainstorming – 6-3-5
Group of 6 people
Each person writes down 3 ideas
Pass to right, next person adds to
paper for 5 minutes..
Ideas can be new, extend, or modify
original ideas
No verbal communication during
activity
Brainstorming – 6-3-5 Practice
Get in groups of 6; select one project
from your group
Each person writes down 3 ideas
Pass to right, next person adds to
paper for 5 minutes..
Ideas can be new, extend, or modify
original ideas
No verbal communication during
activity
Each group
How many different ideas did your
group come up with?
Did you start running out of new
ideas?
Triggers
 Triggers are specific tools to actively bump your brain out of its ruts.
They are designed to get you thinking from a different perspective.
Many triggers are available (crazy, creative people are always
thinking up more), and some are listed below.
 Other’s Shoes – Reconsider the problem from the perspective of a
plumber, civil engineer, physician, child, attorney, basketball player,
etc. You can keep this close to your personal comfort level by
picking roles you know something about, like plumber perhaps, and
then expand to more fanciful ones, like princess.
 Nature – How does nature deal with this issue, or how would you do
it if you were Mother Nature?
 Opposite – How would you solve the opposite problem (from “cut
down a tree” to “grow a tree”)? Or, consider the opposite of some of
your ideas (from “cut with a saw” to join with “hot glue”).
 Random – Use random words, pictures, movie titles, professor
names to generate more ideas.
More Triggers
 Analogy – Consider what has similar function but different
appearance (automatic clothes washer to washboard), what has
similar appearance but different function (washboard to cheese
grater), or what has a similar name and different use (bottle cap to
baseball cap)?
 Craziest Idea – take the craziest idea and try use the kernel to get to
a practical solution (“Cut down a tree with scissors” to “cut with large
hydraulic shears”).
 Boundaries/Constraints – Remove, adjust, or explore the
boundaries of the problem. (If the problem is a better way to wash
clothes, what about recycling the old shirt into a new shirt instead of
washing? Does it have to be “wash” or can it be “clean” or
“deodorize”?)
 Anthropomorphize – Consider yourself to be the piece of equipment
or process. Or consider yourself a molecule flowing through the
system. (For “Why is this part failing?” think- “Am I getting hot
anywhere, where do I feel the stress?”)
 Combine – Take different ideas and see what happens if you add
them together, or combine them in some other way (Problem: “wash
clothes” – combine “spray with a hose” and “pound on a rock” to
“spray with wet rocks”)
 Other – Brainstorm your own trigger or find a trigger in a reference.
Brainstorming - SCAMPER
 Substitute – can you use a different method, device, or
material or changed the environment?
 Combine – can you combine ideas together to produce
a better idea?
 Adapt – what ideas are similar that could be emulated
or adapted to fit the current need?
 Modify, Minify, Magnify – can you change the current
idea, make it smaller or larger in some way?
 Put to other uses – can you use the idea in a new way?
 Eliminate – are there any ideas that have been shown
to not work?
 Reverse, Rearrange – would an opposing idea give you
additional information, or can you interchange the key
elements of the idea to form a new one?
Looking at nature
 Innovative vehicle
designs often are
based on what we
think of for a vehicle
 How many animals
have you ever seen
that move with
wheels?
Whack Pack app
 Explorer
Role for discovering resources you’ll use to create
new ideas
 Artist
Role for transforming your resources into new ideas
 Judge
Role for evaluating an idea and deciding what to do
with it
 Warrior
Role for implementing your idea
 Heraclitus
Insights
Practice with Triggers
 Other’s Shoes
 Nature
 Opposite
 Random
 Analogy
 Craziest Idea
 Boundaries/
Constraints
 Anthropomorphize
 Combine
Each group
Were using the triggers helpful in
generating more ideas?