Ideation walk

While many designers anecdotally say they get their best ideas while walking, research now shows that walking can indeed improve creative thinking. The educational psychology researchers at Stanford examined creativity levels of people while they walked versus while they sat. Across the board, creativity levels were consistently and significantly higher for those walking compared to those sitting, or an increase by an average 60 per cent when walking. The walkers did particularly well on a “divergent thinking” creativity test – a thought process or method used to generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions, or what is sometimes known as “thinking outside the box”. For example, the participants had to think of alternate uses for a given object, such as a tyre. Many more original ideas came from the walkers. The study found that walking itself, and whether indoors or outdoors, was the main factor boosting creativity. Productive creativity involves a series of steps – from idea generation to execution – and the research demonstrated that the benefits of walking applied to the "divergent" element of creative thinking, but not to the more "convergent" or focused thinking characteristic of insight.