Mindful ideation

The term mindfulness has many usages. Derived from Buddhist meditational practices, mindfulness is, for example, applied in clinical psychology as a "mode of being" that focuses on what is being sensed at each moment, rather than dwelling on the past or worrying about the future. In the context of design, applying mindfulness to ideation may suggest sustained attention to ideas as they unfold, moment by moment, with openness and without prejudice. Ideation, then, as a purposeful and mindful process, is concentrating on the creative task in hand rather than letting the mind wander constantly, thus in contrast to "brainstorming", which generates lots of random and directionless ideas.

Practising ideation

While talent matters in creative pursuits, the ability and skill to generate and communicate ideas can be improved through practice, as experienced in the ideation workshop (see ditto). This is because the human brain is highly plastic and very adaptable responding to practice. Indeed, rather than arguing that ideation depends on being naturally gifted, or expecting instant gratification from ideation, the belief that ideation improves with practice motivate us to make more effort and persist longer.

The idea of sketching

The idea of sketching is not so much related to what, in fact, constitutes a sketch (mediums), but rather visual thinking (process). In this sense, the sketch is not so much for design (purpose) as of design (direction).