Human-computer ideation

Human-computer interaction, HCI is concerned with the ways humans interact with computers, both hardware and software. Of special interest to design ideation is how computers can help designers generate and communicate ideas, visually or textually, or both, or in model form, such as prototyping (3D printing). In this, ideators need computer competence in visualising ideas - to create visual materials and artefacts as well as to understand the impact of visual materials, including digital imagery, data and information visualisation. In other words, the computer becomes an ideation tool.

Why ideation skills matter

Ideas, at first, may seem plentiful, cheap and easy to come by. And so it may be that ideation skills are overlooked or underestimated in the design process. But Dr Laura Kornish, a US academic who teaches product development courses, where students generate and develop ideas for new products, says that better ideas, on average, lead to more successful products, as rated by users (the failure rate for fast moving consumer goods is close to 50 per cent), and therefore getting good ideas is a process that requires not only talent, time and money but discipline. To discipline one's imagination for visible creative outcomes, then, suggests focus on ideation skills, and whether acquiring new skills or improving existing ones.