Style is substance

Dyson industries, of vacuum cleaner fame, have some 500 mechanical engineers, industrial and product designers working together under one roof where ideas come thick and fast. Yet while Dyson's staff are openly encouraged to pitch ideas, ideation has to be focused, and ideas kept on track.

As a result Dyson's engineers are said to be more interested in how things work than how they look, and claim they never launched anything that doesn't work. Yet while the company admits it has launched some ugly products, Dyson believes that this quest for perfection over style has been crucial to the success of the company.

True, style isn't everything and substance counts for lot. But Dyson could learn from design-driven companies such as Apple that style itself has become a kind of substance.

Ideation for action

Ideation is essentially a reflective activity. After the Eureka! moment, there's is slowing down,
questioning, humbling oneself, constructing, deconstructing, constructing again, patiently
building knowledge and applying it ... 

Worthless ideas?

'All ideas have degrees of potential. And if your idea is unique and has massive potential, that’s great. But don’t just stand still and think you’re sitting on a goldmine. Since only when you execute on the idea, and realize its potential, do you create value and wealth'.

Dave Lavinsky of Growthink.

Ideation constraints

Design ideation is sometimes being perceived as starting with a "blank page". The reality, however, is that ideation, as part of the design process, is not limitless but constrained by internal and external factors.

Internal factors may include; knowledge base, long term memory, and the designer's sense of audience or client needs. External factors may include; time allocated to the task, brief specification, client expectations, ideation tools for the job (skills and availabilty), and the designer's access to reference material.

X Idea

Method and Central Saint Martins (CSM) have come together to create Method Design Lab, MDL, a new business accelerator, which aims to bring up to 20 innovations to market each year.

MDL operates a step process to take an idea from concept to full commercialisation:

Step 1 - Idea sources: Ideas are identified from sources including the 4,500+ CSM students and the extensive internal and external global network of Method and CSM experts.

Step 2 - Primary selection: Ideas are selected using an online voting system that allows Method and CSM experts to identify which ideas should be explored further. This step draws on over 100 global experts that specialise in design, innovation and user-experience who have a track record in bringing innovation ideas to the market.

Step 3 - Early feasibility: Ideas that make it beyond the online voting stage undergo a rigorous internal vetting process with those who make the cut then being subject to due diligence in which the Method Design Lab team will identify potential routes to market, possible competition, design potential and audience.

Step 4 - Transfer of ownership: Once early feasibility has been conducted and the idea is to progress further an agreement is reached with the IP author.

Step 5 - Development: This involves the development of the idea to prototype stage and is where the combined strength of the joint venture partners will come to light. MDL, CSM and Method staff will bring their discipline expertise to bear and ensure that the output of this phase is as high a caliber as the world-class work done for clients of the independent consultancies.

Step 6 - Commercialisation: Developed idea is presented to potential market partners and additional investors to support large scale commercialisation and development.

Source: http://www.dexigner.com/news/22510

Words, words, words

Design ideation is typically an iterative process, interaction or dialogue between words and images. Ideation also works with artefacts and objects (including sketch models and rough prototypes). Words alone, however, may be perceived as weakness in ideation ("words, words, words") because they can be ambiguous, messy even, or pure abstraction, that is, building blocks without material constraints. Yet, arguably, the ambiguity of words allows more point of entry for creativity and innovation.

Ideation, innovation and manufacturing

Is there a relationship between ideation and manufacturing, and the next innovations? For example, the ideas behind the iPad and iPhone were generated and developed in the USA but the products are made by the engineers and factory workers in Asia. As people in Asia gain more knowledge, skill and experience will they also increasingly produce the next innovations? In other words, will shifts in manufacturing to the East lead to less innovation of physical products in the West? Moreover, if new generations of Western designers ideate without having the experience or means of producing things what are the ideation outcomes? Virtual solutions? Or, all talk and no industry?