Thinking through drawing

When freehand drawing is being marginalised in the design process, and when many students head straight for the computer, hand drawing may be a generational issue. For example, British architect Chris Wilkinson (b.1945) finds the act of communication through drawing still very important: 'I often sketch what I'm thinking rather than what I'm seeing. It's part of the process by which my ideas come through. You could just sit in a field and contemplate, but at some point you need to get your ideas on to paper. You have to start somewhere, and for me a drawing is the way an idea begins to take form'. (Wilkinson's sketchbooks are on show at the Royal Academy of Arts, until 14 February 2016).

Forming ideas

The forming of ideas can, literally speaking, go through several stages. For example, the foundry plays a vital role for artists. Here the sculptor has an idea of what they want, and discusses with technicians issues such as scaling up, casting, welding or patinating, to see what is possible. And, after consultation, the artist often goes away with something quite different from the initial idea, which shows that the journey from first thought to idea realisation is not only difficult to predict but involves collaboration along the way.

What If?

Sometimes underestimated or overlooked in the ideation process is the power of questioning ... what if? And so, when speculating from the here and now into future possibilities, when exploring materials and processes and when developing innovative applications in new social, cultural, economic and political contexts we are prompted to ask crucial questions. Indeed, asking the right question can speed up solution finding or problem solving.This calls for multiple approaches to ideation, from rigorous enquiry and sensuousness to lateral thinking and hands-on experimentation across design disciplines.

Self-reflective pondering

Design ideation is about creativity and generating ideas. But it also about developing ideas which is a self-reflective activity at a conscious level. Ideation, then, as a reflective practice, goes beyond techniques such as "brainstorming", and focuses on the quality rather than the quantity of ideas. Moreover, as a purposeful and valuable activity, ideation involves the skillful use of ideation tools to help develop and communicate ideas using both verbal and visual language.

Good and bad ideas

It is difficult to know let alone predict why some design ideas succeed while others fail. This is because design ideas represent proposals, or work in progress, rather than final plans, artefacts or systems. And so there's a gap between ideas and their realisation, which can be considerable. Ideation, then, focuses on process, rather than final outcome.

Ideation and sense-making

The notion of sense-making, or individuals experience when attempting to make sense of observed data, as explored in interdisciplinary research programmes, may be helpful in making sense of ideas too, particularly in the communication phase of ideation when people and ideas interact, and both at individual and organisational levels. Sense-making, then, as applied to ideation where ideas become observed data, can be seen as a two-way process of fitting ideas into situations, or contexts, where neither idea nor context comes first; ideas bring out contexts and contexts generate ideas. And when the idea gives rise to uncertainty or ambiguity, or when there is no satisfactory fit between idea and context, the idea may be reconsidered or an existing context may be revised. Thus in applying sense-making to ideation, in fitting ideas with contexts, may not only promote better understanding of the connections between people, ideas and situations but also anticipate acceptance, accommodation or assimilation of ideas.

Deep versus surface ideation

Apart from spontaneous ideas seemingly coming out of the blue, there are two main approaches to ideation: One is where ideators aim at understanding the bigger picture and, looking for meaning, are ready to question what the ideas are for, in what might be called deep ideation. The other is where ideas are generated without much understanding of the context, or surface ideation. The different approaches can be compared to individual learning styles where a distinction is made between deep learning (critical analysis of ideas) and surface learning (memorisation of isolated and unlinked facts). The distinction between deep and surface ideation matters because deep ideation highlights how ideation is a process - not in a simple linear fashion (the naive bricks in the wall model of learning) but in an enquiring and questioning manner (why bricks, or wall?). Moreover, deep ideation suggests responsible design whereby ideators relate new ideas to previous knowledge and experience addressing critical societal and environmental issues also considering what ideas should be prioritised in a strategic way.