Ideator roles

Design ideation can be seen as generating, developing and communicating ideas, and so the corresponding roles of the ideator would be that of generator, developer and communicator of ideas. And one may add a fourth role, that is, that of critic, or rather inner critic. For the designer as ideator, these roles often role into one. That is, the designer generates the idea, from a great variety of (re)sources, then develops the idea, that is, grow, evolve or expand the idea, and finally communicates, or shares the idea with others.The fourth role, that of inner critic, may run throughout the ideation process, a balancing role as the ideator should manage their self-criticism so as not harm the desire to succeed. However, there is potentially a fifth role for the ideator, that is, the role of realising, or implementing the idea to what then becomes a working idea. And to execute the idea would be either on the ideator's own accord or with the help of others. The designer-maker would exemplify the ideator playing all the roles whereas the "Jack-of all ideas" may typify the ideator as foremost generator and communicator of ideas.

Daydreaming

Daydreaming or mind-wandering is often seen as a spontaneous, unfocused mental state without deliberate direction - in contrast to imagination regarded as a more focused, structured, and purposeful cognitive process. And so, if you get stuck on a particular problem, say, it may be a good thing to take a break from the problem and allow the mind to wander and daydream for a time, to let your subconscious work the problem. Moreover, by stepping away from the task in front of you, chances are you may generate creative ideas that help solve the problem at hand. Although daydreaming may at first be seen as distraction from the present, that is, inattention - and daydreaming does not necessarily lead to creative manifestations - it may nevertheless help problem-solving as it frees up space for the mind to rest and wander. Allowing daydreaming then, can be intentional, also known as "positive constructive daydreaming". Deliberate daydreaming may sound counter-intuitive but in practice may take the form of finding space and time for sketching or doodling to allow the mind to roam or wander. Doodling then becomes a technique, a tool, or practice that supports daydreaming, or out-of-the box, creative thinking. In addition, daydreaming through doodling may give a sense of professional identification with the work - particularly when generative AI may reduce the capacity to daydream.

Participatory ideation

Digitisation of design (converting analogue data into digital format), or digitalisation (turning analogue processes into digital ones) are not only driving mundane or routine aspects of the design process (such as rendering, drawing a plan or elevation) but also influencing design thinking and ideation. And so designers are being challenged by algorithms and corresponding software structures to focus their efforts on things that humans are better at than machines. Or rather, when challenged, how designers who embrace AI may do better than those who do not.  That is, designers need to engage in the evolving computer-human mind relationship. For example, AI is moving in the direction of becoming closer to a super-competent assistant, a virtual team member or co-pilot in the design process. That is, using AI tools in an enhancing role. Moreover, digitisation of visualisation has transformed the way designers communicate with non-expert clients shifting the balance of power in favour of the client - clients who, through their own digital experiences are better equipped to engage in the design process and consequently more demanding in their design requirements. This development highlights how the designer-client relationship is an ever closer cooperation, collaboration or partnership. In other words, digitisation is enabling a multi-level participatory design process where the client and other stakeholders are effectively becoming co-designers.

Performative ideas

Design ideation is a purposeful activity with a performative function in that the idea amounts to a proposal, plan or promise to be acted on. Moreover, the performative function of ideation relates to the semantics of ideas. That is, semantics is concerned with linguistic meaning that takes the idea beyond the visual expression of the material content (material culture). Verbal language, then, can enhance the meaning of the idea and help explain why some ideas are, or at least appear better than others. The reason for this is that ideas are sometimes just informed or reasoned guesses that designers present to their target audience, say a client. Designers, then, move about and develop the idea till they are satisfied that the idea would meet  the expectation of the client brief. In this pursuit, generative AI, as ideation tool and learning model, has a performative function and a performative capacity too. That is, AI offers support to designers to improve their performance in generating, developing and communicating ideas.

An idea is an idea is an idea

Some design ideas have a direct relationship to an actual object where ideation is pragmatically pursued through the interaction with the physical environment. But there are also designer who seek the highest level of abstraction, or the purity of a concept where, for example, a building is conceived as an abstraction. Yet both pragmatic and rational attitudes and approaches to ideation are expressed in language; verbal, visual or abstract (numeric). But language is embedded in culture and represents meanings. For example, the concept of a house may differ from one culture to another, and from one era to another. Is there then a common language for expressing ideas that bridges such differences? If not, how is communication between designers and stakeholders possible? And how is change possible, for example, in designing homes, if change of the concept of home isn't changed, altered or modified, say, through working from home or multi-generational living? And so, with ideation begins responsibility because the successful idea must meet stakeholders' values and expectations.

Flying ideas

AIdeation happens where human creativity and generative AI work together. Such collaborative creation between human, here the designer and machine, here AI systems can be likened to how air pilots, typically the captain and first officer, are co-piloting the flight - an interaction in which, moreover, the pilots are assisted by an autopilot. An autopilot, however, doesn't replace human pilots but rather allow them to focus on broader aspects of the flight. And so, generative AI does not replace designers but help them generate, refine and modify ideas. In this way, designers, while "letting AI fly for a while" add their unique touch to AI generated outputs while maintaining oversight of the ideation process, similar to how pilots are responsible for critical decision-making, from take-off and landing to situations in between. The interaction, then, between co-piloting and an autopilot, suggests a similar approach to how designers and AI systems can work together which, moreover, may help improve transparency and accountability in AIdeation.

Kafkaesque ideation

Franz Kafka (1883-1924), the writer known for his aversion to noise, joked that a living typist was much less intimidating than a machine: 'A machine with its serious, silent demands strikes me as exercising a greater, more cruel compulsion on one's capacities than any human being.' In Kafka's case, the machine was the typewriter (he claimed he was even afraid of the telephone). Today that machine is the computer. It operates silently but does it make silent demands? While there are those who depreciate the use of the computer for ideation, the fact that you can type a request into a machine, in normal conversational language, and it outputs something close to what you asked for, is pretty remarkable. Yet AI can give users false confidence, giving them the sense that if AI - with access to billions of data points - can come up with new ideas, they must somehow be better. But then ideas have never been in short supply. The problem for most designers, and their clients, is the uncertainty - which ideas are best, which ones are worth investing in? So will human creativity always prevail? But with humans in competition with AI, how can we tell?