Lesson 03: Sorting Ideas

You've done your research, and now you have a big pile of photos and notes to sort through. You've had a thousand ideas and done a good job documenting them - taking digital pics and jotting down notes as you went...now what?

Step 1: Physically represent each and every little idea INDIVIDUALLY. transfer notes to individual notecards or post-its. Print out all of your images, setting your printer to print 4-6 images to a page.Step 2: Put like with like. Group notecards and images that seem to go together. Staple duplicates into little bunches to consolidate. Use your sharpie like crazy, circling, noting and X-ing out anything you think of as you go.

Step 3: Use a labeling system as you go. My favorite way to do this is to circle my icons. A question mark in a circle is an item that needs to be answered or addressed. An exclamation point in a circle is a point of interest, or a consumer insight. A lightbulb in a circle is an idea for a solution. Create your hierarchy of easily spotted icons to help you visually organize your grouped findings.Step 4: Consolidate your groups as much as possible and organize them into columns of ideas. I like to put the most promising ideas at the top. Put these columns into a logical order, a sequence that it's easy to describe to someone conversationally. This order will most likely relate to the order of questions in your design brief, resulting in a roadmap to the perfect presentation of solutions for your client.

Lesson 02: How to Think of New Ideas

I know I'm promising an awful lot with that title, but idea creation is what I do. Even when I'm not working, my mind keeping chugging away, randomly spitting out ideas every time I bump into an opportunity. Friends and family don't love shopping with me. After a decade or so of training your brain leaps happen spontaneously, even when you're just trying to pick out a toothbrush. Here are some basic techniques that can help you make a few leaps right now:

Focus: No need to re-invent the wheel if it's not broken! Write down your problem. Draw it. Break it down into steps, parts, and sequences. Think about the minute details and elements creating the experience with the product. Pick the most important element of the problem. Now we're ready to attack it without the distraction of all the other parts.

Example: My toothbrush isn't comfortable. Toothbrush = bristles, head, neck, handle, rubber pads, cover/case, stand, batteries, switch....The toothbrush feels OK in my hand, it's my mouth that's most uncomfortable. The bristles are scratchy.

Shift Your Viewpoint: If you just stare straight at the wall you'll never see the path that goes around it. You have to look at it from another angle. Take out the dictionary. Flip to a random page and point at a word. Take that word and ask yourself, how could my solution be like this word?

Example: Scratchy toothbrush bristles + egg = eggs have layers, yolk inside white, maybe the bristle can be layered, a hard core with a softer outside, firm for pressure yet gentle on the gums!

Pair your Problems: Trying to kill two birds with one stone requires you to find a new kind of stone. Take two elements of your problem and see if one solution will fix them both.

Example: Scratchy toothbrush bristles + inflexible head = if the head were made out of a softer material it could flex more, the bristles could be part of the softer head, maybe the entire toothbrush is a hard core with a soft covering!

Think Backwards: It's often easier to find your way home than to go somewhere new. You know what your problem is. So imagine the ideal experience and trace a path back to the problem.

Example: If my toothbrush is comfortable then it fits my mouth, my gum line, my teeth...a piece of gum fits my mouth and teeth...maybe my toothbrush head can squish and conform to fit my mouth just like a piece of gum!

There are many other techniques for thinking "laterally," as opposed to linear thought, which tends to take us down existing paths. To find a great idea you need to jump off the side. Check out Edward DeBono's classic books for detailed info on lateral thinking techniques.

Lesson 01: The AEIOU's of Observation

Observation is the key to understanding. Users will often tell you what they want or dislike, known as articulated feedback, but observing their unarticulated needs in context will provide the unique breakthrough insights you need to make a new product great. I'll address the best methods for seeking, compiling and analysing articulated needs in a future post. For now, it's time to learn your AEIOU's.

Imagine a scenario in which you are trying to understand how to improve upon a standard wire paperclip. You touch and use the paperclip yourself. You spin around in your chair and try to catch your office mate using one, until he notices you staring and freezes in his tracks. Maybe you even ask your parents, neighbors or friends to demonstrate using a paperclip for you. Afterwards, you have a few ideas. You noticed several things that could improve a paperclip, but when you sit down to write or sketch suddenly it seems like you're just thinking in circles. You may end up with one or two hard-won concepts that, while they are improvements, don't seem to be a broad enough base upon which to build. For most companies, this means going back to the drawing board, asking for "more to go on," or often abandoning the platform entirely.

This fruitless scenario can easily evolve into a powerful tool if you add a little technique to the recipe. Committing to the concept of observation in context (AKA not in a focus group setting) is a good step towards success. Utilizing the AEIOU method to catalog your results will help you reap the full benefit of the time you invest in observation.

What to pay attention to during an observation:

• ACTIVITIES: What are people doing? Describe tasks, paying attention to the sequence of steps (ie: task analysis).

• ENVIRONMENT: What are the details of the setting? Pay attention to the lighting, furniture, noise levels, and other influencers to the user experience.

• INTERACTIONS: What exchanges are taking place? Between people, objects, and space?

• OBJECTS: What objects do you observe? Doodle and list what they are, their uses, and abstract meanings that people give to them.

• USERS: Who's using it? What's their demographic profile? How do their unique perspectives change the experience?

Using AEIOU, you have given yourself 5 categories across which to interpret a single observation session. Each category is like a lens through which you see the product in all its deficiencies and possibilities. Assuming that you have 2 items of note for each category, 5 simple observation sessions now results in 50 line items of findings. Suddenly you have generated a pool of information that can be further analysed to reveal patterns, trends, and ranked action items. Of course, how to do that requires other techniques, but utilizing AEIOU will get you started on the path to an abundance of ideas that have the potential for much more than just one breakthrough paperclip.