Is Brainstorming useful in UX design?
Most brilliant ideas come as jokes, make your thinking as funny as possible. Today I will explain how to brainstorm these brilliant jokes as productive.
Sometimes people get confused with this word called “Brainstorm”. Like when I heard this word for the first time I created an image in mind, somewhat similar to this…
LOL, I think this is not something you people might have thought similar about the word brainstorm. Now, let's look quite deeper into this word,
Brainstorming is a method of generating ideas and sharing knowledge to solve a particular commercial or technical problem, in which participants are encouraged to think without interruption. It is a group activity where each participant shares their ideas as soon as they come to mind.
Newton said: I would take 55 minutes in defining the problem and then 5 minutes solving it.
Why Brainstorming is important?
- It encourages wild ideas.
- Provides you a proper build of ideas vision of others.
- Gives you a visual idea.
- Allows even silly ideas to come under consideration.
- No fear of judgments.
- Allows thinking more freely.
- Encourages open and ongoing collaboration.
- It helps team members feel more comfortable bouncing off one another.
- Stimulates and unlocks people’s creative talent.
- Builds self-esteem.
- Promote thinking skills.
For Better Brainstorming-
For one minute, brainstorm any problems that come to mind. For another minute, brainstorm any solutions that come to your mind.
Let's think of a game. Suppose you are given 6circles on paper and your task is to create something creative with these 6 circles in under 30 seconds.
Probably most of you already started building images in your mind, isn't it? So let's try this and let me know in the comments what unique you thought. I will show you what I did.
(to be honest in completing this task I took 10 more seconds).
What is more important for designers is to let their ideas come into the vision. so that others could see your idea and help you in making your idea better and more precise.
Better Brainstorming
What you think about your product, doesn't mean everyone thinks in the same way. Suppose there is a foil company, who used to make foils for food storage purposes because the ultimate goal of their company is to preserve food quality through their product.
and now you see this picture,
This is something beyond imagination, that nobody has an idea about. Creativity is key for designers and creativity comes from experiments and this is how you get to know about your product’s versatility. Designers should do a role-play to know their product. Playing with rules is one of the most crucial parts of designing a product because that is the stage where you will get to know about your product's transitions and how versatile your product is.
How to generate ideas (Brainstorm)?
- Find your motivation
- Apply KISS (keep it simple and stupid).
- Do not worry if your idea already exists.
- Browse the top 100 apps in the app store or play store and write down any ideas you have as a result.
- Keep in mind that there is a difference between free and paid apps.
Newton said,“I would spend 55 minutes defining the problem and then 5 minutes solving it.”
Brainstorming should involve questions as similar from a child’s perspective, for example:
asking out all the questions based on all the aspects will make your product efficient and useful. Try to ask even silly question that strikes to your mind, it will help you in building a strong knowledge about that product. Make sure you don't work under doubt because it can ruin the image of your product.
Types of Brainstorming
- Guided group Brainstorming.
- Nominal group technique.
- Group passive technique.
Guided group Brainstorming
A guided brainstorming session is time set aside to brainstorm either individually or as a collective group about a particular subject under the constraints of perspective and time.
Write the problem on the board and ask your colleagues to throw all their ideas. Write down all the ideas and put them on board and add some more ideas.
Nominal group technique
Nominal (meaning in name only) group technique (NGT) is a structured variation of a small-group discussion to reach consensus. NGT gathers information by asking individuals to respond to questions posed by a moderator and then asking participants to prioritize the ideas or suggestions of all group members.
Let the group write their ideas on paper. keeping the identity anonymous and selected top ideas are further send back to its writer for further brainstorming.
Suppose there are two groups then one group will focus on one form of product and another group focuses on the technical features of the product.
Group passing technique
The Group Passing Technique Let people sit in a circle, explain the rules, and present the problem. Each person writes down one idea and then passes the piece of paper to the next person, who adds some thoughts. This continues until everybody gets his or her original piece of a paperback.
The four ground rules of brains
- Go for the quantity(take out all ideas no matter how silly they are).
- Withhold criticism(there are no bad ideas).
- Welcome the crazy ideas(the wilder the better).
- Build them on other people ideas(listen to them first)
In Brainstorming the slogan is 1+1=3 and then let your team vote, which is the popular one.
Thank you for reading this blog. Don't forget to clap 50 :)
