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Reflection on class - This was a really good class that was really engaging and fun. The first exercise was us having to think of ways to improve our concentration in the classroom but in the worst way possible this was really good as it is a lot easier to think of the worst way to do things it also felt very relaxed and we could enjoy it. After that, we also did exercises on how to reduce screen time but we were given a random word autonomy and developed it further. This exercise was also good and engaged everyone to think openly and encouraged creativity.

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Class Exercise

https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVL-O6b2Q=/?share_link_id=995588649249

Step-by-step guide

This website talks about ideation in design and the importance of approach, it explains what is ideation where designers come up with ideas on how to solve a specific user problem. They have broken down design thinking into three phases empathise, ideate, and prototype. You cannot solve a problem that the user is facing without exploring all the different options and thinking of different ideas. They have broken down ideation with a step-by-step guide for a design team.

1. Understanding the problem - having a problem or problems is how you begin thinking of ideas. You and your team will generate ideas to solve the problems. A way of doing this is by thinking ' how might we' to help solve the problem.
2. Choose a space - the location will affect how safe and comfortable the participants will feel. Setting up an area that is typically a way from where your team normally works can trigger creativity and a new way of thinking. It's important to have icebreaker activities before starting in the ideation phase.
3. Set time limits - having each ideation session set to a time limit to help create energy and push people to think of ideas increasing their creativity.
4. Select ideation techniques - to help them focus and organise ideas.
   • Brainstorming– verbally sharing ideas within the group.
   • Mind mapping– visually ideating by starting with a keyword that is related to the problem and then writing all the ideas associated with it around it.
   • Storyboarding– creating visual storylines of how users might go about solving the problem.
   • Worst possible idea– coming up with the worst possible ideas to remove creative blocks.
5. Rank the ideas - if the ideation session has gone well you will end up with lots of ideas, to help organise them and get the team to put them into different categories. When doing this make sure to keep all of the ideas and don't throw any away as they might become useful at a later time.
6. Choose the ones to develop further - after ranking them by promising or interesting or crazy choose the ideas that you think solve the problem in the best way that you will develop further and prototype.

https://www.uxpin.com/studio/blog/design-thinking-ideation/

Techniques

This website talks through different ideation techniques for UX design.

• Brainstorming - which is a combination of informed problem-solving and lateral thinking. A way of throwing ideas and thoughts to create solutions to problems. Done by understanding the problem you want to solve by identifying all the areas it involves and trying to generate solutions in any way.
• Mind mapping - a way of providing a condensed unorganized summary of all of the different ideas and the areas that could be developed further in. Begin by understanding the problem creating concise keywords that branch out from it, see what areas relate and you can develop further.
• Sketching - a very quick ideation technique that encourages quick, free-flowing thinking. You can also do the crazy eight sketching technique which involves creating eight small sketches in eight minutes which forces the designers to think quickly and generate lots of different ideas.