So here’s to looking forward to an exciting year ahead with many new things in store. We wish you and yours a fulfilling 2006.

Effective Brainstorming

P.S: In case you missed it, you may also want to read Brainstorming Magic

What if it were magic?
Example 1: If my phone were magic, it would know who I want to talk to. Solution today: Voice activated dialing.

Example 2: If my in-flight experience were magic, I would have privacy so the person next to me doesn’t see that I drool when I nap. Oh by the way, I’d like those seats to be more comfortable. Solution today: For the select few not-in-the-cattle-class

Another way to look at this is to look at the user’s end-goal first and then design the experience around that. Goal-directed design as Alan Cooper calls it or User-centered design for the rest of us.

What will be the user’s goal when they use this product?

Example: Goal: Skip that annoying Celine Dion song playing on my car radio without taking my hands off the steering wheel! Well, for now, we look at steering wheel controls as a quick innovation. Next, talking to your car.

Example 2: Goal: I want to not have to wait forever to get some ketchup on to my fries (let’s not judge our culinary habits in this article). Heinz’s solution: the upside down ketchup bottle that keeps the ketchup close to where it comes out from and eliminates the wait time. Too bad the design is a bit flawed and the ketchup actually spurts out fast, but in a direction completely unanticipated! By the way, you also pay more for this high-tech bottle than the regular bottle of ketchup.

These innovations are baby steps, but they are new ways to think up solutions to old problems.

So the idea of design brainstorming is simple. Let’s get our minds thinking beyond what exists today and find opportunities for improving the user experience in ways that haven’t been thought of before. Some solutions may require the use of complex technology, some not. We are not concerned with technology, budgets and other constraints when we brainstorm. Brainstorming is opening our mind to the possibilities. We will have plenty of time to “get real” and make a design that fits within the project’s constraints. But we want to find that ‘innovation mojo’ that will help us create distinctive, more useful design.

More on brainstorming coming soon, for now, I am late for a brainstorming meeting. Need to grab my post-it notes, crayons, flip chart paper, markers, moldable colored clay and fashion magazines and school glue-stick.