INTRODUCTION

It can be hard to produce ideas, especially if you feel on the spot. I know that my mind can go completely blank when I feel pressure to think of something. To help combat that ever-impending mind blankness, an ideation method can be used to promote creative thinking.

The term ideation refers to the part in the creation process where one is generating concepts. These concepts can be anything from a movie plot to a physical product. No matter the result, the goal of ideation remains the same: to think of the idea in the first place. Though the ideation process can be hard if you are struggling to produce any ideas at all.

With ideation, there are different modes, or methods someone may use to generate creative thinking. Depending on the situation or how you think, one form of ideation may work better than the other. Not only can one ideation method be used either; someone can also use multiple methods to help their creative process.

A few examples of ideation methods are brainstorming, mind mapping, and sketch storming. The following shows how I was able to use these methods in relation to the development of an app idea.

IDEATION METHOD: Brainstorm

Brainstorming is writing down all the thoughts that come to mind. It can be done in a group or individually. The quality of ideas does not matter, as much as just getting every idea expressed. Brainstorming is a useful method when you need to make sense of all your thoughts.

While thinking of potential apps, I had a lot of different thoughts come to mind. Yet nothing that I could get a deeper thread of, so I decided to brainstorm.

My app ideas range from useful, like an app that can teach coordination, to silly, like an app that is like Pokémon Go but with House Hippos. By having all my ideas in writing, I was better able to sort through them and evaluate them. From there, I was able to decide on one idea to focus on for the next method of ideation.

IDEATION METHOD: Mind Map

Mind mapping is taking a key term or idea and writing down all related thoughts, drawing lines between them to show the connections. This creates a visual representation, a map, of your thought process, a mind map! Mind maps can be useful to make sure your ideas are cohesive and make sense together.

To create my mind map, I took one idea from my brainstorm to use as a key term. I decided on the House Hippo parody of Pokémon Go and named it House Hippo Sanctuary. By getting all the ideas I had out, I was able to see how they fit together to better form the idea for House Hippo Sanctuary.

Focusing more on a single idea allowed me to think more about the actual features of the app. What the user would be able to do, and what sets it apart from the app it is supposed to be parodying. What would keep the user coming back to the app? I did not think of solutions to all these problems while using this method, but it got my brain thinking about the issues.

IDEATION METHOD: Sketch Storm

Sketch storming is sketching out the ideas that you have. It is not about creating beautiful sketches as much as clearly visually communicating your idea. Sketch storming can be useful in deciding what an actual prototype will look like.

I am a very visual person, so I had the most fun with this method of ideation. Color was not a necessity; however, I thought that it helped clearly communicate my ideas. The drawings and layouts are not perfect, but still properly show the idea of the app. As I was sketching, I was able to think about the interface as well as what pages were needed. A benefit of using another different ideation method is that I was able to also solve problems thought of while mind mapping.

For example, a concern I had is what would keep people coming back to the app. The goal of Pokémon is to “catch them all” and to evolve the best Pokémon. However, I do not want to completely knock off Pokémon and I also do not support House Hippo fighting. So other than collecting all the house hippos, users also need to keep their House Hippos happy by feeding them, giving them water, and playing with them. If you do not do these things for your house hippos, then they will run away. These features separate it into a different game but also give the user a reason to return to the game.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

There are many different ideation methods that one can use to generate ideas. Brainstorming, mind mapping, and sketch storming are just a few examples. No matter the method of ideation you use, the goal is to generate ideas. The value in using multiple methods of ideation is that it can help to develop a full idea.

In my own experience of designing House Hippo Sanctuary, by using three different methods, I was able to go from a list of app ideas to one solid idea. Problems that I encountered during one stage of ideation I was able to solve in the next stage. While House Hippo Sanctuary’s development is still far away from a working app, using multiple ideation methods helped me think about the app from different perspectives and bring House Hippo Sanctuary to a good starting point.