This is the background lecture material for the creativity session in the design course in Interactive Media Design, semester three in winter term 12/13.
Never feel guilty of fouling your nest by stealing a glance at creativity techniques as design method – particularly
This is the background lecture material for the creativity session in the design course in Interactive Media Design, semester three in winter term 12/13.
Never feel guilty of fouling your nest by stealing a glance at creativity techniques as design method – particularly not with regard to user centred design. What sounds like an antagonism is a simple truth: Beyond all rational and methodical approaches that are suitable to turn design into a justifiable strategy, a design solution with a touch of differentness will turn the balance between “intelligent” and “smart”.
There are some rules to warm up with the inspiration of creativity to be trained during the design study, which can be as well serve as a nice recreation break for an experienced designer.
1. Unlearn Standards
Being creative can be a pretty hard work. We are trained to recall knowledge and standards as quick as possible and fail-safe to survive and perform in daily life. Rewarding routines seduce us to use our brain just as a source to recall effective data and trained patterns. Not to mention the training of “right” answers in school or using the “right” hand and similar things since our childhood. Even our body prepared for movement patterns. Take the handshake with another person (i.e. putting forth right hand – right?), ask yourself how you cross your legs sitting in tailor seat (with all the time the same leg up – right?). Now, please fold your arms in front of your chest. Does it feel ok? It does, right? Fine, please cross your arms the other way round now. Difficult? You feel a slight lack of flow and comfort? Congratulations, you did something unusual – you’ve been creative.
Being creative means breaking the habits of body and brain deliberately. And this – as said before – is pretty hard work, but it can be fun if you relax and get into it.
2. Shift Perspectives
We tend to believe that there is only one truth existing, especially when we are dealing with numbers. This is a highly comforting attitude that makes us mentally lazy, what’s not too good for creativity.
What is the half of twelve? It is six, right? That’s the way we learnt it at school. But if we shift the perspective only a bit, the answer is as well:
What of all answers is the most interesting one? “Six”? For sure not. My favorite is “Seven” as a result of cutting the roman characters into half. Then the half of twelve is seven. (Don’t try this at school.) Why is it so interesting to give the wrong answer? Well, because it is not actually wrong. It’s just wrong from the one and only perspective.
3. Lean Back, Relax and Let it Flow
To be relaxed and open is a good starting point to be able to think out of the box. And – no – there is no red vine necessary for the next step.
What is that?
Ok., this is a white colon on a black circle. Or, wait…it’s a Button, a glossy black marble, a greasy chocolate marshmallow (top view – yummy), a skittles ball, a pen with two leads (top view), a socket mismounted, a Martian (top view – note the antennae), a fat man with small feet (bottom-up view), a sleeping pig with a very big nose (front view, lying aside), a bowl with only