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Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a method to quickly generate many ideas together before you decide what to design. For example, if you are working on a smart wearable, you first collect as many possible ideas as you can with your team and stakeholders. Later you select which ideas are most promising to develop further.

Why is this relevant to you? As a Creative Technologist, you design solutions in collaboration with others. Brainstorming helps you collect different perspectives, include ethical concerns (such as privacy or sustainability), and make sure your design fits the needs of users and stakeholders.

Starting Points

  1. Formulate a clear design question.
    Example: “How might we design a safe and playful interactive toy for children?”
  2. Work in two steps: first generate many ideas without judging, then choose together which ones to keep.
  3. Involve stakeholders (users, clients, team members) to bring in different perspectives.

Key Points

  1. Focus on quantity first: write down every idea, even the unusual ones.
  2. Choose ideas together based on clear criteria such as usefulness, feasibility, and ethical impact.
  3. Document the process so it is visible why certain ideas were selected.
  4. Show in your portfolio how brainstorming helped you design a creative and responsible solution.