Hi Martin, Individual brainwriting combined with "idea stimulation"methods is the primary method for solo brainstorming. If you have another interested colleague who could help, there is some research showing that dyadic brainstorming (2 people who brainstorm following the rules for larger groups) is very productive. Two energetic people can really take on on ideas in the right environment - away from phones and in a nice setting).
You can also combine various techniques like first doing individual brainwriting, then doing a Google Search to add items, then investigate competitive products for more ideas, then you could apply metaphor brainstorming to add more to your list of ideas, and then go into the various techniques for group brainstorming like thinking of combinations, magnifying (considering ideas where something is larger, faster, more colorful), and so on. Mind mapping and concept mapping are quite useful for individual brainstorming. Actually, "solo ideation" would be a great topic for a talk. Mostly we talk about groups of various sizes, but solo ideation is often critical, especially for consultants who may have to work alone. The sketching that industrial designers is often solo braindrawing (visual brainstorming). Maybe this would be a good Lightning Round talk for the IxDA conference. I think that it is quite relevant, but doesn't really get much attention. A title might be "Solo Brainstorming: Ideation Methods for the Individual". Oh, perhaps role playing might help as well. What if you took on various roles (81 year old man with macular degeneration versus 40 year old financial advisor) and look at a topic or problem from those perspectives. There is a technique in the UCD literature called perspective-based inspections where team members take on different roles or perspectives or personas. I've done this a few times and ask people to play roles like "consistency czar" and "efficiency expert" and it was both fun and revealed some novel issues. Thanks for the good question. I would curious to hear the ideas of others about how to maximize the output of solo brainstorming. Chauncey On Thu, Aug 28, 2008 at 2:26 AM, Martin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Which of these techniques are suitable for solo ideation? > > Cheers, > -- > Martin Polley > Technical writer, interaction designer > +972 52 3864280 > Twitter: martinpolley > <http://capcloud.com/> > > > > On Thu, Aug 28, 2008 at 5:37 AM, Chauncey Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: >> >> This is a good discussion. While group brainstorming gets a lot of >> attention, there are a number of related techniques for idea >> generation that can work in different situations including: >> >> Brainwriting >> Buzz sessions >> The Nominal group technique >> Freelisting >> The Lotus Blossom Technique >> Braindrawing for visual ideas >> Metaphor brainstorming >> The Crawford Slip Method > ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
