Advanced Systematic Design (Pattern) Generation - Idea (Pattern) Generator - by Daniel Lim

This set of animation shows an advanced systematic design (pattern) generation. A variety of change is introduced to create even more pattern designs. The image below show some of the variations you can play with to modify and evolve your patterns.

The next image illustrates for you an example of how an ideation process to design a cup coaster using the Advanced Systematic Design (Pattern) Generation may look like:

The final image from this post below shows a suggested the ideation process up to development of a selected coaster design. Within it are detailed instructions and information on what should take note and include in your design journal.

For my earlier post on "Idea (Pattern) Generation using THREE CIRCLES" go to http://designjournalsos.blogspot.com/2011/01/idea-pattern-generation-using-three.html

For the next stage, Refinement of the Chosen pattern go to:
http://designjournalsos.blogspot.com/2011/07/simple-refinement-development-and.html

FAQ: Your email enquiry - my answer

Your Question:
'How do I know if my mind-map for the theme is sufficient? I have done part of it now I don't know what else to add'.

My Answer:
My two suggestion for you is as follows:
1) Make sure you understand the objective for doing anything (e.g. the objective for doing a mind-map for your design theme) before you start doing. Do you know yours?
2) Once you understand the objective for doing something, you will surely know (a) what to look out for (i.e. what research areas to focus on), (b) what it will lead you to do later, and (c) know when you have reached enough information and its time to stop.

Due to the nature of the theme, my mind-map for exploration of the theme 'Storage' is as follows:

1) Begin with the theme (in this case 'Storage') somewhere in the middle of the page. 'Storage' now is your BROAD CONCEPT. Now list out the DETAILS.
2) Branch out by listing the DETAILS, i.e. locations where 'Storage' can be found. (e.g. Home, School, etc).
3) Now each DETAIL (e.g. Home, School, etc.) in turn becomes a BROAD CONCEPT. Of which other details will branch out.
4) e.g. 'Home' now becomes a BROAD CONCEPT. Branch out DETAILS, i.e. the various parts of 'Home'. (e.g. Kitchen, Bedroom, etc.)
5) Take e.g. 'Kitchen' as a BROAD CONCEPT, it is now about time to list out a) items that requires storage, and b) existing storage solutions.
6) The next stage will be to complete your mind-map with relevant photographs and images of the examples you have listed at the end of your mind-map.

Following this internal link for an example of the steps shown above:
3NA Storage Innovation Research Starter SOS
http://designjournalsos.blogspot.com/2011/01/3na-storage-innovation-research-starter.html

Additional (Important) Information:
When you think you are done you ask yourself if you have done a good job exploring what 'Storage' is (and more challenging, what 'Storage' is not). If someone comes and looks at your mind-map without the title 'Storage' in the middle, will he be able to say,'Ah, I know this is an exploration on the various types of storages', or 'Oh, I didn't know that this can be considered as storages', or 'Oh I didn't know much about storages until I see your mind-map on it'. etc.

What is next?
Hopefully what you have done will enable you to identify one or more of the following design opportunities:

1) a problem area that requires a better solution than existing ones or for a problem that may not have an existing solution yet, and/or
2) an area of improvement to existing solutions, and/or
3) challenge yourself to an opportunity for creating an alternative solution. Come out with a different way or a different experience to do something.

Hope that helps.

Regards
mrdaniellim

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Difference between an Image Board and a Product Research Section

I have seen many students naming pages of their design journal 'Image Board' that should have been more appropriately titled as 'Product Research' instead.

A page that is filled with images of products with critiques, comparisons, comments, etc. around them and then titled 'Image Board' do not really match, does it? Does 'Product Research' sound more direct and relevant?

What is an 'Image Board'?
More widely known to show target users (target audiences/groups).

1) Usually targeting a specific group of users (e.g. teenage girls, elderly man above 70 years of age, etc.)

2) Decorated with photographs and images that best describe everything about them. (e.g. lifestyle, culture, trends, objects of desire like iPhones and iPads, colorful headphones, designer bags, etc, activities or things that are defined cool, hangouts, etc).

3) A good image board is as good as a well-drawn mind-map around the theme. You could almost identify a few good design opportunities just looking at them.






An example of an image board is shown  above showing the life and lifestyle of elderlies in Singapore. Note that the target users are deliberately Asians. If not all of them should be Singaporeans.I've not just included various possible activities that a typical Singaporean elderly may engage in, I've also categorised the images so that I can tell a story as I move around the collage. Can you identify the flow?

How do I know if I have covered enough?
Ask: If someone wants a good understanding of my target group, what questions would he ask? Have I provided enough images to answer his questions?

A 'Product Research' Section

Product research on the other hand is concerned with... products. And that depends too on what product you are focusing on. And what aspect of those products you want to find out or highlight. The following are some common objectives of doing product research:

1) to understand historical trend and how the product has evolved in terms of forms and functionality.
2) to understand a product, or to compare two or more products in terms of forms, innovation, cleverness in terms of functionality, etc.
3) to investigate how a product work and what made it work.

The product research section would be filled with images, probably a couple of them to show various views and stages of use, and peppered with meaningful annotations to record your findings, observations and comments that reflects your objectives.

Research - Various Forms of Research

The above mind-map shows you RESEARCH in different forms which you can use.

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The most common and useful in my opinion would be

1) 'Observation'

Nothing beats experiencing the situation first hand and witnessing them.

2) 'Shadowing'

'Shadowing' is somewhat similar to 'observation'. The difference is in 'shadowing', the person doing the work (or using the product) is aware of your presence while you watch, observe and record the acts or processes.

3) 'Narration'

'Narration' is an extension of 'shadowing'. This time the 'shadower' gets the user to 'narrate' (say) out loud what he is thinking while using the product. 

That includes the procedures of using the product, thoughts and wishes (e.g. saying out loud the *thinking*. 'I wished the knob could be larger with more texture cause its making turning difficult') while using the product. etc.

4) 'Experimentation'

Once again nothing beats doing things on your own. Instead on relying on third party experiences, personally getting a piece of frustrations (bugs) while actually performing the acts can be very valuable research.

5) 'Asking the five Whys'

'Asking the five Whys' is an excellent tool to get to the root of a problem. There are too many occasions that students 'think' they found a 'problem' that needs a 'solution'. Unfortunately most of what they 'thought' is a 'problem' were actually not the real problems. 

When you use the five 'Whys' you get to the root of the problem and the problem that you first thought was a problem no longer is the problem. Using the five 'Whys' on your initial identified 'problem' might lead you to other areas of needs that requires a totally different product solution.

6) 'Survey'

'Survey' is a research tool many would be familiar. It is also one of the least useful tool in my opinion unless questions are carefully crafted and the data collected is genuine and truly reflects the objectives of the survey. 

Getting real people with the relevant product experience for survey feedbacks, people who would take time to provide authentic opinions to your questions is very important but that rarely happens. If you think you want to 'doctor' the survey to reflect what you want it to reflect... forget it.

I've briefly described six different research methods. These research methods will be used extensively throughout your design journey. As each research method is unique in it's purpose, strength and limitations, it depends on the skill of the researcher to optimize each research method and to select the most appropriate research method to best serve his research need.

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Finally, the most important thing about design journaling:

RECORDING!

I call that engaging in a 'dialogue' with your journal. You got to record your design process, your research methodology and your thoughts on paper. Note: Recording could be in the form of on-location photographs and images, developmental sketches and annotations.

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Research - P.I.E.S. (To Identify Products and Design Opportunities)

Physical . Intellectual . Emotional . Social 

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NEEDS

P . I . E . S . is a convenient tool for surveying and covering four basic area of NEEDS.

P    Physical NEEDs
I      Intellectual NEEDs
E    Emotional NEEDs
S    Social NEEDs

Each of the acronyms (P, I, E and S) can be used individually, combining two or more selectively or as a whole depending on your desired research outcomes.

But in any case, focus on one acronym at a time when you use them.

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How to use P . I . E . S . in your research to identify NEEDs? Simple. You ask questions.

You ask questions related to each of the acronyms aiming at finding out what each of the NEEDs may be.

First of all, you cannot do this exercise in a random manner. It will lead you to no where. You must have in mind your target audience (targer user or target group) to begin and end effectively.

Secondly, this target audience must be doing something in an identified location.

Thirdly, you can begin crafting questions related to each of the acronyms in  P . I . E . S .

For example:

Target Audience: Elderly Folks (Male / Female / Mix)
Location:               Satay Club Singapore / Void deck
Activity:                  Looking for place to sit / Ordering / Eating Satay / etc. 

Background:
A group of elderly folks about the age of 65 plans to meet up on a Saturday evening for 'Satay' to chit chat and talk about the good old times. Now the group has arrived in Satay Club, and they are about to look for an empty table to start ordering the mouth watering Satays and enjoy each others company.

P    Physical NEEDs

Question: What are the Physical NEEDs? The following are examples of some Physical challenges: Getting around and navigating through the crowds. Getting around and navigating through the crowds with people and chairs juttting out all over the place. Place may be dimly lit means harder for elderlies to naviagate. Finding an empty table quickly enough with faster and more agile youngsters. Eating in a hot and humid condition and feeling sweaty and uncomfortable.

I      Intellectual NEEDs

Question: What are the Intellectual NEEDs? The following are examples of some Intellectual challenges: Finding directions and navigation to the location / the nearest toilet / etc. Font size in ordering menu. Languages printed in ordering menu. Language spoken by the vendors. etc.

I      Emotional NEEDs

Question: What are the Emotional NEEDs? The following are examples of some Emotional challenges: Low service standards may affects ones mood. Foceful touting from vendors can cause emotional stress. etc.
I      SOCIAL NEEDs

Question: What are the Social NEEDs? The following are examples of some Social challenges: Does the arrangement / configuration of the tables and seats encourage good interaction? Is the environment condusive for a group gathering. If surroundings are too noisy, the elderlys cannot listen to each other effectively and they may have to resort to shouting. Which may in turn disturb the other customers. etc. 

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Apart from using P . I . E . S . for exploring and identifying need areas, the approach can also be extended to identify products related to those needs. After which should prompt you for further and more in-depth research.

Design Opportunities can then be derived from them. The Activity Mapping technique can also be used concurrently here but it will be explained in another post.

The following are suggestions on how the P . I . E . S . technique is used to identify Design Opportunities:

1) have in mind who your target audience (or target user / target group) is,2) Go through P.I.E.S. to identify the various NEED areas within the activity context.
2) identify the product(s) that they interacting with under each NEED areas,
3) assess the user : product interaction within the given environment.
4) identify problems, improvement areas or invention opportunities.

Throughout the whole process, you need to be clear about the objectives (what the user want to achieve or experience) before, during and after the use of the product.

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A quick recap:

The reason for  P . I . E . S .'s existence is for understanding NEEDS. But you do not stop at just knowing NEEDS. So what do you do next after you identify the NEEDS? 

NEEDS identified from P . I . E . S . are in turn used to explore the various

other NEEDS and/or LIMITATIONS of the related products.

Here is how. Identify:

1) the product(s) involved, and

2) study the performance of the product  (e.g. how did the product perform to its expectations), or

3) could it be the user's problem in using the product. (e.g. product mis-handling)

4) etc...

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Theme Exploration Example: 'STORAGE' - Research Exploration + Identification of Design Opportunities

Theme: Storage (N Level: 2010)

Identifying design opportunities

There are a many ways to arrive at a design opportunity to work on, the image above shows briefly another way to do that.

Think through and make sense of the contents and apply them tastefully in your design journey. Have fun....

Do take care when you draft your design situations or problem statements - make sure you have sufficient research to ensure your facts are right and justify all your claims. Be careful of over-generalization of issues.

Idea (Pattern) Generation using THREE CIRCLES

The Secondary ONEs (2011) learned how to make use of the combination of THREE circles to generate an infinite number of design patterns. For maximum effect, stick with one arrangement of THREE CIRCLES and join them up in as many ways you can think of before you change the positions of the circles for the next set of idea patterns.

You might be interested to know that this simple technique of arranging shapes and joining them are very important drawing basics. Artists and designers arrange, position and join various shapes to create interesting forms in their drafting stage (or at least I do...).

The image below shows various options you can adopt to start modifying your initial THREE circle patterns and begin your journey to endless (pattern) idea possibilities:

Have fun!

For advance systematic idea (pattern) generation go to "Generator - Idea (Pattern) Generator - by Daniel Lim" go to http://designjournalsos.blogspot.com/2011/01/design-pattern-generator-idea-pattern.html

Shapes and Forms - the Difference Between Them

All objects are made up of a combination of shapes and forms. So it is necessary to first understand what shapes and forms are and later learn how they are used to make beautiful objects.

The animation shows the difference between a shape and a form. You may be interested to know that both shapes and forms can either be geometric or organic.

Research - Products Research SOS

This set of mind-map focuses on some key areas of research when you explore products related to the theme. This should give you some ideas on what to look out for when we do research on products.

Eventually, the objective of researching related products to the theme is to gain insight on existing technology and innovations that had already been in place and to be aware of those aspects. So that when it comes to your turn, you will be able to be in a better position to look out for design needs and opportunities.

In your design journal, do not forget to include good resolution relevant images (+URLs) and annotations to supplement your research.

Look out for the other mind-map on identifying design needs and opportunities which I have previously posted. (Note: I will be extracting sections of BIG mind maps which I formally posted so that they are more focused and less daunting for you).


p.s. This mind-map is extracted from the very large mind-map on research which I posted earlier on.

3NA Storage Innovation Research Starter SOS

There are infinite ways to explore a theme.

One good way is to plan your thoughts in the form of a mind-map starting from a broad concept (e.g. places to find storage solutions) and branching the details (e.g. home, food stalls, etc.) . Each details in turn then become a broad concept (e.g. focus on, say, home) from which other details related to the 'new' broad concept can be branched out (e.g. room, kitchen, etc.)

Research in the form of a mind-map can (and should) be supplemented with relevant images to further illustrate your contents; to enhance the visual aspect of the mind-map - making it very easy to relate and understand.

A successful mind-map helps a reader understand your intent of the theme quickly and effectively in the form of visual illustrations using key words, sentences and annotated images.

The objective of the mind-map is to help you analyse and explore the theme as widely and as comprehensively as possible. From which you will also use it to identify potential design needs and opportunities through further research on a specific area you are interested in.

If you do find you no longer use, refer to or consult your mind-map when you move on to, say, needs identification, that makes your mind-map worthless and redundant. Which in turn means you do not understand the purpose of constructing a mind-map in the first place.

I have lots of students who do not know what and how to annotate an image.

It depends on your objective of putting a particular image in your design journal. Make sure you know why you select a particular image and then you will be able to annotate (write notes on it) meaningfully. For example: I need to know I will be comparing the functionality of various pen storage solutions. The (internet) product image research activity thus becomes focused on searching for pen storage solutions: common and innovative ones, quirky and creative types, etc. Then when it comes to annotating them, I can comment on their functionality by comparing their effectiveness, aesthetics appeal, pros and cons, effectiveness, etc...

4NT (2011) - Research and Exploration SOS Starter

'Design and make an artefact to reduce waste' is an interesting design brief that has lots of potential to design innovative products that can be used to help reduce waste.

For more examples of areas of research for a start, refer to your examination instructions for a list of suggestions.

Read my other posts on research and exploration for more information on how you can create an effective and meaningful mind-map.

Alternatively you may wish to propose your own design brief of your interest.

Either way, you are required (and encouraged) to do a comprehensive research on the topic of your choice to better understand relevant and related products already in use. After which you will seek to improve and innovate from existing products. If you do find an area of need that does not have an existing solution then you proceed to solve the problem identified.