Enhancing Ideation in Design and Technology Classes: A Practical Guide for Teachers

Introduction: 

In Design and Technology (D&T) education, guiding students through the ideation process can be challenging. Both teachers and students may face the dilemma of choosing the best approach to help students start their creative journey. While there may not be a definitive way to approach ideation, a simple, logical, and practical guide can significantly enhance the decision-making process and enable students to produce quality work from the start.

The Three-Step Ideation Guide

The three-step ideation guide incorporates Shape Borrowing, Concept Borrowing, and SCAMPER techniques. This structured approach ensures a comprehensive and innovative ideation process, allowing students to systematically generate, enhance, and refine their ideas.

Step 1: Shape Borrowing

Overview: Shape Borrowing is a visually oriented technique where students draw inspiration from existing shapes, forms, and designs. This method provides a tangible starting point, making the brainstorming process less intimidating.

Rationale:

• Encourages creativity by utilizing existing forms as a foundation.
• Generates visually appealing initial ideas quickly.
• Reduces intimidation by providing concrete shapes to work with.

Action Plan:

• Look at various sources of inspiration (nature, architecture, everyday objects).
• Sketch at least 5 different designs based on interesting shapes and forms.

Step 2: Concept Borrowing

Overview: Concept Borrowing involves studying various existing products to identify and adapt innovative, clever, or useful features and functionalities. These products can come from a wide range of categories with similar functionalities. The identified elements are then adapted and modified to inspire new ideas and solutions for the current design project.

Rationale:

• Leverages proven solutions, reducing the risk of functionality issues.
• Encourages innovative combinations of existing features.
• Helps generate high-quality initial ideas that can be further refined.

Action Plan:

• Identify existing products with relevant features or functionalities.
• Integrate these features into your initial designs. Modify as necessary to fit your design theme and target user needs.

Example: A student might use the concept of a multi-layered, colored-paper storage table designed for children and adapt it into a dining table with similar multi-functional features. This involves identifying the clever aspects of the original design and reimagining them in a new product context.

Step 3: SCAMPER

Overview: SCAMPER stands for Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, and Reverse. This technique encourages thinking about the design from multiple angles, leading to comprehensive and well-rounded ideas.

Rationale:

• Provides a systematic approach to exploring various aspects of a design.
• Encourages deeper thinking and exploration of the ideas generated.
• Ensures that the designs are innovative and well-thought-out.

Action Plan:

• Use the SCAMPER technique on your enhanced designs:
  • Substitute: What materials or components can be replaced?
  • Combine: Can you combine elements from different designs?
  • Adapt: How can you adapt existing features to better suit your needs?
  • Modify: What can be modified to improve the design?
  • Put to another use: Can any parts be used differently?
  • Eliminate: What can be removed to simplify the design?
  • Reverse: Can any processes be reversed or done differently?

Conclusion

Starting with Shape Borrowing helps students generate initial visual ideas. Concept Borrowing enhances these ideas by integrating useful features, and SCAMPER refines them systematically. This structured approach ensures a comprehensive and innovative ideation process.

By following this simple, logical, and practical guide, teachers can make the decision-making process more effective and enable students to begin quality work immediately. While there may not be a single best way to approach ideation, this guide provides a solid foundation for generating, enhancing, and refining ideas in D&T classes.

Additional Resources:

• Visit the blog for more examples and resources: Design Journal SOS.

Feel free to share thoughts and experiences in the comments below! How have you guided students through the ideation process? What techniques have worked best? Let's create a collaborative space to enhance D&T education.

Keep a look out for the "D&T Design Journaling for Students" GPT built to assist students in their Design & Technology (D&T) design and make Design Journal coursework from start to end. 

The Ultimate Design Journaling Guide GPT

If you want to try it, email mrdanielsos@yahoo.com.sg to request for a 1-week trial.

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How to Use S.C.A.M.P.E.R. for Combining Ideas and Further Refinements

The  S.C.A.M.P.E.R. Technique in a Nutshell

A little recap on what S.C.A.M.P.E.R. is all about:

 S.C.A.M.P.E.R. is an idea generation technique. The function of a technique is to assist the user to perform a tasks more efficiently. Similarly, the  S.C.A.M.P.E.R. technique is for assisting the idea generator to generate more ideas quickly and more efficiently.

However, simplistically using the  S.C.A.M.P.E.R. technique does not yield 'meaningful' outcomes. Ideas may turn up to be a variety of hybrids but not really practical for use. Nevertheless, the  S.C.A.M.P.E.R. is useful for idea starters where a varieties of ideas can be created freely for later consideration, evaluation, modifications, and so on.

As with all other techniques and tips, the person using it will not be able to generate freely if there isn't enough practice (or interest or motivation) in doing so. Practice is required.

The points hightlighted above are steps for my student to move on from their previous attempt at 'Concept Borrowing' as a starter for Idea Generation. Click 'HERE' for a review on "Concept Borrowing".

Once a variety of alternative ideas are generated, the ideas are ready to be 'harvested' (like a farmer) to be further fine-tuned. Taking the ideas generated a little futher, we can make use of  S.C.A.M.P.E.R. again to create more 'Hybrids' of ideas. We can 'Combine' 2-3 ideas into one and then followed by some 'Modifications'to its features and functionalities, etc. See below for examples.

 

For demonstration purposes, I reproduced two drawings from my student from his 'Concept Borrow' idea generation page. The first one is a cCube' drawing practice which he uses as a warm up for drawing, and the second one is a candle light holder that is 'borrowed' to become a straw holder.

Use 'C' = Combine' from  S.C.A.M.P.E.R. you can see a range of modifications that follows, which in turn making use of other acronyms from  S.C.A.M.P.E.R. (e,g, Eliminate, Modification, Rearrange, and some others not recorded) to create more hybrids.

Follow the "broad arrow" and see how ideas evolved from one to the next. Below are brief notes on how the idea evolves...

1. The first modification is simply a direct Combination. I added the 'arms' to the side of the wireframe cube and turned it to be a 'Cube Straw Holder'.
2. Next I Combined a ball and place it within the cube,
3. Rearrange the 'arms' and stick them on the ball.  I now have a ball within a cube structure with straws sticking out. This idea looked no only strange, but may not be so practical for use.
4. Next even after another attempt at Modifying the angles of the 'arms', I decided to summon 'Elimination', to take away the cube frame instead.
5. Left with the ball like structure and the arms sticking out, does it look somewhat like a 'Spider'?
6. Rearrage the 'arms' and Modify them by bending them at one point, I know have a structure that really resembles a 'Spider'.
7. Plan a few 'holes' along the top hemisphere for the straws, now I have a "Top-Hairy Spider Straw Holder".

Notice earlier on when I mentioned '...simplistically using the  S.C.A.M.P.E.R. technique does not yield 'meaningful' outcomes', in my own attempt shown above, I have taken a step further by also working on the practicality of the idea as I continue working on them. It will be great that after a while along the idea generation phase you should start making the ideas make sense.

It will be a great help when you arrive at the Development stage.



How to Use S.C.A.M.P.E.R. for Idea Generation (Concept Borrowing) and Development

2012 Secondary 2N1 Project:

Dining Accessories

@ the idea generation and development stage

I taught the students the technique I called 'Concept Borrowing' for idea generation. The first step is to start off with lots of innovative concepts for 'borrowing'. The table concept (in red) is one existing innovative product. This table top idea is a colored-paper storage which is designed to double up as a drawing table for children. That is VERY CLEVER! The idea of multi-color and layering table top can be adapted and transformed into an idea for a possible dining table. In this way an idea can be quickly generated and ready to be refined and modified to suit the needs for the current design situation.

NEXT... the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. technique in Action

The SCAMPER Technique in Brief

I taught my students the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. technique to generate ideas with the focus on 'Adapt' to kick-off ideas. Students are required to research on various general type of storages. Different from when they have chosen to design and make.

A Quick Example on using the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. Technique

The example is an example of 'concept borrowing'. What it means is to identify innovative functional concepts of various storage solutions and 'adapt' their functionality to their intended project. By using 'concept borrowing' the student generating ideas can basically turn any existing concepts literally into anything they want. This not only helps a great deal in starting the ideas generating process, it also enables high quality concepts to begin with as initial ideas. These ideas can be accessed, combined, etc, selected and developed at a later stage.

Idea Generation and Development focusing on FUNCTIONALITY

The above example shows an existing (drawn) Key Storage Concept. Notice how exactly the way it holds the key tag is 'copied' and 'adapted' as a note holder? The borrowed concept is then further worked on, improved and modified to make sure the idea works and works well as intended.

Idea Generation and Development focusing on FUNCTIONALITY then AESTHETICS

The example above shows again a summary on generating ideas focusing on Functionality. It is important to think about how to design things that will truly work. At this stage, I will expect to be commuting frequently to the workshop to work on models and prototypes to test my assumptions. To make sure my ideas do work.

At the lower half of the example, you'll notice I've started toying with shapes and forms. Adjusting the solutions proportion and further modifying its overall appearance. It is normal for ideas to keep flowing in as you think and thinker with ideas and improvements. Sketch and note everything down. And have lots of fun doing so.

=) Let me know if you liked this section. =)

A follow up for the  S.C.A.M.P.E.R. Technique, click 'HERE'.