Ideation: Methodologies of Liveness

We are surrounded by the notion of "liveness" through media, environments, and space. Designers from multiple disciplines capture liveness through solutions such as coffee shop floor-plans, quicktime movies, interactive software, and even static books. As designers, we spend most of our time perfecting our skills through experimentations and analysis. However, most of the discourse around "liveness" comes from the end result, or rather, the passive and receiving end of the data that's being broadcast. Designers spend so much time trying to communicate real-time data and information to audiences on the fly in the most efficient way possible, that the methodologies of how the solutions were formed is sometimes forgotten. In other words, we (designers) forget that the majority of our processes come from our methodologies of ideation.

As we chase after technological advancements and expanding fields of design study in trans-disciplinary collaborations, the necessity of perfecting our ideation methodologies becomes increasingly more important in our practice. These methodologies capture "liveness" through language and the collective pool of ideas. However, each discipline has its own vernacular. Perfecting our ideation methodologies across disciplines will create a common language and process ultimately resulting in more successful solutions. Additionally, the more we examine innovation processes across disciplines the better we can develop tools that capture liveness by enhancing collaborative ideation methodologies.

Individual Methodologies

Back in 1997, I attended a one-day design conference in Seattle, Washington. One of the speakers was Rebecca Mendez who discussed her ideation methodology. During her speech, she explained how the act of coming up with ideas was like reaching into the depths of her soul, sifting around, and ripping out the solution that is presented to the world. She exemplified her methodology through an experiment she created for an out-of-town lover. She ran her hand across a scanner and developed an animation that attempted to "touch" her lover who was on the other side of the country. Her method of ideation (hand running across scanner) was captured as her solution. When viewing the animation, one can't help but see the liveness of her creation.

When Lorraine Wild visited Art Center, she presented her Greybull Press books that she designed with her partners. The books consisted of large and bold photographs that seemed to freeze time in the lives of celebrities and high school teenagers. As she presented her books, she explained her process of collecting, compiling, and weeding out the images to optimally express the theory behind each sequence of pages. This process included methodologies within her own team of partners as well as the outside world in collecting content for the books. For example, in her book Rodeo Girl, consisting of a collection of celebrities around the world, she sent out an email to hundreds of people requesting images and stories. To do this, she had to explain her concept in an inciting enough way to get people to respond with workable content. This was a live dialogue between her partners and the audience around the world that would ultimately make up the majority of the book. The easiest and most accessible media solution she had was email. Without the content she received from her audience and email as her method of communicating and exchanging the content, the book would not exist. In other words, the notion of "liveness" was captured through the process of collaboratively creating the book through email as the media choice.

Casey Reas also visited Art Center and presented his work and process. He presented a number of different types of work including print and installations, however, his work primarily focuses on technology. He spends the majority of his time experimenting with his production tools and manipulating software. In his work titled "Process", Reas blurs the line between designer and technologist. With a background in print design, Reas uses his intuition about form, composition, color, and line in his experiments with software. Processing, is an open-source amalgamation of algorithmic formulas, manipulated software, and user input. "[It's] a programming language and environment built for the electronic arts and visual design communities. It was created to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context and to serve as an electronic sketchbook," (www.processing.org). With today's emerging open-source design communities, Reas pushes the boundaries of existing software solutions, providing an avenue to explore and build upon his work.

There is no question that the experimentation and "liveness" of Reas work results in aesthetically beautiful compositions. He uses software to capture live algorithms turning them into undulating and organic lines and shapes. At some points, the lines are so dense that they appear to be solid shapes. His experiments capture "liveness" through the use of changing numeric formulas that shift according to changing data, or user interaction.

Collaborative Methodologies

In a sense, Casey Reas' experimental process is a tool that captures liveness through his ideation process. He makes his work open to the design community putting him at the meta-level of ideation methodologies. His open-source approach to experimentation provides the tool to collaborate with other designers from multiple disciplines, which not only blurs the line between technologists and designers but provides a collective language. IDEO, one of the worlds leading industrial design firms, attempts to find a common language through brainstorming.

In the book The Art of Innovation, Tom Kelly of IDEO talks about the importance of the innovation stage through their infamous brainstorming methodologies. "You can't quantify the value of letting people's minds run wild. It's the sort of incorrigible spirit of play that keeps [designers] in tune and on edge," (p. 63). Kelly would argue that every designer can get better at brainstorming. And every designer working in a collaborative setting can get better at working through and documenting the process of ideation through brainstorming sessions. "...that sense of spontaneous team combustion is why we've been able to find so many unusual solutions to seemingly intractable problems." (p.62) This opens the opportunity to designers to create and improve solutions that capture the "liveness" of IDEO's ideation methodologies.

Ideation Tool

The examples employed by Rebecca Mendez, IDEO, Lorraine Wild, and Casey Reas, although different, express multiple ways of working with the liveness of the innovation stages across disciplines. Mendez' technique is a direct representation of capturing the liveness of her ideation methodologies through the outcome of the animation. How can this methodology be captured for other designers to follow? IDEO relies on the collaboration of teams in a brainstorming session. How can media design engage the liveness of this brainstorming technique? Wild uses her own audience in a collaborate effort. The easiest and most accessible media solution she had was email. Without the content she received from her audience and email as her method of communicating and exchanging the content, the book would not exist. Reas manipulates technology as ideation. He uses software from previous engineers as the basis of experiments. He provides open source to his experiments allowing anyone to build upon his knowledge base.

After examining these methodologies, it becomes necessary as a designer to investigate solutions. What would an ideation device look like and how would it work to enhance the notion of "liveness" in a collaborative trans-disciplinary setting? The following is a possible solution.

Idea Device

The "Idea Device" is a tool used in a brainstorming session. This tool would help guide designers through the ideation process and document the process to help communicate, share, and archive ideas. According to Tom Kelly, "Hot brainstormers may generate a hundred or more ideas, ten of which may be solid leads. They can help put a team on course, and the rush of adrenaline can keep team members buzzing for days. There's a ripple effect. People talk after brainstormers, sharing wild or practical ideas that may have come out of a particularly vibrant session. A great brainstormer gives you a fantastic feeling of possibility, and an hour later you walk out of the room a little richer for the experience." (p. 62) In addition, Kelly describes the interior of a brainstorming room. If a team leader is well prepared for the session, he/she brings objects relating to the project, reference materials, and stacks of blank paper. By the end of the session, every wall and every surface is covered with sketches, rapid prototypes, and related reference materials. But where does it all go when the session is over and how are the ideas captured so that they can be used later?

In this type of setting, a useful ideation tool could be a polygon object in the shape of an octagon. This three-dimensional object is connected to the internet via wireless capabilities or mobile technologies. It is cordless and can be thrown, rolled, tossed, bounced, shouted at, and drawn on. In a fast-paced setting like IDEO's, the group can use this device to sketch ideas directly onto, which are then stored in a database for future access as well as displayed on interactive walls surrounding t he room. If additional reference material is needed on the fly, the object can be tossed to the team member who can do a quick internet search by sketching the desired shape on the surface or writing text. People from other geographies can be invited to the session and displayed on the surface as easy as using iChat AV (www.apple.com/ichat). Sounds could be recorded and played back by the touch of a finger through an imbedded mic and speakers. All and all, the tool would provide the means necessary to capture the "liveness" of innovation in a way that can be easily accessed for future use and documentation.

We spend most of our time reacting to the outcome of the work we put into the world. We use it, test it, and refine it. We have become so trained in our methodologies of making that we forget about our innovation processes. As we invert the focus and examine innovation processes such as IDEOs, we can start developing tools that capture liveness by enhancing collaborative ideation methodologies.