Steven Hibbert 1 st Year Product Design Ideation Portfolio

The Problem  The problem that I am ideating around is one that faces many university students living away from home for the first time. Many of these young adults have limited space in the kitchen of their accommodation. This makes the footprint kitchen utensils have, both is us and in storage, a big issue and this means that it is important they have as small a footprint as possible or carry out more than one task justifying the extra footprint space the utensil requires.

Idea Generation  I began with carrying out solo idea generation, this included; thinking and sketching around my problem trying to find a solution, doodling when inspiration struck, two dimensional sketching and some basic three dimensional sketching. During this period of idea generation I also tried to do things differently in an attempt to broaden my thought process, I did this through a variety of methods; I did some of my thinking outside, I listened to new music and carried out tasks in the kitchen in an attempt to get into an appropriate mind-set.

Idea Generation  I then moved on from solo idea generation to a group brainstorming session to ideate around my problem area, this created a large range of ideas which needed to be worked through and ranked in order of how well the idea solved my problem and how good the idea was in general. These ideas were ranked and sorted using the De Bono's Six Hats method of evaluation as it allows for a systematic approach to the evaluation of an idea.

Idea Generation  Overall I found that my initial phase of idea generation was best for coming up with the basis of my best ideas as it forced me to be critical of my own ideas. I also feel that the things I did differently helped as well, I believe they broadened my thinking process and helped me towards more “blue sky thinking” ideas.  I also found the group brainstorming session very helpful as well, this helped me to see how others saw my problem and what they thought would be an effective solution. It also allowed me to incorporate different aspects of different ideas together to make one, more effective idea.

Shortlisting  When it came to my shortlisting process I began by broadening my URS and established what elements of it were necessities, optional or not needed. After doing this I began going through De Bono’s Six Hats method or evaluation with the help of my brainstorming group, and as previously mentioned it allows for a systematic approach to the evaluation of ideas. From here I then evaluated all the surviving ideas with the Pugh evaluation technique, this involves taking one idea and evaluating all other ideas against it and listing whether or not they solves a URS point to a better, worse or similar standard to find which idea is the best.

Shortlisting  Carrying out these forms of shortlisting and evaluation left me with three ideas I though worth looking into further. Before doing this I started by carrying out a NUF test, this allowed me to evaluate my remaining ideas once more and put them in order of best to worst. This gave me a good start point for further development and my sketch work.

Shortlisting  I found the De Bono’s Six Hats method of evaluation and shortlisting very useful as it allowed me to rank order ideas I thought best solved my problem with the impartial help of others, this also allowed me to get a better understanding of the types of things my user might want to solved this problem  I also found the Pugh evaluation very helpful too as it allowed me to evaluated all of my ideas against one (DATUM) idea meaning nothing was unfairly evaluated. I also found it useful as it left me with three potential ideas to take forward  On the other hand I did not find my NUF test to be very useful, all it allowed me to do was rank order my three remaining ideas which is somewhat pointless. I think the NUF test would have been far more useful if carried out before the Pugh evaluation.

Sketching  I began with carrying out some basic investigative and exploratory for my three ideas that made it through my shortlisting processes, I did this to decide which of these remaining ideas was best to take forward and develop through other forms of sketch work. From here I moved on to doing explanatory sketch work with my best idea, this allowed me to flush out any problems and also gave me the opportunity to explain how my design would work against a sketched representation of the design itself.

Sketching  Finally I sketched a final persuasive render of my chosen design, this is to showcase exactly how I would like my design to look if it were to be produced to any level.

Sketching  I found that the initial exploratory and investigative sketching was useful in terms of thinking about what features each design idea would need to have and also in terms of the designs shape and form.  The explanatory sketching was also very helpful as it allowed me to have a clear visual representation of the design I was choosing to take forward along side some text which explained how the design and its features worked.  Lastly the persuasive final render of my chosen design, this was useful to showcase how I would like my design to look when actually produced or any scale.

Project Plan  To be sure I remained on track throughout the ideation process I produced and followed a GAANT chart. This allowed me to get everything done that I needed to in a reasonable time frame.

Project Plan  I found using a GAANT chart very helpful as it allowed for me to be sure I didn’t miss any crucial points to my ideation process or get ahead of myself and move on to other areas of the ideation process too quickly.

Risk Assessment & Feasibility Test Plan  This process started with me finding the potential issues with me design and writing around them in my risk assessment so I could rectify them. In this process I also came up with solutions to these issues and decided how to prove that these suggested fixes would work. This involved making models and I kept on track when making these models by following model build plans.

Risk Assessment & Feasibility Test Plan  I found this aspect to the ideation process extremely useful as without doing it there could have been the potential to carry my idea through to the development stage with some horrendous problems that could result in either user injury or the product itself not selling.

Model Build Plan  As previously mentioned I used model build plans to keep myself on track when constructing my models. These allowed me to do several things to make the model building process easier; it allowed me to plan out which materials I would use to model my ideas, they also allowed me to plan out how I would construct my model and which pieces of it I would make first, it allowed me to plan out the dimensions of my models so they were not made too big or to small and finally it made me work inside a time frame so I did not spend too long on one model.

Model Build Plan  I found the majority of the aspects of the model build plan quite helpful. It was very useful to me to think about which materials I would use before I began making the models because certain materials can not be made into certain shapes.  I also found the planning of the models dimensions and the planning of a time frame to build my models in useful because this allowed me to make the models to an appropriate size and work for a reasonable time.  On the other hand I found planning how I would make the models difficult and not all that helpful. It was very hard to plan how I would make a model of my design without having made anything like it before.

Model Making Process  The models I made were all based around one of my potential design ideas. Between all of them I used three different material, these were foam board, paper and metal wire. I made a model representation of the main body of my design idea, the other showcased other aspects of the design on a larger scale; this involved me making an inflated version of the aspect of the design that will hold each cooking section in place when in use.

Model Making Process  I found the model making process very useful as it allowed me to see how different aspects of my design would work alongside each other first hand.  It also allowed me to spot any problems or faults with my design and change those aspects of the design for the better making the development process easier.

Testing  After the model making process I had to carry out some tests on the models I had constructed to be sure that the solutions I had put in place to resolve my issues were not only effective but the best they could be as well.  The tests I carried out were the ones listed in my Risk Assessment & Feasibility Test Plan, they were specific to the solutions I had put in place.

Testing  I found this part of the ideation process useful as well because it allowed me to see first hand that the solutions I had wanted to put in place actually worked.  Furthermore some of the tests were carried out by a third party, this meant that I could receive feedback on what they thought of the solutions I had put in place and how well they thought they worked.

Summary  Overall, from all the work I have done throughout this ideation process, I believe that my multi-sectioned saucepan idea is my best and has the best potential going forward into the development phase.  I have considered this to be my best idea for some time as it is the design idea that best fits my broadened URS  It also worked through all the phases of the ideation process comfortably and I encountered few difficulties with the design idea outside of the Risk Assessment & Feasibility Test Plan where you’re looking for faults with your idea