When it comes to creativity, this is usually synonymous with people in the creative industry, or youth, or those who do have a hobby in the arts. As a former engineer, often fellow engineers always reject various forms of work that require creativity. They always pass the work to the younger employee and said “young people are more creative, always comes with fresh ideas. Unlike us, who have been in the technical world for decades and no longer aware of what’s trending.” But creativity is actually not only related to the world of art. Creativity is also important in, for example, making decisions, or making new strategies for work operations in an organization.
In this week’s course, we’re introduced to a method called ICEDIP. ICEDIP is a six phases of creative process. These phases are:
This is a phase where the idea is being generated through a spontaneous, risk-taking intuition (A’Echevarria, 2009). We can’t be a perfectionist in this phase, otherwise, we will encounter idea-blocking. The most creative idea comes in the least expected way. It can come really fast and sudden, but it can take sometimes too. So you can’t always expect inspiration to come quickly.
Here we’re questioning ourselves, ‘what is the goal? Is it solving a problem? If it is, what is the solution?’. This phase is to see our purpose of work be more clearer because sometimes it is easy to get lost in direction once we start doing something. (A’Echevarria, 2009)
This phase is to evaluate or re-consider (if needed) the work we’ve done so far. Here we can examine what could be improved from the work by making a list of weaknesses and strengths. (A’Echevarria, 2009)
This is almost similar to the evaluation phase. The aim is to be critical to our own work and use analysis and judgment to be objective so we can narrow down the works to go on. (A’Echevarria, 2009)
This is like a rest time, where we take some time off from work so we can evaluate better once we go back on track.
This is where we can have a self-reflection time and see how our work persistence and creativity can create a result.
As a potential practitioner in the field of UX Design, being creative is a must. Various kinds of techniques and methods to be more creative have been explained in this course which I can later apply to anything, literally, even in unexpected and small events. For example, putting creativity in planning a small birthday party. Birthdays are synonymous with gathering with loved ones while eating cakes, chatting, and enjoying music. But it's not impossible to organize a birthday event by doing other things that have never been thought of before, right? Well, we’ll see!
There are times where we feel the need to grow ideas, where starting something is more difficult than continuing it because we're stuck in the "what I'm going to do/make" phase. This is where creativity is needed and there are several methods to boost ideas out of our brains. This week's challenge activity is to modify an existing artifact with one (or more) methods explained in the course. The existing artifact chosen for this challenge is something we cannot live without, a creativity made by a worldwide known scientist, Edison. A light bulb!
*Image 1: Light bulb*
Opposite Thinking method was used in modifying the existing, traditional light bulb. This method was chosen because great innovation comes from the most radical idea, which is also why this method was originally created: to think radical and out of the box from our assumptions. (Board of Innovation)
*Image 2: Opposite Thinking - Light Bulb*
A light bulb, even though it is something trivial in our daily life, but most of us just think of it as a tool to light the room. We go enter a house at night after work, in the dark hallway, the first thing we try to find is the switch. This has been a lifestyle for hundreds of years. But what if a light bulb can be just more than a light bulb? What if it can actually change our habits or lifestyle?
After analyzing through the Opposite Thinking method above, some solutions were made, which in combination is a light bulb with adjustable brightness that can be controlled by other than a switch and has more features than just light a room.
A SCAMPER method is then used to identify a more specific solution. (Dam, Siang 2020)
Substitute: an app can be added to control the light bulb's functions.
Combine: combine lamp, camera, speaker, and microphone.
Modify: brightness level and color of the bulb can be adjusted.
Put to another use: as a CCTV, music player, and voice-detection smart home (like Alexa or Google home).
*Image 3: Brightness adjustment from the light bulb*
*Image 4: Additional features of the light bulb*
In conclusion, from the Opposite Thinking and SCAMPER method, an idea of a new version of a light bulb is created. This is a smart light bulb, where people can adjust the brightness and the color light through a mobile app. Inside the bulb, there is a 360-degree camera that can act as a CCTV in the room. There is also a built-in microphone and a speaker that has a voice detection feature to receive and process an order from the user, or as we are more familiar with, it acts just like a Google Home. The speaker can also act as a media player, where when the bulb color light is set to disco mode and a song is played, we can basically hold a party.
A'ECHEVARRIA, Anne de. 2007. 'Assessing Creative Development: The ICEDIP Model' Teaching Expertise [online]. Available at: https://www.teachingexpertise.com/articles/assessing-creative-development-the-icedip-model/ [accessed 04/10/21]
Board of Innovation. 'Opposite Thinking' [online]. Available at: https://www.boardofinnovation.com/tools/opposite-thinking/ (Links to an external site.) [accessed 03/10/21]
DAM, Rikke Fris and SIANG, Teo Yu. 2020. 'Learn How to Use the Best Ideation Methods: SCAMPER' Interaction Design Foundation [online]. Available at: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/learn-how-to-use-the-best-ideation-methods-scamper [accessed 03/10/21]
03 / 10 / 21
Sarah Shafira Novianti
GDO710 Development Practice
MA User Experience Design, Falmouth University