Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Annette Fleishman

I recently had the opportunity to hear Sina Mossayeb from IDEO speak on the topic of inspiration. Here are five ways to apply his stories and wisdom to design projects.

The craft — stay scrappy, keep adapting

Samuel Langley was an esteemed scientist and an inventor in the 19th century. He wanted to earn prestige and a place in the history books by designing and building the first piloted aircraft. The press supported him, the Department of War funded him $50,000, and the Smithsonian another $20,000 (that’s 2 million dollars in 2017 dollars). For all of his planning and calculations, Samuel Langley’s piloted attempts were failures.

In contrast, two brothers in Ohio saw aviation as an opportunity to advance mankind. The Wright brothers cobbled together prototype after prototype with spare bicycle parts and fabric from their family member’s store, all for less than $1,000. Their unwavering tenacity and their rapid and efficient design cycle allowed them to learn from and improve on their failures.

2. People — watch what they say and do, but also what they believe and feel

While researching the organizational methods of employees at a finance company, a woman expressed deep pride in her organization skills. However, her home office looked like a bomb had gone off, with papers strewn everywhere. But she had a system that worked for her, and she knew where each item was located. We often make the assumption that “organized” means tidy, but not everyone shares the same interpretation. With some probing, the IDEO team discovered she felt a sense of security in knowing where everything was. For her, “organization” was associated with safety.

A hospital was perplexed that patient satisfaction had not improved after renovations and upgrades to the space. When tracking the experience of a patient in an emergency room, an IDEO team observed that for the majority of the experience, the patient’s view was relegated to the ceiling. The patient was shuffled from place to place like cattle and wasn’t in a position to appreciate all of the thoughtful furniture and finishes that the hospital had invested in. To improve the patient experience, designers need to immerse themselves in the user’s point of view.

Similarly, while observing students in traditional classrooms, an IDEO team took note of how the students actually engaged with their surroundings, especially the hacks they employed:

Bags and coats were hanging from the backs of chairs
Energetic kids who naturally wanted to fidget were wrangled in place by their stationary desks
Desks could not easily be rearranged for group work or class discussions

In response, IDEO designed a spinning chair on wheels with storage underneath, and a desk that could open and close from the center. By disregarding the assumptions that history has accustomed us to, designers can find inspiration for products that fit user’s needs.

3. Analogous research — capitalize on technology and systems developed in other industries

When trying to design a better emergency room, three observations were made:

1. The environment is fast paced

2. Common problems emerge — heart pains, breathing, cuts and scrapes

3. Teams of people would swarm around a patient

The parallel approach would be to see how better hospitals operate. The analogous approach is to learn from NASCAR pit crews. Just as in a hospital, the NASCAR pit stop is fast paced, common problems arise, and tools are used in a similar way. But the spirit of direct competition has driven NASCAR pit crews to optimize their operations. Pit crews color code systems within the car, they have two of every tool so that precious time does not need to be wasted retrieving a dropped tool, and every person has distinct and discrete responsibilities. Applying these ideas to hospital emergency rooms, procedures could be streamlined, tools assembled ahead of time, roles better defined, and movements synchronized. When you start thinking about systems, connections can be drawn across industries.

4. Extreme users — if the margins needs are met, the median will be too

Observing both ends of the normal curve can illuminate challenges and opportunities in product design. Some extreme examples of this could be:

The person who never brushes her teeth compared to the person who stashes floss in every pocket and purse
The person who hates chicken noodle soup, and the person whose freezer is stocked with batches from her grandma
The child helping her mom in the kitchen, and the professional chef

Chefs rinse whisks after each use, but amateurs put the whisk aside and are later frustrated to find the stubborn gunk that has accumulated at the tip of the whisk, between the wires. IDEO identified that everyone could benefit from a whisk made of wires that meet perfectly at the center, eliminating all opportunity for gunk to form.

5. Outside — Get out of your head, out of your project, and out of your office

Design and creativity are inherently different from more analytical problems; you can’t simply crunch numbers until they relinquish an answer. You need to give your mind space, and your subconscious time to chew on a problem. Traveling, people watching, enjoying art for art’s sake, and working on side projects are all ways to flex that empathetic muscle. Even if a visit to a museum or an interaction with a stranger on the bus yields an insight that isn’t directly applicable to your current work, insights lead to more insights, and as creatives, we need to allow space for that kind of randomness in our lives. No one can sustain professional creativity without satiating their personal creativity, and side projects are a great way to do that. Whether it’s basket weaving or designing a baby shower, there is inspiration to be found in the most unexpected places.

5 Sources of Inspiration to Get You to Big Ideas was originally published in prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

5 Sources of Inspiration to Get You to Big Ideas

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