This is the 2nd blog post in a series of Agile AR design processes. In each chapter I tell you about specific tools that we found to be useful at each stage. At FlamingoFilter we use a unified workflow that fits all AR projects when we work with a client. We call it the AR Design Process toolbox. The map above includes 5 stages: Planning, Ideation, Prototyping, Development and finally Measuring of Success. In this blog I will introduce you to the Ideation stage of the toolbox.
Very often this happens when the client doesn’t have a solid idea of what they want to do. Therefore we offer them ideation services. The Ideation stage always starts with a brainstorming session. But brainstorming is not just throwing ideas at each other. How do you define the most promising ideas? How do you refine them? How do you avoid sticking with your own ideas and listening to the team? Here’s the recipe just for you!
Miro board ideation zoom-out look
Here’s the tool box:
Before we proceed, I must say, at FlamingoFilter we include everyone in brainstorming sessions to get as much diversity as possible. This is the time when the whole team: business, tech and design gets together. It broadens the pool of ideas but also ensures developers can judge the realism of the idea at early stages to not overpromise.
Materials
Sure, you can go the old way with whiteboards, sharpies and post-it notes, however our team prefers using Miro board for the ideation stage.. The majority of our team works remotely and we don’t want to compromise the quality of a brainstorm because it is held online. Furthermore, it is much tidier this way and allows for a better organisation.
The top 3 ideas are selected and presented to the client to choose from. According to psychological studies:
It is easier to choose from 3 rather than 4 or 5.
Finally…
Moodboard
WHY?
- A moodboard helps convey complex emotional ideas at an early stage in design projects
- A form of inexpensive prototype that allows to talk about aesthetics and perception of the experience
HOW?
A moodboard can include:
- Colors
- Forms and shapes
- Cultures
- Materials
- Textures
- Inspirations
WHERE?
- Miro or Pinterest
Moodboard example
Brainstorming
WHY?
- Allows each person in a group to better understand the problem/challenge.
- This method draws upon the expertise of a group of people, It is democratic.
- It is a fast and efficient way to generate ideas.
HOW?
- Team starts by warming up: discussing knowledge gathered in the planning stage so everyone is up-to-date
- At this point, some ideas start popping up. When this happens, the timer is set 10–15 min long and it’s a call for ideas.
- Each team member generates as many ideas as possible individually on virtual sticky notes.
- After the timer is over one person at the time presents their ideas, questions to others. Building on top of other’s ideas is strongly appreciated.
- The brainstorming is over when all of the ideas have been heard.
WHERE?
- Miro board
Virtual sticky notes from Miro board
Affinity diagrams — clustering your ideas.
WHY?
- Brainstorming usually produces plenty of ideas that are chaotic, similar or completely different but equally good.
- It helps to build connections between ideas and find the affinities between them
- Reach a consensus faster.
WHAT?
- After brainstorming look carefully at all the post-it notes and group the similar items. Or give a group a theme and nest ideas under it .
- You can use arrows or drawings to define the relationship between them, f.e. what follows this or that idea. Try defining superheader ideas that set one theme and nest “smaller” ideas under it. You will see how several ideas start merging together into clusters.
- Very often the group in itself will form your detailed pitch idea to the client.
WHERE?
- Miro board
An example of clustering the ideas after brainstorming by 1 theme
Benefit map
WHY?
- Helps to build competitive ideas that are not the trickiest to implement but produce a lot of impact. Hardly ever complex ideas are successful, but as developers we like a little challenge and tend to lean towards ideas that are interesting to us and not the users.
- Benefit maps help to distribute ideas and look at them by two criteria: easy/difficult to implement vs. low/high impact it has on the user.
HOW?
- Give an estimate to an idea or simply guess what is its implementation cost vs. user impact
- So-called “perfect’ ideas are the ones that end up in the green zone, they are the ones that have high impact and easy implementation.
WHERE?
- Miro board
Benefit matrix example: aim for ideas that are in top left green rectangular zone
Dot voting
WHY?
- This method helps to select favoured ideas by a team rather than individual judgment. It is a fast method that allows a design to progress.
- It leverages the strengths of diverse team member viewpoints and experiences.
HOW?
- After mapping out ideas to benefit map and affinity groups, each team member is given 3 votes and a timer to 5 min is set.
- After the voting session is done, the ideas with the highest amount of votes will make it to the top 3 idea selection, thet is further presented to the client.
- Talk about the ideas so that ideas that receive the most votes and see if there’s a general level of comfort with taking one or more of those ideas to the next step.
WHERE?
- Miro board
Miro has a built-in voting
Benchmarking matrix
WHY?
- This is a tool to identify, establish, and achieve standards of excellence.
- Sometimes all the previous practices just don’t work and you can’t agree which idea to select. It usually happens when the topic of brainstorming is really broad and you generate many ideas and voting doesn’t come to any results.
- This is when you can use a benchmarking matrix to select the best filter ideas based on the actual criteria for decision making.
HOW?
- Identify important criteria for judgment, those will make the left column
- Spread selected ideas on top rows.
- Judge ideas by selected criteria from 1st place to the last place, where the 1st place satisfies that criteria row best.
- Ideally this voting has to happen anonymously so the others don’t see what others think while guessing the numbers. This would require each person has his own version of table and filling it on his own
- Calculate the sum for each column. The idea with the smallest sum is a winning idea.
WHERE?
- Miro, Notion, Excel
Benchmark voting example