Part 2 – Weighing and measuring
If you want to go one step further with your design brief, why not consider using a mind-map to help your designer process all the information you’ve set out for them? It’s always great to introduce such a tool as an aid to avoiding creative mind-blocks. Every designer has, at one point or another, stared mindlessly at a blank sheet of paper in the hope that an idea will fly in though the window and present itself. Sometimes this actually happens, although this is usually when the designer has been provided first-hand with a clear cut design brief. Most of the time, a designer will more than likely look to the web or a selection of design journals for their inspiration, however, when perusing such a broad-sweep of the market, this could potentially cloud their judgement and start them off on the wrong path.
Using a diagram to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea can generate ‘out of the box’ inspiration and help visualise, structure, and classify ideas. This method can be adopted as an aid in study, organisation, decision making, creative writing, etc., in this case – problem solving.
Rather than producing your own drafted mind map, this tool may be more productive used during the initial briefing process, involving the designer in a collaborative ‘blue-sky thinking’ session. After all, two heads are better than one!
Missed Part 1 – Gathering key ingredients ? Read it here.
Next time – Part 3 – Applying the method