Unlocking creativity is at the heart of successful product design, and effective idea generation is the engine that drives it. This activity is designed to help you tap into new ways of thinking, break free from habitual patterns, and explore possibilities you may never have considered. By embracing structured yet flexible ideation methods, you’ll discover how to produce richer, more diverse concepts that elevate your design thinking and work.

Throughout the activity, you’ll experiment with a range of powerful tools that stimulate fresh thinking. Mind Mapping will help you visually explore connections and expand ideas outward, revealing insights that linear thinking often misses. Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats model will guide you through multiple perspectives including logic, emotion, creativity, caution, and more, ensuring your ideas are well-rounded and thoughtfully examined. You’ll also learn how Idea Combining can spark unexpected innovations simply by merging unrelated elements into new, exciting possibilities.

We’ll also dive into playful yet highly effective techniques that challenge you to step outside the ordinary. SCAMPER will prompt you to modify, adapt, or rethink existing ideas to generate novel alternatives, while the Worst Idea technique flips the creative process on its head by encouraging deliberately bad ideas that often lead to surprisingly brilliant ones. Picture Prompts will give your imagination a visual jolt, helping you form associations and narratives that unlock new directions.

By the end of this activity, you will have a versatile toolkit of ideation strategies you can apply to any design challenge. Whether you’re looking to boost your personal creativity or enhance your team’s innovation process, these methods will empower you to generate ideas with greater confidence, energy, and originality. This is your opportunity to rethink how you work and to ignite the creative potential that drives outstanding design.

If you have any queries about this workshop, please contact Science and Engineering Faculty Student Enrichment via sefse@mmu.ac.uk for support.

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