The Brilliant Brainstorming Method for Web Design
I recently had the pleasure to listen to Mark Boutlon at the Future of Web Design conference in London. During his workshop, he explained his preferred methods for brainstorming with his web design clients. I’ve now had the chance to use and tweak his ideas and I have to say it is indeed a brilliant method!
The Original
First let me say that this article is based on Mark Boulton’s own piece, “Saving the Spark: Developing Creative Ideas” over at A List Apart. I’ve taken his explanation and tweaked it in various places to fit my own working style.
6 Steps
These are the six steps you should follow during your brainstorming meeting. You can either display these to your gathered group at the start or simply explain each section as you move along. I prefer the latter since a long winded explanations at the beginning of the meeting might only confuse the group as opposed to just tackling each section as it arrives.
1. Introduction to the website
2. Create an idea brief (the aim of the day)
3. The rules of brainstorming
4. First burst
5. Start over
6. Rate the ideas
Idea Brief
An idea brief is a sentence, or two, that sums up the project and frames it as a problem statement. A question that needs an answer. Something like:
“We need to redesign our news service to appeal to a more global audience.”
or
“How do we engage an older audience on our website?”
This simple sentence is the question you are trying to answer and should be used as a springboard throughout idea generation. Once you’ve got one, and are happy with it, print it out and stick it on the wall. Constantly refer to it throughout the development of the idea or product. Does your solution answer that question?
Brainstorming Rules
1. All ideas are equal
2. We’re here to have lots of ideas
3. No judging
4. Analyse the ideas later (keep the discussion moving along!)
5. Everyone’s equal
6. One idea at a time
First burst
A first burst aims to get those really obvious, preconceived ideas out and on paper before moving on. Everyone will come to an ideas session with some preconceived ideas of how the project should look. Generally, they are the most obvious ideas and they will have been worked out to some detail. More often than not, they are the safest, least risky ideas.
The facilitator should record ideas and encourage attendees to speak up, but the important thing is to not get hung up on one direction or another. The aim is to have a lot of ideas. It really is about quantity, and not quality. At least, not yet.
Put Those Aside – Start Over
Do it all over again, but come up with a set of new ideas. Turn ideas on their head and re-express ideas from a different point of view.
During that “first burst” session everyone will have a) gotten a chance to say all their original ideas b) and in the meantime also thought of a few new ones! So this part of the session you are giving people the chance to get their more original (“crazy ideas”) out there. Most likely, everyone in the meeting will have at least one unique idea and given the chance will happily share it with the group.
Rate the ideas
Now I tend to complete this section in a second follow up meeting. But if you have the time, go ahead and get it all done at once.
Label every idea from 1 to 3.
1. “Definitely”
2. “Maybe”
3. “Probably Not”
The most highly rated ideas are short-listed and enter the next phase of development. That next stage could involve other ideas sessions, but more focused around one idea. The aim is to focus the idea down to specific, actionable problems or statements that allow a development team to take that idea and follow it through.
All Done!
And that’s it. You’re all done. And if your experience is similar to mine, this will have been the best brainstorming session you’ve ever run.
Thanks to Mark Boulton for the inspirational ideas and good luck with your own website!