Ideation talks

Ideation is the stage of design where a team generates ideas: many possible answers to a problem before choosing which ones to pursue. Techniques range from sketching and brainstorming to constraints, prompts and playful experiments with new materials or technologies.

Strong ideation gives a team options. Rather than settling on the first idea, designers can compare directions, combine the best parts and test the most promising ones. Ideas only matter once they are carried out, though, which is why execution often comes up in the same conversations.

Two talks sit in this topic. Andreas Refsgaard’s “Playful Machine Learning” was recorded at UX Riga in 2019 and connects ideation with creativity, algorithms and machine learning. Frans Johansson’s “The Secret Truth About Executing Great Ideas” was recorded at the 99U Conference in 2012.