Mastering Ideation: Unleashing Creativity Through Mobile Apps

What is Ideation?

Ideation is a creative process. The “ideator” enters a mindset focused on idea generation, development, and refinement. This stage is pivotal in the design thinking process, serving as the initial step in uncovering innovative solutions. Various techniques are available when it comes to fostering ideation. My most recent project offered a valuable opportunity to explore and experiment with these diverse techniques.

A Project for Practice

Ideation is not always an easy endeavor, which is why I devised a structured approach to practice and refine it. Crafting a short project for myself provided an ideal platform to boost my ideation skills and enhance my creative thinking. In this project, I selected three mobile apps that I am already quite familiar with:

Strava

Strava is an exercise app formatted as a social network. Strava is best known for catering to runners and cyclists, allowing them to connect and motivate each other.

Messenger

Messenger is a messaging app that was developed by Facebook. It allows users to send messages and make voice and video calls.

Headspace

Headspace is a popular meditation and mindfulness app that offers guided video sessions. It is a go-to resource for those looking to improve their mental health. 

Using POV statements tailored for each scenario, I thoughtfully identified two distinct ideation methods for each statement. Throughout this journey, I gained insights into a range of ideation techniques and put them into practical use, embodying the mindset of a design thinker.

Ideation Techniques

In the course of my mobile application project, I immersed myself in a variety of ideation techniques. In the following section, I will delve into three of these techniques and illustrate how I integrated them into my work.

Brain Dump

This technique involves jotting down all your thoughts, ideas, and ideations on a particular subject. During a brain dump, a participant will rapidly write down whatever comes to mind without any structure or organizational method:

“By giving your ideas a physical existence, you can better reflect on them and see patterns or connections that otherwise might have gone unnoticed” (AIContentfy, 2023).

In my mobile app ideation project, I used the brain dumping method for the Strava app. The POV statement guiding this process was as follows:

“Users who want to utilize premium features must pay the extra fee because Strava raised their prices.”

To address this challenge and generate potential solutions for customers, I engaged in a rapid brainstorming session, resulting in the following ideas:

Brain dumping proved to be an excellent tool for overcoming creative blocks and facilitating the free flow of thoughts during ideation.

Sketch

Sketching involves creating quick, rough drawings or diagrams of your ideas. There is no need to worry about artistry when sketching. The focus here is quantity over quality:

“Of course, these [sketches] won’t all be revolutionary, out-of-this-world ideas, but that’s not really the point. The point is to have a large, varied amount of thoughts to work from and build upon as a group” (Patel, 2020).

The idea is to generate as many solutions as possible without worrying about perfecting the illustrations.

In my analysis of Messenger’s user flows, I identified a significant usability issue concerning ease of use. Unlike other social media apps, messaging on Facebook requires you to open up a separate app, Messenger. This observation prompted the following POV statement:

“Users who want to message need an easy way to communicate on Facebook because using the marketplace feature requires messaging communication.”

To illustrate my ideas for a new Facebook interface, including the placement of Messenger, I created a few rough wireframes. This depicted a sketched home screen, the navigation, and the messenger icon.

Sketching allows for best visualization practices and is versatile for user experience design. It offers versatility and an authentic space to be as creative as possible.

Mindmap

Another powerful ideation technique with visual qualities is mind mapping. Here, you will almost combine a brain dump and sketching. A mind map is a graphical technique where you can build a web of relationships (Dam, Siang, 2020).

While monitoring customer feedback for the meditation app Headspace, I noticed a recurring pattern related to affordability. Thus, this was one of the POV statements constructed:

“Users who cannot afford a monthly subscription need more unlocked content because they enjoy the app but cannot pay the full price.”

To construct my mind map, I first needed to choose a word around which this web of relationships would revolve. Drawing from my POV statement, I used the word “afford.”

Mind mapping is valuable, especially for ideation and problem-solving. It encourages the user to explore interconnected ideas while also seeing the big picture of what is actually occurring. It can be a highly effective technique for ideation and visual thinking.

Final Comments

Ideation serves as the initial stepping stone that can unlock waves of innovative solutions. Throughout my recent project involving mobile apps like Strava, Messenger, and Headspace, I delved into various ideation techniques. A few of these, such as brain dumping, sketching, and mind mapping, allowed me to explore and visualize solutions that I usually would not think of. Overall, this project has not only improved my ability to ideate but also highlighted the importance of ideation in problem-solving.

Hi! My name is Kristin Ardese and I am a professional Graphic Designer and Marketing Strategist. I hope that by sharing some of my expertise, I can help offer valuable insights and build an engaging community.