Mysterious Creature: Idea Machine
Don’t we all know what it feels like when you really want to start a new project, but don’t exactly know how? Or you notice a problem in your surroundings that needs to be urgently resolved, yet again, you don’t know where to start? We created the new Idea Machine to alleviate this state of mind and help new VIVITA members analyze their living environment and think of innovative and presumably impossible ideas on how to improve it.
The already familiar Design Sprint model served us as a basis to facilitate the workshop: discover, feel, focus, imagine, play and share. For the first time, we tried to implement this method of thinking when mentoring children 1:1. Designer’s tools such as observation, data collection, brainstorming, interviews, prototyping, and presenting ideas got translated into practical challenges that we tackled together in the course of the workshop.
As a result of three-week-long active thinking and tinkering, children came up with the following world-changing ideas. Here is where zero-waste lifestyle enthusiasts, football players, and bored students alike can find a solution to their problems.
Lagle: Clothes that change in length and width
“My idea is to create clothes that you never grow out of. You can make them longer or wider, using, for example, string or buttons. This is needed to minimize textile waste. It’s a product suitable for both children and adults.”
Jesper: Bodyguard
“This is a bodyguard holding a lamp. This is needed because it’s unpleasant for football players to get hit in the face with the ball. It works this way: with the lamp, it hits the ball away and protects your face. It can be used by both football players and trainers.”
Magnus: Anti-bullying robot
“My solution is KIV88 — an anti-bullying robot. It is needed because it tells the bully what isn’t acceptable and it helps the one who is being bullied. It has arms all over, even on the back. These arms retract inside so that the robot can roll. When there’s bullying, the arms come out and hug the one who is being bullied. The bully receives a stress ball and soothing music is played to them. The robot also has a big camera and radars so that it can see and hear better. Its mouth is where the soothing music comes from. The head can be raised to the height of the bully so that the robot can talk better. This is certainly needed for children, but also for grown-ups.”
Mark: Holographic smart device
“My design mission is to prevent boredom. My solution is to create a holographic smart device. The smart device goes into the drawer underneath an upside-down pyramid. The image projected on the screen emerges in the pyramid as a hologram. This can be used by anyone who’s interested, but it’s mainly targeted at fans of future-set movies. It can also be used by primary teachers because first-graders will definitely be very interested.”
Eliisabet: Table cover for easy cleaning
“You don’t like cleaning either? The table cover helps you clean.”
Liam: Device that changes a room’s environment
“My issue was that sometimes my head starts to ache when the sun is shining. I would like there to be a device that changes the light and humidity in the room. To solve the problem, I built a room with a LED strip that automatically changes the light while steam is coming from inside the floor. This way I get the feeling that it’s raining outside and I like that better.”
All these cool ideas were born in the process of completing practical challenges: asking the right questions at the right time aided thinking. Through similar experiments, we hope to rethink and improve the whole FreeFlow process, so that design thinking would naturally become part of VIVITA members’ projects. To try it yourself, follow the below exercises and worksheet instructions.
Practical challenges
Ideas generator: Ask yourself what you like and what you don’t like. Choose something you like and something you dislike and combine them into one problem.
Skills star: Analyse your strengths and weaknesses. Reflect on your skills as a designer.
Mindmap: Collect information about your chosen problem.
Why and how?: State your problem as a question. Ask yourself three times why it is important to solve it and then ask yourself three times how it could be solved. From the answers, choose the one that interests you the most: this is your design mission.
Crazy 8: You have 8 minutes to come up with 8 crazy ideas. Choose your favorites.
Combine favorite ideas: Choose your favorite ideas and combine them into one big crazy concept. Sketch it.
Ask for feedback: Make a quick prototype out of paper (max 10 min). Show it to others and ask them to test it.
Prototype: Think it through: what would you like to change, what materials do you need, what tools and techniques will you use? Using the feedback you collected, make a new prototype.
Storyboard: Make a video about your concept. Start by planning the video frames.
Presentation: Plan your presentation: introduce yourself, your solution, why you made it, how it works and for whom it is intended.
