Brain-storming

Brain-storming is a group-based activity for the generation of multiple ideas and concepts to fulfil a given design requirement. The emphasis in brain-storming is on quantity rather than quality.

Following a brain-storming session a review or debrief should be undertaken to identify concepts or aspects of the concepts generated that have merit and should be explored further. A typical

outcome is that aspects of a few of the concepts generated should be combined to form a solution to the design need that gives a better overall solution than any one of the individual concepts from

the original brain-storming session. There are a number of rules that have been found helpful for brain-storming sessions.

• Brain-storming should be a group activity undertaken by an interdisciplinary team. For design-based applications, this might typically involve individuals with marketing, styling, mechanical and electronic engineering, packaging, materials,software and manufacture skills.

• There should be no more than ten people present in order to preserve an effective group dynamic.

• No criticism or mockery of any idea, statement or individual is allowed in the brainstorming session. Any infringement on this

should be dealt with by exclusion of the individual concerned from the session for say a period of 15 min.

• Flip charts, marker pens, pencils and paper should be provided to facilitate communication and recording of ideas.

• The design brief should be clearly stated at the start of the session.

• A set period of time should be allocated to the brain-storming session with the length of time typically being less than 2 h.

• An individual should be identified to introduce the brief, enforce exclusion of any misbehaving individual from the session and to

close the session and gather relevant notes and sketches arising from the exercise.The session should,however, not be chaired. Brain-storming activities tend to be most productive when participants are able to freely share their concepts

and participate. 

The activities outlined here involve an element of role-play and group work. It is envisaged that this will be undertaken in an appropriate environment, such as a design studio or meeting room. It is also envisaged that only a selection of the questions will

be attempted as advised by your course leader. 

1. Working in groups of five, numbers allowing, develop as many ideas as you can in 10 min to ensure that the driver of a vehicle is able to see adequately during wet weather.

2. Working in a group of seven, numbers allowing, develop as many ideas as you can in 20 min to move 150 kg of gravel piled at floor level in a garden centre to the boot of a car parked at a distance of up to 70 m away.