It seems as though the more divergent approaches are about ‘real creativity’ making novel ideas and having bright ideas. However, these ideas need to be evaluated, filtered, clarified and modified before they can become a workable solution. A creative idea is both novel and useful. In fact we’ll also find that this more structured convergent thinking also establishes the fertile ground for further inspirations – divergence and convergence are not so much separate phases as mutually reinforcing processes.
In this first of two lessons on convergent thinking we’ll look at the way you can uncovering tacit knowledge and develop a rich vocabulary of the criteria, dimensions and attributes of your problem domain. Many of the techniques involve finding examples of past systems or new ideas, and then examining distinctions between them. The resulting vocabulary is essential not nly in allowing you discuss problems and potential solutions with colleagues and clients, but also to think more clearly about them yourself.
3.1 Introduction
Being divergent is obviously creative, but isn’t convergent thinking just boring?
In this section we’ll explore the different roles that divergent and convergent thinking play in creating innovate solutions.
The techniques we have discussed previously have been focused centrally on the divergent, ideation phase of creativity. However, this must feed into a more convergent phase of reflection and selection. It is the interplay of these more exploratory and analytic activities that allows us to build a ‘map’ of out design space and hence identify creative solutions that are both novel and fit for purpose.
3.2 Sources and Solutions
How do you avoid the paper tangling up in a toilet roll holder?
Some of the knowledge we need to find solutions to problems is pre-existing: in previous courses we have studied, published literature, or found in existing applications and systems we can use as inspiration. However, we also know that every area and system where humans and technology interact is unique. In this section we will see how bottom-up generation of new problem-specific understanding works alongside top-down application of prior knowledge. And yes, we will also see how the office cleaner and I were able to develop a just-in-time theory of toilet rolls and bicycle nuts to solve a paper-tangling problem.
3.3 Externalisation
Have you ever found yourself struggling to describe to someone else something you just know how to do? It I so familiar, and yet so hard to put into words. Or perhaps you have experienced the opposite phenomenon: you’ve written something down or said something to a colleague and then thought, ”wow, I never knew that before”.
Much of our own knowledge, and that of our clients and users, is tacit. We can apply it and use it, but struggle to articulate precisely what it is, or may not even be aware that we know it at all.
In this section we will look at the ways in which the externalisation of this tacit knowledge can be powerful in enabling us to tackle practical problems and lift our ability to think and talk about them to new levels.
3.4 Making Comparisons
Externalisation is important, but how do you make that valuable tacit knowledge explicit so that you can use it more effectively?
Often this is easier when we are forced to compare things – we may be able to articulate the difference between things even if we struggle to find the words to describe the critical features of either on its own. Three-way comparisons can be even more powerful, and we will see how these can be used to force us to think of new ways of looking at things rather than falling back onto pre-existing categories and concepts.
3.5 Probing Boundaries
Is the platypus a mammal or a bird?
Boundaries are where the action is – the Wild West, bustling ports, places where people and ideas mix. This is equally true of the boundaries between different ideas, concepts or categories. Examples, such as the platypus, that sit close to or straddle boundaries are particularly useful in forcing us to think about the features and perhaps define more clearly the boundary. However, are attempts to define boundaries simplistic reductionism, taking too seriously socially constructed categories?
In this section we will discuss how boundary definitions can help us to open up, not close down our thinking.
3.6 Critical Transitions
Sometimes there is a pre-existing object or example that sits close to a category boundary, like the platypus, but if not, how do we find one?
This can be especially important for things that are obvious when we see them, but hard to define. One way is to modify existing examples to create a path of similar examples that eventually cross a boundary and allow you to explore that critical transition. As an example we will explore the idea of ‘fun’.
3.7 Finding Examples
Many of the techniques we’ve described involve finding examples. Sometimes, these spring immediately to mind based on things you’ve seen, done or heard about before. Making new examples for a concept is understandably hard, but why is it hard to recall past experiences that, once they have come to mind, are clearly useful examples.
In this section we’ll use the psychology of human memory to understand why it can be sometimes hard to recall useful examples, and techniques we can use to make this easier.
3.8 Solid Ground
Do you prefer to think abstractly on concretely? Mathematics seems very abstract or theoretical and yet real mathematics constantly moves to and for between examples and abstract proof. In UX design we often start with quite vague sketches, but then move to high fidelity prototypes or detailed scenarios. As with so many dichotomies the real fun is often in the interplay.