Design Thinking methods @DESIGN-IT : (7) Thirty seconds sketch

by Emma David on 10 Aug 2018

The ideation process always has a sketching part as the brainstorming process rapidly unfolds itself. So this week we dedicate our attention to the design thinking method called “thirty seconds sketch”. It is an easy quick way to visualize ideas in the first stage before producing a design prototype. Through hand drawn sketches team members can explore different concepts and abandon some ideas if a new better one comes up. It is set to thirty seconds per sketch. This should enable the identifying of critical details in a short time.

 

Task: Using a timer set to thirty seconds team members have to sketch their ideas on a piece of paper for a project they choose. They can either do this alone or with more people involved. Important is to adjust the focus on the sketch depending on the phase of the project they choose. Another variation is called crazy 8″: by folding the piece of paper three times in half in the end you get eight fields to fill out. For this the timer is set to 5 minutes.

 

Goal: It is not important if the sketched idea will be usable. More important is to gather as much ideas on the topic as possible.

 

Read more about our experience below.

 

Generally team members liked a lot this method. They came up with new refreshing ideas for our projects. They said that it enables the person to just start drawing without thinking of owns skill. Important is the focus on illustrating the idea.

 

“It’s like the conscious mind goes to rest while the subconscious guides your hand.”

 

A specific doubt was raised unanimously, namely the time constraint. They say that while they end up focusing on a specific detail they miss out on their ideas because there is no time left. They suggest to use it in a group to better focus in the time limit. Or if applying it alone then either without time constraint or at least with one minute given.

 

All in all they suggest that taking away the time limit it is a really good method. They will use it more often when discussing, giving feedback or also just alone to generate new ideas.

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