The Creativity Project

In round 2 of the Ideas Workshop we explored idea creation through combinations. The exercises included:

1. Taking two disjoint ideas and combine them in as many ways as possible.
2. Combining unrelated images and captions.
3. Word creation: on one sheet of paper, make a list of word beginnings around a theme, one per line, on the right edge going down the paper. On a second sheet, make a list of independent word endings going down the left. Then put these two pieces of paper together, and slide them past each other to create novel combinations on the fly.

Take-aways

• Usability tip #5: When writing word beginnings and word endings on separate sheets, use two people working independently to get the most creative combinations.
• Side-benefit #6: Combining items saves you the trouble of having to come up with original ideas. The creative output becomes the combination of other people’s work.