kHUB All Member Forum

Did you run out of ideas? As human beings, we get used to "the way things are" really fast. Maybe it is time to stretch your mind. A mind that is elastic and fluid is permeable to endless possibilities. Such a mind is characterized by handling ambiguity and contradiction, opposites fit, trust in the power of imagination, and connecting disparate ideas to generate novelty. The following TED talks challenge our views regarding conventional thinking and analytical approaches in favor of unstructured play, searching for experiences, memories, and feelings recombined and surfacing as new concepts.

The first secret of design is… noticing by Tony Fadell

Practitioner insights:

• Habituation: People become accustomed to everyday things, which help us conserve brain power for new learning, but it can also cause us to overlook problems.
  
  
• Seeing the Hidden Problems: Product designers, innovators, and entrepreneurs should notice not only obvious problems but also invisible or overlooked ones that most people do not even realize.
  
  
• Designing with a Beginner's Mind: Steve Jobs challenged Apple's designers to see products through the eyes of the new customer, helping them focus on making products easy and seamless from the first use. 
  
  
• Several tips to fight habituation are suggested. Look broader: Consider all steps leading to a problem to simplify and optimize the process. Look closer: Pay attention to small details that might seem insignificant, and Think younger: Engage with fresh perspectives, especially from young minds, who ask questions that challenge traditional. 

Practitioner insights:

• Design, Nature, and Art (DNA) is a design approach rooted in a deep connection with the natural world, using natural forms and structures to inspire his creations. The future of design should continue to evolve with nature’s influence, using advanced technologies and materials to create beautiful, sustainable products.
• Emotional and Aesthetic Impact: Design should elevate people's emotions and perceptions, creating an emotional connection through form. It should focus on how products interact with the human body, aiming to create designs that have a spiritual or emotional impact.
• Rejecting Superficial Design: Concepts should reflect intelligent, purposeful, and meaningful creations rather than consumerism. Designers are requested to advocate for products that have depth and meaning. One approach is to mimic the structures and patterns of nature (biomimicry).
• Challenging norms to push for a shift in how industries and designers think about the future of products, advocating for a more intuitive, nature-inspired, and sustainable approach.

Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson

Practitioner insights:

• We often view ideas as sudden "lightbulb moments," but they are more like networks of neurons forming new connections and emerging under the right conditions. Environments for creativity are spaces that allow the free flow and mingling of ideas (like coffeehouses or coral reefs) and stimulate innovation.
• Great ideas are often assembled from parts already around us, not born fully formed. Recombination exemplifies innovation through recombination, which is also a metaphor for creativity. Breakthroughs usually result from combining ideas from diverse sources rather than creating something entirely new.
• The liquid network concept shows that most breakthrough ideas emerge from group interactions, not solitary work.
• The story illustrates the power of open, flexible systems and unexpected innovation paths where minds and hunches intersect.