Idea Development – Learning Activities

This week we’re exploring the process of idea development, focusing on creative thinking and problem solving. To train our creative mind we’ll be solving riddles. And we’ll be using the S.C.A.M.P.E.R method to aid us through what I like to call «product questioning», were we ask our self «how could we make this better?» in seven different, but important, ways.

Question 1 – How would you solve these riddles?

Riddles aren’t my preferred cup of tea, never had much of them in school, the closest kind would be in math class but those weren’t like these ones. I’ve mostly thought that my strength is the technical side of design, putting things together and figure how to do so, and not so much the “creative” part and coming up with ideas. I thought I needed too much inspiration to call myself creative and/or to call my ideas original. Now I realize that there are many ways to be creative and they all intertwine with each other.

Riddles are one great way to expand your creativity and gives you the freedom and encouragement to “think outside the box”. How who you solve these?

A man is replacing a wheel on his car, when he accidentally drops the four nuts used to hold the wheel on the car. They fall into a deep drain, irretrievably lost. A passing girl offers him a solution that enables him to drive home. What is it?
She gives him a lift/ ride home.

Two Russians walk down a street in Moscow. One Russian is the father of the other Russian’s son. How are they related?
She is the mother

What occurs once in June, once in July and twice in August?
The U’s

Six drinking glasses stand in a row, with the first three full of water and the next three empty. By handling and moving only one glass at a time, how can you arrange the six glasses so that no full glass stands next to another full glass, and no empty glass stands next to another empty glass? What is the minimum number of moves to solve this puzzle?
One move. To pour the water from number two to five.

Illustrations helped me see opportunities, much easier then trying to think of them.

At first glance I expected these to take me hours, surprisingly each only took me a few minutes. I did a little warm up the other day here and didn’t get any of them right or even close. Illustrating them really helped, giving me perspective and my mind better space to think of solutions.

Question 2 – The S.C.A.M.P.E.R Method – and how McDonald’s has developed to success with it.

The S.C.A.M.P.E.R Method – A series of techniques that aids the brainstorming/thinking process. The acronym is made of the following: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify/Magnify, Put to another use, Eliminate, and Rearrange/Reverse.

McDonald’s – A brief history

If you haven’t been there, you’ve definitely heard of it. McDonald’s started out in California, U.S. In 1948 the brothers, Dick and Mac McDonald, came up with the highly effective drive-in and self-service system, introducing the term fast food. Ray Kroc, had been involved with McDonald’s since 1939, as their distributor of milkshake machines and later as franchise agent (1954), forming the McDonald’s Corp. McDonald’s are mostly known for their hamburgers and offers a whole variety of fast-ready-to-eat-food such as burgers, sandwiches, french fries, milkshakes, salads, breakfast, ice creams, wraps, pasterises and the list goes on as they evolve.

Substitute
Simple limited menu – Starting out Mcdonald’s changed the regular menu for a simpler option, offering affordable hamburgers, fries and milkshakes. Now the menu has expanded,offering both single items and set full menus.

Combine
Happy Meals – By putting toys in the children’s menu they combined food and toys. From my own memory I recall them having toys to promote movies premieres, a brilliant idea and childhood me loved it!
Playground – Adding a form of playground to attract families with kids. Giving the kids great memories of the place and possibly the parents a little break.

Adapt
Special menus – For global success, adapting and giving some element of familiarity to the menu according to the region of the restaurant. Some samples are Matcha McFlurry which is an exclusive on the Japanese menu. In India there are way more vegetarian options to choose from. Because of religion, beef isn’t commonly use in indian cuisine, this is a factor McDonald’s has adapted to.
Healthy option – After being accused for contributing to the increasing of obesity, McDonald’s added healthier options and eliminated supersized portions.
Drive-In – Making fast food even faster and efficient. By following the growing norm of cars, make the restaurant even more accessible for car drivers.
McDelivery – Just like the arise of car culture in the late 40’s and 50’s, home delivery is the new drive-in. Depending on were you are and your local McDonald’s, some restaurants offers home delivery. Either by co-op with other food deliverers like Foodora (in Norway) and Uber Eats (U.S), or McDonald’s employees deliver drives out themselves. McDelivery by McDonald’s is mostly available in Asia, Middle Eastern and Latin America. I saw my first McDelivery scooter in the streets of Tokyo, Japan.

Modify/Magnify
Logo – McDonald’s famous “M” logo is a literal interpretation of using the magnify technique. Before the “M” became the loge, they used the yellow arches on the rooftops of earlier restaurants.
Mascot – Before the clown Ronald McDonald, McDonald’s had a mascot called Speedee, a human like figure with a burger head. I believe he was called after McDonald’s Speedee Service System. Ronald McDonald was created in 1963, inspired by the very popular television character at the time Bozo the Clown, targeting the children audience.

Put to another use
Egg McMuffin – Why have burgers for dinner, have one for breakfast with an egg! I’m sure this one could also be in the “combine” category.

Eliminate
Waiters – By eliminating waiters the self-service system came to life.
Making the ordering process shorter and faster.

Rearrange/Reverse
Ready to eat – McDonald’s premade their burgers, wrapped them and had them under heat lamps. So customer didn’t have to wait for their burgers.

Question 3 – A spoon and a packet of rice.

For our design assignments we were given a spoon and rice packaging and asked to design a new one, by using each technique in the S.C.A.M.P.E.R method.

When using the S.C.A.M.P.E.R method it’s very important to ask the right questions. At first I didn’t think much about it and I couldn’t think of any way these keywords could help me, I was completely stuck. I had to come up with problems or things that bothered me about the existing product, question it so I could come up with way to solve the problem. This site has great questions for each keyword and it gave me loads of perspective.

Spoon

When I started this one I brainstormed abilities I would like my spoon to have. My requirements are: multi-use, aesthetically pleasing, supporting less waste, and a modification that would keep it from slipping into the soup bowl.

A few years ago I found something fascinating at a secondhand store, a straw with a spoon attached to the end, perfect for mixing hot chocolate and drinks. I like that idea and wanted to expand it. I wanted to make something environmental friendly but also expand the market for those how wanted something less rustic and more elegant. I want to make sustainable straws more accessible but not in the plastic-single -use kind of way or by making plain steel straws. Blending straws and spoons would be perfect for cafes and coffee shops were they often serve drinks with both mixing spoons and a straws. And while I was adding abilities to the design, why not add a bit of fork to it. As I adjusted and merged the straw to the spoon, I saw this shape and it really reminded me of tulips, so for coloring maybe rose gold and pastel green would be fun to add for all my flower-lovers out there. But also have plain stainless steel versions available for the bigger market.

I Substituted the shaft for a straw. Combined straw and fork to the spoon. Adapt and Modified the shape and color, giving it a seamless and elegant design. Put to another use, this is now a multi-use item. Eliminate the traditional shaft and the need for single use straws. Lastly I Rearrange the straw with a bend and length so it doesn’t slip into bowls or drowns in tall glasses.

Testing placement.
Drafting placement of the straw and spoon widths.
Final sketches. Working with the shape I thought I looked similar to a tulip, and adding green and red could be an option.

Rice Packaging

My requirements for rice packaging are the following: plastic free and easy to measure or pre-portioned.

Through my sketching I touched on these aspects of the S.C.A.M.P.E.R method.
Substitute: boil-in bags to a packet with levels/rooms that fit pre-measured rice. Big plastic bags of rice with a cardboard-flask-like thing.
Combine: Measuring tool with the packaging.
Adapt: Packet shouldn’t take too much space. Easy and straight forward to use. Have portions measured and ready to use.
Modify/Magnify: Package most contain a good amount of product, less empty space as possible.
Put to another use: using the lids/caps as a measuring cups.
Eliminate: any kind of plastic.
Rearrange: opening so it will be efficient and not too complicated.

First I practiced 3D-drawing by drawing out squares. Then I drafted a packet were the corner opening also worked for measuring, but didn’t really allow you to use it properly.
Quick drafts of different kinds of shapes, openings, bits and pieces.
A sample of print.
Cleared out some of the sketches. Featuring a cardboard bottle and the cap is also a measuring cup. The box thing is inspired by those block puzzles, each block contains rice and you just snap it off, but it’s a lot of packaging.
This is my final sketch. A plain rice packet with levels of portioned rice. You open at the side, following the pre-cut pattern and rip your way down. The levels are numbered so you can keep track of how many portions you have left.