In a recent design review of a web application, our team faced a common yet daunting challenge: moving beyond our first visual concept. Now, anyone that has worked as a designer has dealt with this challenge, it's easy to feel like we're stuck in our first idea and pixel push slight iterations instead of rapidly exploring many ideas. As we sat in this review providing feedback I found myself thinking and suggesting the same thing over and over; what if we did X?
This approach, documented below, while not entirely new, optimizes the typical 'What if we tried this?' question into a powerful and structured tool an individual can use for creative exploration.
For a designer working on a new concept, the idea is relatively simple:
Design can feel like a never ending process, so it's important to acknowledge when we feel stuck or blocked and leverage tools that encourage the creation of a lot of ideas. By periodically stepping back to review our work and documenting a list of "what if" statements as a text document, a designer can free themself from feeling stuck staring at a computer screen.
The 'What If' framework not only helps to unblock a stuck designer but also paves the way for groundbreaking innovation. It's an invitation to designers to explore the uncharted territories of their creativity.
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