User Centered Design: The 2 Creativity Myths

Tip #13: It is necessary to develop several ideas and to test them in order to make an enlightened, objective, and rational choice.

The myth of the “good idea” is written in our collective memory (or collective unconscious), traveling through time by our education and group behaviors.

It directly comes with another myth, that of “being gifted”.

When we, humans, are not able to explain something in the creation domain, we rely on explanations about birth, DNA, or God, that would give like a natural sense of creation, allowing us to make wonderful things… marvelous drawings, melodies, or ideas.

If we’re not born with the good star, or if we don’t have the right genes, or if we praise the wrong god, NO GOOD IDEAS!

As a child or teen, that’s the anatomy of giving up drawing, playing music, writing fiction, acting comedy…

That’s the anatomy of « You’re no good at… » and the one of « I’m not gifted to do… ».

Sadly, that’s also the anatomy of giving up less artistic matters.

When it turns to design something (when it turns to create anything), the myth of the “good idea” is a trap that leads to failure almost all the time.

Nothing can be done like a spark rising spontaneously from nothing, which would be the right thing. THIS MUST FOLLOW A KNOWN PROCESS OF CREATION; WE’LL CALL IT “PROGRESSIVE CREATION”:

- That start from the definition of a goal, even poorly defined,

- and little by little build solutions and variations,

- experience them in order to understand if they are possible or not,

- if they fit or not,

- and challenge them with their utilization destinations,

- and so one,

- up to have something that is NEVER IDEAL but could be the best in the context, the cost, the effort, the time, the period…

All that has really nothing to do with the “good idea” and “being gifted”.

If you’re a student, request your teachers to educate you on methodologies like Design Thinking.

If you’re a pro, request your teams to work with methodologies like Lean Startup.

Both, please, don’t contribute to the pollution of our collective memory, propagating these 2 myths.

Luc-Olivier Lafeuille

linkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucolivier/
web: https://asitech.fr/home-en

All the tips on the Medium publication “Design Tips” or in French “Conseils de Conception”.

Drawing of Julie Lafeuille
linkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-lafeuille/