My second step is to write down everything that I know about the problem: assets, liabilities, constraints and other factors that will affect my final decision. My homework board (an 8' by 4' white board on the wall in my room) is a great example of this. In addition to a semester-long calendar of due dates and activities, I keep a running list of things that I need to accomplish in the near future and any events of circumstances that might interfere. When I have too much homework and too little time, I write down all of my responsibilities and roughly how much time I believe they will take. I also use this board for idea generation and design. When I had to design an chimney cover for MAE 377, I sketched out my ideas on this white board so that I could see how possible components would work together. I even used this board to keep track of ideas for this portfolio. Walking past the board every day gave me hundreds of chances to write down ideas on a whim. When a section was completed, it was erased, giving me a visual indication of my progress. I use smaller white boards when I'm working on web design. I like to start out with a rough layout on a white board, and I'll experiment with the size and layout of images, text, and whitespace until I'm happy enough to start mockups in Adobe Fireworks. A slightly different approach is needed in web design than in other projects, as often I have relatively little say in contents and control over final decisions.
Most often, the third step of my problem solving process is to make a decision. I do not have a formalized decision-making process, or even guidelines. I evaluate options quantitatively, but often end up choosing based on emotion or intuition.
After thinking about how I approached problems or designs, I began asking my family and friends. I considered observing them, to see firsthand how they solved problems, but I came to the conclusion that much of the important work of designing or problem solving occurs only in the mind. I believed that more detail would be available by directly asking people how they approached designing or solving problems. I was very surprised by the variety of responses. It was shocking how many unique and interesting responses I received, especially from some of the people that I am closest to.
Jennie (21, college student, Major: Communications)- Solves problems visually, by writing out on paper
Mrs Katz (75, retired teacher)- Mrs. Katz likes to first give the problem a lot of thought. She stressed to me that she tries very hard to never make a hasty decision, so she tries to think through all aspects of the problem and possible solutions first. Next, she talks the problem over with friends or other people that she respects in order to hear their opinions and to compare them with her own. With the additional information, she thinks about the problem a little longer before finally deciding how she will approach it.
Beth (20, college student, Major: Anthropology)- When Beth has a problem, she likes to think of related information in order to create a basis of comparison. For instance, she explained that in order to solve personal problems, she thinks of books that she has read of people in similar situations, and considers the character's actions and the consequences. She also likes to consult other people, to see if they have perspectives that she missed. Interestingly, Beth is the only young person that I interviewed who mentioned consulting other people as a first resort rather than last.
Lauren (22, college student, Major: Pharmacy)- Lauren talked to me about designing the objects that she crochets. She first considers what type of object she would like to create- it's function. She considers her resources (time, money, craft supplies) that she has available and her needs and wants at the moment (visiting family friends and need a hostess gift, wanting to decorate for Christmas, needing a bag to hold her needles), before deciding what type of project she is going to begin. She then begins to think about the details, such as which types of yarn she is going to need, what colors or types of stitches she would like to use, and generally what she wants it to look like. This roughly follows the design process that we used in the miniprojects (problem definition, concept generation, embodiment design and detailed design).
Mark (22, college student, Major: Sculpture)- Mark explained that the first part of his design process is continuous research. Every week he spends hours on the internet looking at images from artists' and design websites in order to stay on top of what is being done, as well as reading news articles. Mark's artwork is very topical, and often politically charged so his "design problems" are provided by current events. The images and articles are also sometimes used for what were called "forced connections" in class. Next, Mark begins the sketching or modelling process, in order to determine if he wants to develop each idea further; this is his initial filtering process. The final filtering process usually hinges on the criteria of manufacturability- before starting embodiment or detail design, Mark thinks about the materials that he will use and how he will assemble them in order to decide if want he wants to create is possible.
David (50, inventor)- David starts out by asking himself two questions about a problem he is trying to design a product to solve: "Is it worth solving?" and "How much is it worth to someone to fix this problem for them?" Industry and market research are necessary to answer these questions. He then attempts to come up with any requirements for the product and how they can be fulfilled. He starts from a functional viewpoint- what does a mechanism need to accomplish? Which mechanisms are capable of accomplishing this? Which mechanism is best? Next, he considers how much such a machine would cost and whether anyone would be willing to pay that much for it. If the initial design is too costly, he thinks of what functions might be acceptable at what price points and attempts a variant design.
Dana (17, high school student)- Dana responded to the question, "How do you solve problems?" with the cryptic response, "In my dreams." She said it as if it was the most normal thing in the world and I was left reeling. With prompting, she explained that she thinks about her problems before she goes to bed, and then she dreams about them. When I asked if she tried multiple solutions in her dreams or just one, she clarified that she only tries one solution in her dreams, but this usually is not the solution to her problem. The solution that she attempts in her dream is usually ridiculous, but when she wakes up, a better solution will pop into her head. Dana is my sister, and had never told me any of this before. She expressed equal surprise that I don't dream about my problems as I expressed that she did.
Mary (21, college student, Major: Education)- When Mary has to design something or solve a problem, she writes down a list of ideas, and then picks one based on intuition. If it doesn't work, she chooses a new idea from the list and then tries again. She described this as "intuition by trial-and-error."
Laura (21, college student, Major: Education)- Laura begins to solve a problem by first carefully defining it. Instead of labeling an entire situation as a problem, she considers which particular aspect is a problem, or why a situation is a problem at all. She then thinks of two or three simple solutions and attempts to implement those first. If none of them work, she will begin to consider progressively more complicated solutions. Eventually when she is completely out of realistic ideas, Laura will consult other people for suggestions.
Erica (18, college student, Major: Speech Pathology)- The most important part of Erica's creative process is procrastination. When she needs to generate ideas, she will first come up with two or three immediately upon beginning the project. She then will completely ignore the project until three or four days before the deadline. The pressure of this severe, self-imposed time restraint forces her to write down ideas that she would otherwise have considered not good enough. She prevents herself from evaluating ideas during the brainstorming process by putting herself in a position where this is not an option. She also uses the internet and popular culture as inspiration- looking at her favorite websites, or thinking of books or television shows to get ideas. As a last resort, Erica consults other people, but only through digital technology such as texting or instant messaging.
Audrey (44, Registered Nurse)- Audrey tries to put systems in place that will allow her to solve problems. She created a place to put her keys every night so that she wouldn't lose them, and created a system that she uses to schedule her time and prioritize tasks.
Tessa (14, high school student)- When Tessa designs something, she first sketches a simple idea. She then considers all of the requirements of the design and makes any necessary modifications, adding or changing parts until she believes it will be able to fulfill its function. She then prototypes or otherwise tests her design; if it doesn't work, she attempts to figure out what went wrong before trying to improve the design and trying again.
Julie (21, college student, Major: Brain and Cognitive Sciences )- Julie described her problem solving process as an "optimized exhaustive enumeration approach." She starts by considering the problem and a set of possible solutions, then picks a solution based on inferences and past experience. If it fails, she picks the next most viable option and repeats the process until she finds a working solution.
Alexandra (21, college student, Major: English)- Alexandra uses a forced connections approach to creativity. She decides on a theme for the types of ideas that she wants to generate and then repeats certain words in her head while holding a mental image of her theme. She next sorts her ideas into categories and tries to think of additional ideas in these categories that she might have missed.
Donald (10, sixth grade)- Most of the problems that Donald solves are challenges in video games. His approach to solving these problems is to watch videos of other people playing the game on YouTube or to search video game forums for suggestions.
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