Iterative Creation and Analysis of Generic Ideation Spaces for SMEs
DS 81: Proceedings of NordDesign 2014, Espoo, Finland 27-29th August 2014
Year: 2014
Editor: Miko Laakso, Kalevi Ekman
Author: Heck, Johannes; Al-Falou, Katam; Steinert, Martin; Meboldt, Mirko
Series: NordDESIGN
Institution: 1: ETH Zurich, Switzerland; 2: Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
Section: Collaboration, communication and co-creation in design and development
Page(s): 173-182
ISBN: 978-1-904670-58-2
Abstract
Inspired by successful educational ideation spaces such as Stanford d.school and Aalto DF, we wonder how to set up an industry-related ideation space for Swiss SMEs? Thus, we ask (1) which strategy must be applied to acquire knowledge for a workshop and ideation space concept, both adapted to Swiss SME needs?, and (2) what key learnings are necessary to deduce the concepts for Swiss SMEs? The first research question is addressed with an evaluation of strategies, whereas the applied criteria were derived from the industrial and cultural context. For addressing the second research question, we triangulated the four methods interviews, questionnaires, feedback, and own observations. Our results are two-fold. First, the chosen iterative approach enabled us gaining knowledge about the needs of Swiss’ SMEs. Second, resulting from the pilot workshops, we cluster our key learnings under the topics: workshop concept, creativity stimuli, cultural requirements, and business needs.
Keywords: Ideation space, iteration, fast prototyping