The inspiration pitch: where do design ideas come from?

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Stables, Kay. 2010. 'The inspiration pitch: where do design ideas come from?'. In: D&T - Ideas Worth Sharing: the Design and Technology Association Education and International Research Conference 2010. Keele University, United Kingdom. [Conference or Workshop Item]

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Abstract or Description

This paper reports on a specific aspect of research undertaken
to explore the use of real-time’ dynamic, digital portfolios as a
way of developing, evidencing and assessing design and
technological capability – the e-scape project (Kimbell et al.
2009). In particular, it focuses on the factors that inspired the
design ideas generated by the learners, as identified by the
learners themselves through an ‘inspiration pitch’. This ‘pitch’
took the form of a 30 second sound-bite, recorded on a
mobile phone, through which the learners explained the source of their inspiration.
The learners’ responses were analysed to explore the type and range of sources they identified, how these related to
performance in the task, whether gender was an issue and if
there was a ‘school’ effect.
A key feature of the task was the provision of an ‘inspiration’
handing collection and particular attention is paid to this. The
handling collection was provided by the school, following
guidance from the research team. The paper will report on the way in which the activity and handling collections were
structured, the responses of the learners and the insights
provided into supporting design ideation. In addition, the paper
will report on other sources of inspiration – linked to both
resources provided through the task itself and also those from
external sources. Finally, the paper will identify certain key
messages that could be drawn on to enable teachers to
provide more effective support to learners’ development of
creative and innovative ideas.
This paper draws directly on the Report of Phase 3 of the escape project (Kimbell et al, 2009).