IDEO developed a tool called the ‘Mood Meter’ which I came across in one of their articles. It is a diagram that illustrates the mood of designers (the highs and the lows) during the different stages of the design process from the starting point until project completion. When I saw the diagram, it is spot on and I have witness this quite consistently among the team every time a new project comes in.
In the design & development process, it is broken down into multiple parts and mainly driven by how data is gathered, churned, synthesized, and the execution of ideas. Very often, clients expect some concrete answers from the design team at the initial stages, however, the answers we could only provide are within the general scope and very-very preliminary, until we go through the full design process to give them a solid solution.
Image Credit: IDEO, Mood Meter
Research - Gathering Data
The beginning of every project usually starts off with an elated/ positive mood, because there’s something new to discover (a project with so much potential!), lots of curiosity with the new information to be gathered during the research phase. Meeting new people, obtaining insights, observing behaviors, reading up on materials; basically getting hold of concrete data from various sources.
Synthesis
Once a good volume of data has been collected, it is time to get serious. And by that I mean, sitting down, getting the post-its out, categorizing all the data into meaningful groupings, prioritizing information, and get some solid findings out of this massive pool of information. This is where synthesizing comes in, and very often it can get pretty messy and it involves a lot of brain-work. This phase is a tedious stage (some say painful), and you see potential challenges or opportunities start to surface. Mood wise, it is taxing and sometimes demotivating when you realised that you are restricted by certain factors (major or minor ones). The end product of this phase is usually a framework or direction that forms the base of the ideation direction.
Ideation
Once a direction has been determined, this is where the fun starts to kick in again because it’s ideation time! Team members whether designer or not would gather and throw in ideas to get the ball rolling for potential solutions. Depending on the project and relevance, we practice a few methods within our team during ideation stage. There’s brainstorming, brain-writing, and idea-building (we’ll talk more about this in another post!). End result of this phase, we would have a decent amount of varied ideas, with a few rounds of filtering to ensure the ideas are solid enough before proceeding to execution (design of course!)
Our 2 furry mood boosters to lighten up those designer mood swings.
Designing
This phase is one of the main highlights in the design processes that clients and designers look forward to, mainly because it’s where fluid and abstract ideas start to form visually and eventually physically. Industrial designers and mechanical engineers collaborate to design products with user experience and manufacturing in mind. Materials selection and product finishing will be determined during this phase and very often comes with a few rounds of simple product mock-ups to get a feel of the form factor. It is an exciting phase to be in because we start placing the puzzle pieces together, and most of the time it looks promising!
Prototyping
After months of research, ideation, and design, it has finally come to the finish line, or so to speak. Going back to the mood meter, it’s not surprising that designers and all the stakeholders of the project would be elated to finally see the first prototype after all the hard work put into it. Prototypes are made for testings and gathering feedback. This feedback is then taken into considerations for design iterations and the process continues until the product gets a green light from all stakeholders to proceed to manufacture.
To Sum It Up
I would say the IDEO’s mood meter is quite an accurate visual of how designers take on a project and the type of ‘relationship’ they have with each development phase. Apart from accepting it as it is, it could also be an opportunity for designers to re-look into turning some of these struggling areas, into a more positive experience, and hopefully, create a better output. Always easier said than done, I know!
So, what’s your take on the IDEO’s Mood Meter?