Creative Design methods
Design is a creative process. The most important creative methods, according to N. Cross [Cross2000], are: Brainstorming, Synectics, analogical thinking and enlarging the search space.
The sequence of activities of the creative process, according to Cross [Cross2000], is:
Recognition: the first realisation that a ’problem’ exists
Preparation: the application of a deliberate effort to understand the problem
Incubation: a period of leaving it to ’mull over’ in the mind, allowing one’s subconscious to go to work
Illumination: the, often quite sudden, perception of the key idea
Verification: the hard work to develop and test the idea