Why jokers are better designers? or if you can’t kidding, you can’t design.
One of the incredible characteristics is joking. Yes, joking and have the ability to make others laugh. The question is, what do you do when you are joking or kidding? The short and sufficient answer, you think and imagine the subject out of the box and this makes people amazed, shocked, happy, laugh and feel good...
Do you like kidding? Do you like your humorous friends? Are you a humour expresser? What happens when people make a joke? What elements add together? Have you known that many psychologists and cognitive knowledge experts research “humour sense and creativity”?
Experts believe that finding non-obvious elements is one of the important correlations between humour and creativity:
Both humour and creativity involve making non-obvious connections between two seemingly unrelated and incongruous elements (Murdock & Ganim, 1992).
On the other hand, combining remote elements is another ability of the humour sense:
Creativity occurs by combining remote elements into new ideas (Mednick, 1962), and benefits from the ability to juxtapose opposing frameworks and contradictory perspectives (Miron-Spektor, Gino & Argote, 2011b; Rothenberg, 1979).
Yes, you find non-obvious elements and combine them. This is the start of creativity and ideation. A great example:
Einstein invented the Theory of Relativity when he imagined an object that is in motion and at rest at the same time (Rothenberg, 1979).
One of the famous points of view about ideation is “thinking out of the box”; it means that the designer should observe the solution of a problem without a common mindset.
Now, we should remember the “design thinking” a little. In the design thinking process, we should solve the problems by using the below methods:
- Empathize with the users who will use our product
- Define her problem
- Ideate to solve her problem
- Prototyping a product by a realistic approach
- And finally testing the prototype by our target users.
We know, all of these steps are important. If one of them has an error or wrong approach; design thinking will lead to a wrong destination.
But the core phase is Ideation. Because the ideation is the start of making something new. Your idea sparks are the base of the new product and your creation. So, it helps you to imagine your future product, its details, functionality, performance, etc.
One of the famous point of view about ideation is “thinking out of the box”; it means that the designer should observe the solution of a problem without a common mindset.
This story from IDF educational platform clears “thinking out of the box”:
Some years ago, an incident occurred where a truck driver tried to pass under a low bridge. But he failed, and the truck was lodged firmly under the bridge. The driver was unable to continue driving through or reverse out.
The story goes that as the truck became stuck, it caused massive traffic problems, which resulted in emergency personnel, engineers, firefighters and truck drivers gathering to devise and negotiate various solutions for dislodging the trapped vehicle.
Emergency workers were debating whether to dismantle parts of the truck or chip away at parts of the bridge. Each spoke of a solution fitted within his or her respective level of expertise.
A boy walking by and witnessing the intense debate looked at the truck, at the bridge, then looked at the road and said nonchalantly, “Why not just let the air out of the tires?”
One of the incredible characteristics is joking. Yes, joking and have the ability to make laugh others. The question is, what do you do when you are joking or kidding?
Yes, “why not”, this example shows that in addition to knowledge and an expert view you need something more to think out of the box, something that I believe is more important than your skill and knowledge. It is your character.
How do you interpret life? How do you define the universe? What is your view of humans and their needs? How do you understand and know the events at the first view? How do you think about yourself and the people around you? And how do you think?
The designers should have a wild characteristic that helps her/him to see something that others can’t, characteristics without any limitation and any traditional mind frames. This powerful ideation ability will make you an out of the box thinker.
And now, one of the incredible characteristics is joking. Yes, joking and have the ability to make laugh others. The question is, what do you do when you are joking or kidding? The short and sufficient answer, you think and imagine the subject out of the box and this makes people amazed, shocked, happy, laugh and feel good.
When you kidding, you see and express something that is hidden from others and correlates with unrelated items, this is the secret of joke attraction. Now, when you think out of the box you see something that is hidden from others and correlates with unrelated items, this is the start of ideation and problem-solving.
As a result, if you are a designer and have a humour viewpoint, congratulations. You can mix them and make a magic wand to solve problems. Do not forget that humour can help you effectively and it is not all the things that you need as a designer, so continue to learn.
I have a suggestion for you on the ideation phase in the design thinking process. At the first step of ideating and solving problems, start with funny and humorous suggestions, it will help you to think out of the box.