Design Strategies and Avoiding Fixation
Grabbing your first idea feels efficient, but it can trap you. Learn the design strategies that generate fresh ideas and help you break free of design fixation.
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The first-idea trap 💡
When you start designing, it is tempting to grab your first idea and run with it. But sticking to one idea, or copying an existing product too closely, is called **design fixation**, and it blocks better solutions. Designers use strategies to break free and generate fresh ideas.
Four design strategies 🧭
Edexcel names strategies that help designers generate ideas and avoid getting stuck:
Two designers ⚖️
The same brief can be tackled in very different ways.
Name it 🎯
What is design fixation?
- Getting stuck on one idea or an existing solution
- Working closely with a team of designers
- Designing around the needs of the user
- Testing a product before it is made
Match the strategy 🔗
- Collaboration
- User-centred design
- Systems thinking
- Avoiding fixation
- Working with others to share and improve ideas
- Designing around the needs and wants of the user
- Breaking a problem into inputs, a process and outputs
- Not getting stuck on one idea or an existing product
Why break free ⭐
Design fixation limits creativity: if you only develop your first idea, you may miss a much better one. Using collaboration, user input, research and systems thinking widens your pool of ideas and leads to stronger, more original designs.
Break the fixation ✅
Which THREE are good ways to avoid design fixation?
- Generate several different ideas, not just one
- Work with others and ask for their input
- Research a wide range of existing products
- Develop only your very first idea
- Copy a competitor product exactly
A systems approach 🪜
An interactive activity.
Complete the strategy 🧩
Design _____ means getting stuck on one idea. To avoid it, a designer can _____ with others, put the _____ at the centre of the design, and use systems thinking to break a problem into inputs, a _____ and outputs. Exploring many ideas leads to more _____ designs.
True or not? 🖍️
An interactive activity.
Which strategy? 🔀
- A designer asks a group of users to test a prototype
- A team brainstorms ideas together in a workshop
- A designer maps a problem as inputs, a process and outputs
- A designer sketches ten very different ideas before choosing
- User-centred design
- Collaboration
- Systems thinking
- Avoiding fixation
User-centred design 🔁
An interactive activity.
Break the block 🧠
An interactive activity.
Explain the strategies ✍️
An interactive activity.