Design Teaching

The Search for Alternatives: L+R’s Director of Aesthetics, Ryan Riegner, Introduces Systems and Tools for Alternate Ideation

May 9, 2018

by Julia Keller

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L+R Director of Aesthetics, Ryan Riegner, has developed a new process and tool for L+R’s ideation sessions. Presented as a part of the latest installment of Design Teaching seminars, Riegner is looking to overhaul a process where default behaviors don’t always lead to the best ideas.

Riegner explained, “Usually when we need to take some kind of action, we choose the first idea we have move forward with it. This how the brain naturally works. It wants certainty, security and to get on with it. But instead of just choosing the first idea, if we set out to seek a lot of alternative ideas first we then increase the likelihood of finding an even better idea, which may be totally different from the first idea. It could also be that the first idea is reinforced even further by being compared to alternative ideas”.

Since the process of finding alternatives is valuable but counter-intuitive, he decided to develop a tool that would empower the team to consciously seek alternatives. The result is a process that the L+R team now uses internally to craft the very best business solutions for their clients.

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Try it yourself! List as many things the image above might represent in one minute and see if your best idea was the first one you came up with 🙂