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Many people think creativity is innate, but in my experience, creativity is something you have to practice every day.
In 2012, my team at Toyota was challenged to create a new user experience with the infotainment system in the car (also known as “the thing in the middle of the dashboard”). Customers had been interacting with the infotainment system the same way for a decade, and it was time to shake things up.
我作为产品设计师的经验告诉我，创造力是一半的想象力和一半的实现。我使用工具来触发我的想象力，然后在上下文中产生想法。对我而言，意识到意味着了解正确转化为物理空间（有效的内容）以及未正确翻译的内容（什么不起作用），然后研究这种现实如何改变或发展我们最初想象的想法。这是想象力和实现的推动力，产生了创造力。
I used several tools to aid both my imagination and my realization process on the project, and I want to share them here, in hopes that other designers might benefit from some of the strategies that have helped me be successful on projects like the Toyota infotainment system UX redesign.
Triggering Imagination
当我三岁的时候，我曾经玩过一个纸板箱，想象那是太空船。在这种情况下，想象力很容易 - 我唯一的挑战是想象我躺在房子周围的额外盒子真的很有趣。飞船。完毕。
In the Toyota project, the challenge was to imagine a new user experience with the infotainment system. The challenge went beyond that of just one user of a cardboard box, so I had a feeling I would need more people to act as catalysts to help me generate relevant ideas.
尽管如此，在我从事信息娱乐项目的第一周，我跳了一只普锐斯（Prius），盯着仪表板上的黑色小屏幕，然后想：“是时候让想象力流动了。”我拿出iPhone 4s，瞥了一眼我使用的应用程序。两分钟后，我知道我提出了一个完美的解决方案：能够查看Yelp餐厅并直接开始导航以将您带到那里！想象任务完成了，对吗？
Not quite. Imagination is the ability to form ideas that would otherwise remain isolated in our own minds (others can’t see or interact with them). That’s just the beginning, though.
正如我一开始所怀疑的那样，为了使我能够充分意识到我的想象力产生的想法，我需要更多有关类型of people who would be interacting with the car dashboard, which would then allow me to generate ideas I could present and test with relevant users.
Like imagining my cardboard box was a spaceship, Yelp integration in the car seemed very relevantto me,anditmight如果丰田只向我卖车，这是一个好主意。但是，因为我不知道自己想象的是谁，所以我需要做一些功课。
想象In Context
I recruited 30 users who fit the demographics of folks who interacted with technology in the car. The process I adapted to trigger my imagination and come up with innovative ideas became:
- Question
- Observe
- 种类
1.问题
As I worked with each user, I wanted to understand both the context of the challenge and the current user experience of the infotainment system. First, I chatted with each user and had each person describe how he or she typically interacted with the car’s technology.
2. Observe
Next, we migrated from the office to the user’s car, where I sat in the passenger seat and observed how users interacted with their cars.
3. Sort
Finally, I wrote each user’s comments and observations on sticky notes. Then, two other colleagues and I performed an activity called affinity sorting. It’s pretty simple—you start with a blank wall and group the stickies with similar comments, actions, or ideas together, in order to understand the existing user experience.
我们把这三个步骤之后,它变得非常easy to generate ideas and formulate potential solutions, because the ideas I was generating were directly related to the people for whom we were designing.
再保险alizing Ideas
一旦富有想象力的果汁开始流动，我们正在产生想法，我们如何意识到它们？我们如何使用户与他们互动？我们如何验证这些想法将真正使用户受益？
为了在丰田项目上回答这些问题，我们首先将生成的想法转变为用户可以交互的东西：纸质原型。
We invited each user back to walk us through their interaction with our prototype and asked them to rate the experience as something they would want to use and recommend to friends, or something they wouldn’t use at all. So, creativity process done?
Not quite, because the realization of the imagined ideas still existed in a form that was far removed from the actual user experience—actual customers would not be interacting with the infotainment system in paper form. We call this “Ice Cream Feedback.”
冰淇淋反馈是当您从检查理智的用户那里得到反馈时，但仍然不是验证您的想法的最后一步。毕竟，大多数用户会回答“是”，如果您问他们是否喜欢冰淇淋，但我们仍然需要知道冰淇淋如何在他们的生活中扮演角色。
The lesson here: It was important to further align our ideas and bring them into the physical world, where we can evaluate the benefit of what we created with more certainty.
在对纸张原型的反馈后，我们需要将用户体验概念转换为一个环境，在这种环境中，我们可以评估用户的真正好处。我们的团队在接下来的几周内构建了一个平台，该平台将在视觉上以现有的信息娱乐系统的形式出现，但可以加载软件，使用户可以与新的用户体验进行交互。该平台需要看起来像一个真实的系统，并记录用户与其交互的数据。我们将这些原型安装在真实客户的汽车中。
再保险alization has two parts: to transform our imagined ideas into reality and to quantify how our idea actually benefits real users. After evaluating how users interacted with the system for one month, we had completed our first cycle of imagination to realization.
Creativity is a Process, Not an Instance
这只是我使用的创作过程的快照，展示了一个想象力和实现周期的示例。我在丰田的项目仅在短短三个月的时间内就进行了数十个周期，该项目为未来系统的产品要求提供了信息，最终成为我们从用户那里收集真正的反馈的基础。
The point I’m trying to make is that imagination informs realization, and realization informs imagination. It’s this continual cycle of push and pull that generates creativity. Some believe that you are either born with creativity, or not. I couldn’t disagree more. In fact, I hope this post provides you with the tools to aid your creative process, like they do mine and also inspires you to continue to practice and forge your creative excellence in whatever you do.
