The wrong theory protocol: A design thinking tool to enhance creative ideation

Abstract

Supporting designers to empathize with stakeholder points of view while still developing creative solutions is challenging, particularly when stakeholders' lives and experiences are quite different from their own. In this study, we characterize a new ideation technique, wrong theory protocol (WTP), that has supported student designers to come up with empathetic and creative ideas. Participants included students enrolled in undergraduate and graduate courses at a Hispanic-serving, research university in the southwestern US. In WTP, participants first frame a problem and are then prompted to come up with solutions that would harm and humiliate the intended users before coming up with beneficial ideas. Using artefacts from WTP sessions, we analysed the diversity of both harmful/humiliating and beneficial ideas. WTP participants produced divergent, empathetic ideas, suggesting WTP supports creative ideation.