A PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL JOURNEY INTO THE DESIGN PROCESS

The Politecnico of Milan’s IDEActivity Center was invited to take part as a proactive player in CREA, The International Conference on Creativity and Innovation, contributing the results of the research it has conducted on the topic of creativity for innovation through Design. The event had a duration of only 90 minutes, during which the research group tried to condense the typical phases, concepts and techniques of the design process for an audience of professionals from a field, such as the field of creativity, that though somewhat different, is akin and shares many contact points with Design. As IDEActivity Center researchers, designing a specific training plan targeted at consultants/trainers who work in the field of creativity and of its pertaining tools and methods posed an exciting and multifaceted challenge, providing an important opportunity for exchange during which to forcefully and effectively demonstrate the high added value the design approach can contribute to the process of creativity in any field of application. The research conducted by the IDEActivity Center focuses on the synergy between various creativity techniques and the typical tools employed by Design. As a result of this research, a method and supporting toolkit have been developed to guide project design towards innovation. The features of this Design-based methodology [Cross 2011] are: personalization and flexibility of the creativity tools; Human Centered approach and co-design. These aspects enable collaborative actions aimed at identifying and solving problems through the direct involvement of users.