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The art of unlearning
How letting go of the familiar can help product designers become more creative.
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Kids are more imaginative than adults. Not only is this pretty commonly observed, it’s scientifically proven too. In 1968, George Land conducted a longitudinal study where he tested 1600 children’s ability to come up with new and innovative ideas. He initially tested four to five-year-olds and retested them at ten and fifteen years. Results showed that this ability dwindled from a staggering 98% at four to five years to 12% at fifteen years. The same study in adults showed a mere 2%.
Why? Well, as we grow, we become experts in convergent thinking.
Researchers widely debate creativity, but they often recognise originality or novelty as one of its key elements. And this originality is a product designer’s super-weapon. A weapon that’s powerful yet elusive. Similar to Land, there have been other research that show creativity reduces as we go through life. We fixate on finding ‘the right’ answer (a.k.a convergent thinking) and cling to it rather than exploring possibilities. While this doesn’t kill our creativity, it certainly suppresses it.
As product designers, we engage with three elements frequently— standards, patterns, and people.
And for the sake of efficiency…