Why crazy eights
Yes, you read the title correctly. It’s Crazy eights; in UX. If you are already in the UX field, you will know what I am talking about right now. But if you are not, then you might feel a bit confused. Well, let me explain the title further.
As designers when you are to find solutions for a problem, initially what you need to bother is the number of ideas, not the quality of the ideas. You should have many ideas to compare and contrast to come up with the best one. However, these ideas pop into your mind. So how can you express or present them to others? Is putting into words a good choice? A big no! Most of us cannot narrate what is exactly in our minds. And listeners grasp what we say in their level of understandability. Well, then what can we do? You may remember the quote,
“A picture worth thousands of words”.
Yes, drawing it down is the solution. You will yelp “Nooo…” saying that you are not good at drawing. But trust me. When it comes to crazy eights, all that matters is creativity; not drawing skills.
I still didn’t tell you what crazy eight is. It’s an activity for the designers to come up with design ideas for the problem that they want to solve. Designers will sketch EIGHT different ideas within just EIGHT minutes. Let me tell you how it works.
- First, take a large sheet of paper.
- Fold it in half.
- Then fold in half again.
- Then fold in half for the one last time.
- Now unfold the paper. Yes, you now have equal-sized eight rectangles to sketch.
- Now take a pen, pencil, or whatever that helps you in drawing. Adding colors is not necessary for this activity.
- Now take your problem statement and read it one more time so that you understand the problem very well.
- Now take your phone and set the timer for 8 minutes.
- Start! Draw eight ideas.
Be creative and enjoy the activity. Let ideas flow into your mind. You may feel some ideas are crazy. But remember, it’s too early to judge. Just put your thinking caps on and sketch and sketch and sketch! In case you feel like you have more than eight ideas, then repeat the exercise.
Get Chathumi Kumarapeli’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
Now you have amazing solutions for your problem. It’s time for you to evaluate and choose the best one. In case you did the activity with your set of designer friends, then take a moment to compare your ideas with each other and select the best idea.
Given below is an image of a Crazy eights exercise that I did myself for a case study I did for a particular problem statement (you can see the complete case study here). Yes, I’m not an artist and my handwriting is bad too. And yes, some ideas in here are totally crazy ones. Yet I sketched them anyway. Sometimes others will not fully understand the ideas you have drawn in your crazy 8's paper. That’s why you need to put into words what you have drawn.
Now let’s move on to my topic ‘Why crazy eights?’ You might think that crazy eight is a simple, easy and fun task. Yes, it is. But there are amazing benefits that designers get by engaging in crazy eights.
First thing is that you get amazing and creative eight ideas in just eight minutes. That’s a lot of solutions for a small amount of time. Imagine you did the exercise within a group of 6 designers. Boom! You will have FORTY-EIGHT ideas all together at the end of the exercise. Now that’s a lot of ideas I must say!
Since you have only eight minutes to draw eight solutions, you do not have any time for judging. You will simply sketch the unique and cool ideas that pop into your mind, without further analyzing them. This will make you think out of the box and will grant you modern and unique ideas.
Moreover, this activity is really fun. When you try out two or three crazy eight activities you will fall in love with it. It’s so enjoyable and fast!
There are some best practices in crazy eight to polish your creative ideas.
- You may have several problem statements. But take one at a time and run a crazy eight exercises per each. Have a clear understanding of your problem statement before you put the pencil on paper.
- Sketch without wasting time by judging your ideas. Just sketch down whatever idea comes to your mind. No matter how crazy it might look to you. Who knows, in the end, it might be the best idea!
- If you are working as a group, avoid judging others’ ideas as well. You should have an open mind when others share their work with you. It’s fine to give feedback in the process of choosing the best idea, yet you should not be criticizing.
- It’s a plus to have diversity in your group. Have members of different ages, different experience levels, different genders, and different abilities. This will bring a whole lot of unique ideas.
- Make sure your environment is comfortable for you before you start sketching. Your surroundings have a huge impact on your creativity. So go for a calm environment that brings your mind relaxation and drives you crazy with creative ideas.
Now that’s a lot of information on crazy eight. If you haven’t tried any crazy eights exercises yet, I suggest you do it at least once to find out how fun it is. What’s so crazy about crazy eights is that you need not be an artist to bring your ideas into drawings. Because
Ideating is all about creating lots of ideas, not creating perfect ones!
So enjoy having crazy eight minutes with crazy eights!
