Digital Health Co-Design
Brainstorming Exercises
Brainstorming Exercises
Brainstorming exercises are structured idea-generation methods used to produce a large number of potential concepts, features, or tasks in a short time. In co-design, they are often applied in the Define phase to help translate user insights from the Discover phase into clear design directions or requirements. By encouraging participants to generate ideas individually (brainwriting) and then build on each other’s contributions, these exercises reduce group pressure, promote equal participation, and support the creation of diverse, user-driven solutions that can be prioritised for prototyping.
Application Example
In a study aiming to design a self- and symptom-management app for older adults living with cancer and multimorbidity, researchers used a brainstorming exercise during the Define phase to generate initial design ideas. Building on earlier work that captured user needs, they first defined the overarching problem as supporting older adults’ self-management to improve their quality of life. Using this problem statement as a prompt and presenting user personas to help participants empathise with potential end users, the research team facilitated a brainwriting session with older adults and caregivers. In this session, participants silently wrote down as many ideas as possible about what key tasks and functions the app should support, then shared and built on each other’s ideas. This process allowed all participants to contribute equally and reduced the influence of dominant voices. The collected ideas were then synthesised and shortlisted, focusing on tasks aligned with Grey’s revised self-management theory - such as tracking symptoms, managing medications, and supporting communication with care providers. These outputs provided a clear foundation of user-driven requirements that guided the subsequent prototyping work. (Kobekyaa et al., 2024)