Choosing a concept and working upon it are the two most important aspects of designing. The way, in which you generate creativity, is the pivotal point of a designing methodology for professional designers. Of all the design methodologies, one of the best is the Six Thinking Hats process. It is a groundbreaking work from Edward de Bono and is referred by some of the best designers worldwide. This article will give you an in-depth brief of the Six Thinking Hats Process and its application in design.
Edward de Bono’s six thinking hats process visualises six different thinking personalities as six people wearing hats, a particular colour each. Red, White, Yellow, Blue, Green and Black are the colors assigned to each personality. The participants of this process have to superimpose each personality on their own consciousness, during the designing process.
If working as a group, each member of the team can assume one personality. In doing so, you may get a lot of unbiased opinions and methods to generate ideas for commercial designing. Now the question is, what is the thinking style depicted by each color in the six thinking hats process? Let’s find out.
1. The Red Hat- Feelings & Emotions
The red hat represents the emotional style of thinking. When you wear the red hat, you are summoned to describe your feelings and intuitions over the design. You can share your views in accordance to your likes, dislikes, fears, anxieties, etc. and can ask others to do so in a non-judgemental way. The red hat helps you to know about the instinctive human reactions to the design. This gives the you enough space to work on methods to generate ideas for commercial designing.
2. The White Hat- Facts & Information
The white hat represents the factual and informative side of human thinking. When you wear this hat, you are asked to focus on two things- honest sources and facts. Facts include information that has already been proven and published works. These are accumulated by the white hat. These facts help you in filling the gaps in your design. These also help in bridging the gap between conceptualisation and actualisation. In this designing methodology for professional designers, the design you make, is as accurate as possible. In the methods to generate ideas for commercial designing, the White hat makes sure that your design is suited for commercial production.
3. The Yellow Hat- Positivity & Optimism
The Yellow hat represents an optimistic and sunny side of the human thinking process. It is an important part of the design methodology for professional designers because this thinking hat focuses on the potential and value of your design. Through it, you can process all the data and look for the potential in your design. It also lets you consider those parts of your design, which need only a minor change to be better. The Yellow hat helps you to make a positive note of your creativity and channel it better in this method to generate ideas for commercial designing.
4. The Blue Hat- Process & Control
The Blue Hat heads the entirety of the thinking process. Through it, you can strategize the six thinking hats process and lay down the subjects and sequence, in which every hat presents its discussion. At the end, you can ask for the outcome, which can be a summary or a conclusion, decision, etc. You can also announce any change in the process if needed. The Blue Hat helps you take responsibility of the process. The Blue hat also makes it easier for you to focus on the organizing aspect, in the Six Thinking Hats designing methodology for professional designers.
5. The Green Hat- Creativity & Alternatives
The Green Hat represents the creative nature of human thinking. It lets you come up with different alternatives using the out-of-the-box mentality. This hat allows you to surpass the boundaries of reality and the logical world to create alternatives. The green has only one rule, that there are no rules. The Green Hat helps you to collate new and different ideas about your design and use them in a raw or processed way. The green hat is the source of ideas in this design methodology for professional designers.
6. The Significant Black Hat- Criticism & Caution
The Black hat has quite a significance in this designing methodology for professional designers, such that the entire six thinking hats process is sometimes also known as the ‘Black Hat Session’. It highlights all the weak points of your design, which is necessary in this method to generate ideas for commercial designing.
The Black Hat is often regarded as the devil’s advocate. It represents a highly critical way of thinking. It lets you focus on the gaps, flaws and other negative aspects of the design. The Black Hat helps you take a critical note of your creative and make the necessary improvements to enhance it.
These points lay down the role of every hat in the six thinking hats process. Use this designing methodology for professional designers to enhance your creative design in a more professional way. There are many other methods to generate ideas for commercial designing to help you. Read about them in our blog on ‘10 Designing Methodologies for Creative Conceptualisation of Ideas’.
