Crazy 8’s in Design Sprint

Vishesh Tripathi
3 min readMay 1, 2021

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How do you write your thoughts on paper? Your sketch is the starting point for creating a new product. In this reading, you will learn more about Crazy Eights, a popular design idea exercise that can help you think of multiple ideas in record time.

Crazy eight-a-side exercises are a great way to let your ideas flow to any design problems you need to solve. Using “Crazy Eight”, you will sketch eight different designs, each with new ideas to solve user problems. The best part? It only takes eight minutes!

  1. Start with a large piece of paper. Fold the paper in half, then fold it in half, and then fold it in half again. When you unfold the paper, you will have eight boxes to sketch.
  2. Take some things to paint. Many designers prefer to use Sharpies for drawing, but pencils or pens are also fine. You can use anything that has been drawn.
  3. Set the timer to eight minutes. You will have 1 minute to sketch each design idea.
  4. Let ideas flow. Come to all the solutions you think of. If you have more than eight ideas, please feel free to repeat the exercise.

In this way, you have eight potential design solutions! Remember, this exercise is usually done in a group setting. Each person draws eight sketches by himself, and then the group members jointly decide which ideas they like. Everyone can share the most important two or three ideas with the entire team, or everyone can vote on the team’s favorite sketch. Usually, more detailed sketches will detail the best idea chosen.

MY PERSONAL EXAMPLE THAT I WORKED ON FOR A UI/UX COURSE

Statement :

CoffeeHouse is an international coffee store chain with locations in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Cleveland, London, Nantes, Reykjavik, and more. It aims to serve quality coffee with local flair. Their drinks range from $3 — $8. The shops are minimalist, clean-lined, and feature a variety of freshly brewed house blends from the world’s major coffee regions. They offer both ready-to-drink and whole or ground beans by the pound. Their specialty drinks are made to order at their counter or on their app. For each of the cities they currently operate in, they have crafted an exclusive coffee-based beverage that can only be ordered in its city. This has inspired fans to seek out CoffeeHouse shops in other cities in an effort to try all of the exclusive creations.

Services:

  • A counter where CoffeeHouse baristas make drinks to order.
  • An ordering app which allows full customization, orders are made by CoffeeHouse baristas and ready for pick-up at the store.
  • A selection of pastries and scones sourced locally from the cities they operate in, but made to CoffeeHouse specifications.

MY AND MY PEERS’ SOLUTION FOR THIS :

Benefits of Crazy Eights

“Crazy Eight” is an exciting design concept exercise that can generate many ideas in a short period of time. If you have five people practicing at the same time, you can get 40 possible solutions in just eight minutes. There are many ideas!

The Crazy Eight also forces you to think outside the box, because you have to come up with many ideas in a short period of time without judging them. This means that you will have to consider many unique, non-traditional solutions.

The purpose of this sport is to make yourself fun and fast-paced, so please enjoy it. Let your creativity flow unimpeded and come up with some great ideas!

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Vishesh Tripathi

Wearing four hats as a competitive programmer, Full Stack Developer , Machine Learning Enthusiast & UX Designer