Creative warm-up · Random stimulus
Story Dice
Virtual picture dice. You roll them, and whatever comes up becomes the starting point for a story or a new idea.
It opens in a new tab, so coming back here is easy.
Why roll the dice?
Story Dice is a digital version of one of the oldest creative techniques. It is called a random stimulus: you take the problem you are working on and set it against the first random picture that comes up. Your brain starts looking for connections, and that is often enough to get you moving!
- 1Write down the problemPut what you are working on into one sentence.
- 2Roll the diceClick the button and look at the pictures that came up. For another roll, press Roll Again.
- 3Look for associationsWrite down what comes to mind when you set the pictures against your problem. The ideas can stay rough, because their job is to open up new leads.
- 4Capture the ideasList every idea, the odd ones too. You can combine this technique with brainstorming.
How to run this warm-up
Prepare cards, dice or photos, explain why a random stimulus works, and make sure ideas get written down.
A vague stimulus sets associations in motion. The prompts are deliberately open and leave the solution to you.
Oblique Strategies, Story Dice or random photos from Wikimedia and Unsplash all work on the same principle.
More sparks for ideas
If you enjoyed this way of thinking, we have plenty more!
The Design Thinking Lab is a team that teaches methods of creative problem solving. We show how to ask better questions, look at a problem from an unexpected angle and test ideas in action before they swallow months of work. We run classes and workshops at universities, companies and institutions. And on our site we share plenty of inspiration for free!
Marlena Gołębiowska
Marcin Bielicki
Grzegorz Kwiatkowski
