Design is one of the occupations that is unapologetic about its dependency on the good services of a mysterious Muse--the Greek goddess of Greek in charge of inspiration--shown in the following image.

In Greek, the word mousa means "art" or "poetry" and according to ancient Greek mythology, the muses were the daughters of Zeus, the "head" god of Olympus, and Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory. Throughout the ages, the muses, who in antiquity encompassed nearly all aspects of learning and creation became, in our times, explicitly associated with creativity.

The business reality means that the need for the inspiration, or rather, the need for exploration of design ideas, is real. Most designers are methodical in their exploration process, using various techniques to iterate and refine through various experimentations.

In design, there are multiple viable approaches to the same problem, but the mix of circumstances that leads to the creation of these options is part art and part science. The blending of art and science is fuzzy and, excitingly, unpredictable--which is one reason design and designers--justifiably or not--enjoy special privileges. They know how to materialize the full experience potential in a product that might otherwise be dull and uninspiring.

The following section is meant to provide a small sample of techniques that are used--with some variation--for the generation and evaluation of design ideas. The methods combine speed, spontaneity, evaluation, and the scoring of multiple concepts and to narrow down to a successful design candidate.