Design Sparks

Design Sparks is an innovative web app that helps users brainstorm fresh design ideas by combining artificial intelligence with established creative problem-solving methods.

Created by The National Centre for Creativity enabled by AI (CebAI), Design Sparks empowers users to tackle design challenges in a fun and interactive way. You can easily feed the app your design problems or concepts by typing them out, pasting in a link, or even uploading a PDF file. Once you've entered your info, the AI kicks into gear and generates what we like to call "sparks"—these are your new design ideas. You can save these sparks to revisit later, ensuring that great ideas are always at your fingertips.

What’s really neat is that you can refine your brainstorming process. If you want to explore a particular line of thinking, just click on the topics that catch your interest, and the AI will come up with even more ideas based on your chosen spark. Plus, you have the flexibility to adjust settings to analyze themes that are either rare, common, or totally random. This makes it easy to focus on exactly what you're curious about, whether that’s brainstorming or simply exploring creative avenues.

As we look forward to a world that's more sustainable, circular design becomes incredibly important. Design Sparks is here to support your creative thinking specifically around creating products that help reduce waste and pollution. It encourages the design of durable, reusable, repairable, and recyclable items. Recently, at the Design for Planet Festival 2023, a new feature was introduced that allows the AI to generate ideas specifically for circular designs. This was developed alongside experts from organizations like the Design Council and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, so you can trust you're tapping into top-notch expertise. To get started with this circular design feature, simply head to the theme settings, select the circular design option, and hit save.

Unlike chatbots like ChatGPT, Design Sparks stands out with its interactive creativity prompts and a wealth of curated knowledge and insights. This app was built with a clear intention: to boost creativity and productivity among the workforce, helping users improve their competitiveness and critical thinking skills. The project received funding from Research England, along with support from City, University of London, and over 20 industry partners totaling £7.6 million. After the grant ends in 2024, Design Sparks plans to sustain itself through licensing and consultancy services.

In a nutshell, Design Sparks is an incredibly useful resource for service, product, UX/UI designers, and anyone involved in the design process. It’s a fantastic way to bounce around ideas, discover new viewpoints, and explore numerous possibilities—all in one user-friendly app.