Idea - Typically, I don't even realize that I've completed the Inspiration step until I've already come up with my idea. I have to analyze the idea to understand where it came from. The idea step is when you take the object of your inspiration and flesh out a general plan of what you would like to do with it. This plan is typically pie-in-the-sky, and potentially impossible to fully realize.
Concept - In this step, you take your idea and think out what would be involved in creating it within the timeframe you would like to complete it by. In this step, you rough out the work and will likely end up taking away pieces of the idea that you believe are not truly necessary to the core "goals" of it so as to make it more reasonable to create. At this point you have likely envisioned your Product to look like/feel like/be/etc.
Trial - This is the first step to willing your Concept into existence. Taking the steps you've fleshed out in the Concept step, you try to create what you feel your final Product should be. Depending on how broadly you envisioned your Product, this step may involve creating "rough drafts" that are dramatically different from one another in look and feel but share the same ideals.
Refine - Here you take the draft(s) created and examine it/them. Do they live up to the ideals of your object(s) of Inspiration? Do they feel as if they were borne of your Idea? Once you've answered those questions, you determine whether the answers suggest you polish one of the drafts, combine elements of the drafts, or go back to the Trial step.
Product - The only real creative acts in this steps are reflective. Once your Idea has been realized in a product you ask yourself questions: "Am I happy with this?", "What could I have done differently?", etc. Typically the answers to these questions won't affect the Product, but will help you continue to refine your process.
I like the "equation" for the most part. The only change I would make would be to have Inspiration be a "sub-step" of the Idea, as in my workflow I've really never been cognizant of the Inspiration until the Idea has either started to form or is fully formed.
I don't agree with the black and white demarcation of New Media vs. Art; primarily because I consider Art a subset of New Media. I equate "New Media" with Designs which I consider to be Art with an outward-facing purpose. Of course, now that I look at how I just described New Media, I essentially just agreed with it. Designers make things that are going to be used by other people, so they have to think of them while making them. However, good products/designs/etc. are not dictated solely by what the intended audience will think, otherwise it would just be gray, unrecognizable, paste.
In my workflow, a New Media person can't start with the Product unless (s)he has already created it. The difference between an artist and a designer in regards to the workflow is the idea does not have to be something that people will be able to interact with unless you're a designer. However, that does not mean that the designer's idea is going to be the same as the product. Often, it will be the perfect version of itself, something that will fit the audience's every need, and be stylish/attractive at the same time. By the Concept step, though, the designer will have grounded the concept into something that will be reasonable to create.
For my test-case of my workflow, I created a concept-design for what I think a tablet computer running an operating system similar to Windows Phone 7 would look like.
The inspirational factor for this project was the design philosophy Microsoft used to create the aesthetics of Windows Phone 7: what they call Metro. They looked at the current UI paradigm and abstracted all of its elements to its simplest forms. Metro dictates that "buttons" are squares/rectangles with text or an icon in them. No faux-3D effects, just the base shape. Microsoft says it's "authentically digital" which is marketing bullshit for "we're pretty sure you know how to use a button."
The idea(l) was to create a functional mock-up of this imaginary device. Sadly, I did not have the time to learn and implement the knowledge necessary to program even a simple mockup of what I had envisioned, so the concept became just an image.
The trial/refinement process involved me deciding what design elements of Windows Phone 7 would suit a horizontally-focused orientation as well as additional screen real estate, as well as making adjustments to placement, sizing, and content of the filler content.
I'm not convinced that thinking through the process and trying to work through it made any major impact on the result. I'm happy with the Product, but I don't feel "proud" of the workflow. I feel like being inspired by an already existing thing is bullshit, but I also know that it is nigh-impossible (if not just truly impossible) to have a truly immaculate idea with zero link to an existing product/idea/etc. However, I'm terrible asshole to myself when it comes to my work, so I decided to try another creation.
This was inspired by being brutally tired this morning. Due to the strong genes on my mother's side of the family, she and I both have a reputation of looking more tired (or even angry) than we actually feel. So I decided a picture of my face could possibly demonstrate my physical and mental state.
To my surprise, I didn't appear to look as tired as I feel, so I did a little touch up in photoshop to increase the "tiredness." I did not intend to have text with the image, but the phrase was a thought that came into my head this morning, and I felt it fit my concept well. I didn't want to separate the text from the picture in an obvious way, so I had originally tried just placing the white text where it is without any background.
However, I knew that I would probably feel obligated to present my work, and figured the white-on-gray wouldn't hold up so well with the jacked-up contrast of a projector, so I attempted to recreate the effect in Photoshop to see if I was right. Indeed I was, so I added a black background to the text with some modifications to let it "blend" in better. In the end, I'm not terribly thrilled with the final Product, although I imagine the knowledge of the amount of work is skewing things for me. I am however, happier with the Inspiration/Idea side of the workflow on this project.
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