Constraints, Ironically, Help Produce More Ideas

In the book Made to Stick, the authors ask the readers to go through a mind exercise. They ask readers to write down all the white things they can think of in 15 seconds. Then they ask readers to write down all the white things inside their refrigerator. The authors say that people produce a longer list of white things when they start thinking about things inside a refrigerator.

I tried this at work last year. In my experience of designing several software products using tens of prototypes, I found that I was able to produce more and better ideas when I started thinking mobile first.