Idea Dice Tool

Spark better ideas with EDIT Design Thinking^®

Idea Dice is a hands-on creative tool developed by C-Academy to help learners move past “blank page” moments and generate stronger solutions with structure, speed, and confidence. Designed for non-designers, it turns ideation into an engaging, repeatable classroom experience.

A simple tool for better ideas, faster

What is the Idea Dice Tool?

Across many projects, we noticed the same challenge: people often get stuck at the point of generating a “solution”. Idea Dice was created to remove that barrier. It is a practical tool developed by C-Academy to support problem-solving and ideation, while keeping teams energised and contributing.

What's inside

Storage Box

for classroom use and easy transport

9 Icon-Based Dice

spanning key ideation lenses (grouped into 3 categories)

Instructions Sheet

for quick facilitation

How It Works

Roll. Interpret. Connect.

Idea Dice contains nine dice topics split into three categories. You can facilitate it with a structured template, or invite learners to interpret icons freely and justify their thinking.

Demographics

Helps learners identify who they are designing for, and consider different groups, roles, and community contexts when shaping solutions.

Users

Occupations

Society

Psychographics

Guides learners to think about motivations, values, feelings, and needs, so ideas are not just “cool”, but relevant and human-centred.

Senses

Emotions

Needs

Things

Prompts learners to imagine situations, objects, and constraints, so they can create more concrete, buildable ideas grounded in a real context.

Shapes

Platforms

Resources

How Idea Dice strengthens EDIT Design Thinking^®

Idea Dice is most powerful when paired with EDIT Design Thinking^®. As learners roll, interpret, and combine icons, they practise moving from observations to clear problem focus, then into tangible concepts they can explain, prototype, and refine. This makes ideation more inclusive for mixed-ability learners while keeping the process rigorous and outcomes-oriented.

Sharpening Focus Through Prompted Perspectives

Idea Dice helps learners move beyond vague problem statements to clear, human-centred frames. Better idea framing leads to stronger concepts and reduces idea dilution during prototyping and testing.

Expanding Possibilities with Structured Randomness

Idea Dice accelerates idea fluency by giving students “idea seeds” so that the workshop can achieve richer diversity of ideas, faster ideation cycles, and stronger idea candidate directions to converge upon.

Three categories of Idea Dice: Demographics, Psychographics, Things

Clearer Concept Communication

Idea Dice helps learners ground their ideas in meaningful stories before prototyping, enhancing empathy and communication. This enables learners to articulate better solutions with stronger context, richer empathy, and clearer value to users.

Learning Outcomes in Numbers

84 %

Of students felt more confident solving difficult problems after the Methodist Girls’ School programme, up from 65% before the workshops.

89 %

Achieved good design thinking understanding after the workshop, rising from 47% pre-programme.

97.74 %

Of participants find team collaboration easy by the end of their workshop, a great increase from 57.14%.

Watch How to Use It

“I see myself growing by developing my creativity, as this experience challenges me to think outside the box and generate innovative solutions.”

Shalane W.,
Student of Ngee Ann Secondary School

“I am more confident in solving a problem in a much more in-depth manner.”

Sembawang Secondary School Students

“Through design thinking, I have learned to put myself in others’ shoes, allowing me to come up with solutions that are more empathetic and responsive to their needs.”

Nor H.,
Educator of Ngee Ann Secondary School