I tried to create a coffee mug with a napkin holder attached. I definitely struggled with the “useless” approach because I spent too much time thinking about how to define “useless.” My initial thought process is should this product be useless in the kitchen or useless in general? It’s hard to think of something generally useless because you can always find a use for an item, even if it isn’t an important use. In David Kelley’s TED Talk, he discusses creative confidence. I think I lacked creative confidence in this exercise because I was too caught up in this thought process and didn’t feel creative.

After I presented my idea in class, the professor said “why not just put a hole in the bottom of the mug?” I realized I clearly overthought the exercise. Sticking with the mug and napkin idea, I thought to create a mug with a napkin as the bottom rather than a solid material. This would be useless because the napkin would likely rip and cause a mess if a solid or liquid product were in the mug. This would essentially have the same outcome of a mug with a hole in the bottom, but is an iteration of my original idea rather than a totally new idea.