Russ 'n Gaz's ideas

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Forward thinking ideas to usher in the age of innovation

If you want to use any of the ideas you see on this site then feel free. They are good and we think that society needs all the creativity it can get. Go ahead. We don't want the ownership or the hassle. Confusion and stress exists in those places. If you have success with them then you can donate to the forthcoming Gareth Horbury Foundation, which intends to promote and support mental health for all through creative thought. For more details contact me on 07821 742 023.

Personalised Top Trumps

the inspiration

I currently work in the School of Education at the University of Wolverhampton. I have done some work creating research and development profiles for the staff who are obliged to do research and development work. Anyway, the other day I saw one of the members of staff at a desk and it looked like there were a pack of cards on the table. Top Trumps came to mind, I suppose because they are a card game, and I got the image of all of the academic researchers on the cards. I imagined their research credentials listed as the fields, such as number of papers published this year, number of total papers published, years as an active researcher, qualification (BA, MSc, Dr, Prof etc). I thought it would be funny if they were intermingled with normal fields like height or age. Then you'd get the top researcher losing to the least qualified, becuase he's shorter.

the idea

Personalised Top Trumps for all purposes, mainly personal, for friend groups, families etc.

You go to a website where you enter the fields for your Top Trump cards and upload photos of the people (or whatever) involved. The fields could be anything:

- height

- weight

- number of relationships

- longest ever relationship

- Self-confidence on a scale of 1 to 10

- IQ

- Number of languages spoken

- 100m sprint time

- Salary

- etc, etc, etc...

The options are endless for what you use.

Personalisation of things like this has many benefits for groups. Having fun and getting to know each other better at the same time. This means the idea would be great for scenarios like the classroom where people don't know each other so well.

Another great use would be in the workplace, for colleagues to get to know each other and bond more effectively.

In fact, it would serve as a great icebreaker in most situations. It's also always fun in a nostialgic way to have personalised items. They represent a particular period in the lives of those involved.