Setting a brief is hard. Make it too simple and lazy people will do lazy work. Good (unlazy) people will always make a brief work for them. But if a brief has too much detail it becomes too prescriptive. I have always got good results from simple briefs.
Briefs like: "Time" (make a timepiece), or "What can you do with a scanner?" (other than scan). These briefs led to fantastic and very varied projects, some of them into much bigger projects. They give people a chance to let their hair down. They involve little research and can be done in a very short time (a week or two). Short projects are very beneficial to everyone; they give people a break from longer projects, stir up creative juices and allow new and very temporary collaborations. Setting a brief like this depends on what the group has been doing before. Do they need a rest? A challenge? Need to get some new tech under their belt? Weird briefs like "Design the Perfect Crime" and "Design a Sport" have worked well too.
I did once set: "Get on TV" as a three day project and everyone succeeded. All it needs is teamwork and imagination.
Longer projects need more meat and are best divided into sections with discrete outcomes. Research, design, testing, refinement, presentation. Also longer projects can involve more complex issues that need more research and give you a chance to meet and talk to real people, both experts in the field and everyday folk.
Rory Hamilton 2005
When working with businesses to create a brief for students it is really important to find a common ground, explain the educational needs and let trust develop. "Give us an open enough brief and we'll give you results you'd never have imagined".
I would never set a brief, which was only about learning new technology. That's dull and doesn't get anybody anywhere fast. Tie the new tech into an issue that it might not at first seem to match. Make it a challenge.
I also believe that briefs can be awkward and still teach everyone a lot. I have set my occupations/technology brief several times in various locations over the last three years. It involved giving groups an occupation and a new/old tech. So a fireman might be paired with a scanner, a priest with a fax, or a dog with a camera. Some people think "oh, but fireman and camera would be better", but where is the challenge? From these projects you don't necessarily get great designs, but that is not the point. If by doing the project you get to meet new and unusual users and discuss their needs and ideas you have learned tons more than just designing a fireproof camera for a fireman. You can take what you've learned and apply it to other (and maybe more realistic) projects.
Good people bend briefs well, they twist the meaning to suit their interests, but not everyone can do this. Be careful, judge your audience, bend briefs, don't break them.
If you decide to do your own brief, write it down, show it to people or it will get too amorphous and will run through your fingers. If you think you know better you have to prove it.
Lastly two things: the best way to fail anything is to not hand in anything (just handing something in gets you somewhere) and....there is no such thing as an impossible brief (test me if you want). It's all down to how you interpret them.
