Justin Achilli put up a great blog post yesterday—“Worldbuilding: Keep It Weird, Part Two”—about a 90/10 technique for spinning creative projects in a way that helps you hit both “accessible” and “intriguing,” which is always a bedevilingly shifty target.
The 90/10 rule states that when executing a given concept, 90 percent of that concept should be what your audience expects, and 10 percent should twist that expectation or provide a permutation that throws the situation for a loop.
Check it out.