Factors of Design Problem-Solving and Their Contribution to Creativity

2008 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-60
Author(s):  
Hernan Casakin
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Design Problem ◽  
Creative Thinking ◽  
Architectural Design ◽  
Main Concern ◽  
Unique Contribution ◽  
Design Problems ◽  
Housing Design ◽  
Design Creativity ◽  
Major Factors

Design problems are unique, complex, and ambiguous. They are considered to be non-routine and ill-structured. Since these kinds of problems require the production of innovative solutions, design problem-solving involves creative thinking. Creativity is concerned with the capacity to restructure old ideas to produce novel solutions, and the ability to search for unusual design alternatives that transcend the known and familiar. In the recent years, there were attempts to gain insight in problem-solving activities that demand creativity, such as design. A question addressed in the current empirical research is how design students assess creativity in architectural design while solving housing problems. Redefining the role of housing in the contemporary city was a main concern. Major factors of design problem-solving, and their contribution to creativity are analyzed. Results revealed that restructuring of housing design problems was the most significant factor of design problem-solving, followed by search of design solutions. Retrieval of prior knowledge from memory was the weakest factor. Furthermore, innovation was the most significant factor characterizing design creativity, followed by utility and aesthetics. Additional findings showed that restructuring of housing problems was the most correlated factor, and the predictor that had a unique contribution to all creativity factors. Search of housing solutions was a predictor that contributed mainly to innovation.

Design Fixation on Non-Verbal Stimuli: The Influence of Simple vs. Rich Pictorial Information on Design Problem-Solving

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Cardoso ◽  
Petra Badke-Schaub ◽  
Ana Luz
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Design Problem ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Design Quality ◽  
Pictorial Information ◽  
Design Problems ◽  
Verbal Stimuli ◽  
Design Fixation ◽  
External Sources ◽  
Pictorial Representations

During design problem-solving designers frequently come across a variety of rich visual displays. While browsing for different external sources of information, pictorial representations of existing concepts take a relevant prominence. However, once designers start devising new solution ideas to design problems, they often become particularly influenced by the exemplars they come across. Inadequate and excessive reuse of existing (parts of) available solutions has been described as design fixation. Such behaviour has been discussed having an impact on creativity and innovation. The study presented here investigates the influence that two different types of pictorial representations (simple and rich stimuli) of a particular solution had upon industrial design students during an ideation phase. The findings clearly demonstrate high levels of design fixation on the pictorial examples utilised. The results also show the presence of both detrimental and beneficial aspects on the quality of the ideas generated. Lastly, the outcome of this study reports on how the originality of the solutions created by the groups primed with existing solutions was significantly hindered. Reasons for the occurrence of design fixation are discussed in light of its implications to design quality and originality; and ultimately, to the use of pictorial information in design practice.

scholarly journals DESIGN PROBLEM PERCEPTION IN ENGINEERING DESIGN TEAMS

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amirali Ommi ◽  
Yong Zeng ◽  
Catharine C. Marsden
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Problem ◽  
Design Teams ◽  
Test Bed ◽  
Descriptive Model ◽  
Design Problems ◽  
Team Mental Models ◽  
Problem Perception ◽  
Design Creativity ◽  
Proposed Model

 Abstract – Engineering design is a decision making process that needs a good perception of the design problem to be solved. Design problems are usually solved in a team. Teams need the existence of a good design problem perception to create design solutions. This study provides an approach for elaborating a descriptive model to describe how the perception process works within a design team. This study is going to propose an approach for integrating a theoretical model of design creativity with team mental models, so they can be used for elaborating the descriptive model of perception in design teams. The NSERC Chair in Aerospace Design Engineering (NCADE) at Concordia University holds a capstone project which will be considered to be used as a test bed for validating proposed model through experimental analysis. Proposed experiments and further research are introduced at the end of paper.

scholarly journals THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TOLERANCE OF AMBIGUITY AND CREATIVITY IN ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN STUDIO

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 179-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naiera Ebrahim Mahmoud ◽  
Shaimaa Mohamed Kamel ◽  
Tamer Samir Hamza
Keyword(s):  
Creative Thinking ◽  
Architectural Design ◽  
Solution Space ◽  
Linear Process ◽  
Primary Concern ◽  
Tolerance Of Ambiguity ◽  
Design Creativity ◽  
Tolerance For Ambiguity ◽  
Architectural Design Studio ◽  
To Come

Creativity is a cognitive ability that enables individuals to come up with both original and functional ideas and products. As architectural design requires producing aesthetic and practically useful solutions, it is a primary concern to enhance creativity in design disciplines. Many theorists argued that design is a non-linear process and many components of design problems are not clear at the beginning. At the start of the process, designers are always working at the periphery of a solution space where there is less coherence and more ambiguity. Thus, they must deal with a lot of ambiguity in every design situation. These states of uncertainty and confusion can be annoying for architecture students. On the other hand, tolerance of ambiguity is a personality trait that has been linked to creative thinking. Therefore, this paper attempts to investigate the correlation between tolerance of ambiguity of architectural students and their creativity via a qualitative study. The researchers implemented a mixed-method approach and recruited 18 architecture students. The results from this study revealed that there is a significant correlation between students’ creative thinking abilities and their tolerance for ambiguity. Our results also indicated that there is no statistically significant correlation between students’ tolerance of ambiguity and their design creativity.

Heuristic Inventive Design Problem Solving Based on Semantic Relatedness

2014 ◽  
Vol 875-877 ◽  
pp. 968-972
Author(s):  
Wei Yan ◽  
Cecilia Zanni-Merk ◽  
François Rousselot ◽  
Denis Cavallucci ◽  
Pierre Collet
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Semantic Similarity ◽  
Design Problem ◽  
Semantic Relatedness ◽  
Level Of Detail ◽  
Knowledge Sources ◽  
Design Problems ◽  
Short Text ◽  
Design Expert

A growing number of industries feel the need of formalizing their innovation approaches. Modern innovation theories and methods use different knowledge sources for solving inventive design problems. These sources are generally about similar notions, but the level of detail of their description can be very different. We are interested in finding semantic links among these sources and developing an intelligent way of managing this knowledge, with the goal of assisting the inventive design expert during his activities. This paper explores a short text semantic similarity approach to search potential links among these sources. These links available could facilitate the retrieval for the heuristic solutions of inventive problems for TRIZ users.

The Communication Feedback Creates a Two-Winner ~ Cognitive Model for Explaining Client-Architect Interaction

2012 ◽  
Vol 430-432 ◽  
pp. 1248-1252
Author(s):  
Mei Luan Huang ◽  
Yaw Yih Wang
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Architectural Design ◽  
Cognitive Model ◽  
Design Cognition ◽  
Design Problems ◽  
Client Needs

The client is literally the start point of every architectural design. In architectural projects, complex as they are, it is unlikely that the clients would be able see all their needs from the very start. Demands and wantings float out of the surface as the design proceeds. Client-Architect meetings go on from the very start to the very end of each project. It is very likely that “client needs” also known as “design problems” to the architects may shift and change with time. Previously, research on design cognition focuses on the designer end and how they face “problem-solving”. Very often they forget these “problems” are alive. As the design progresses and grows so do client needs and demands. The goal of this research is to look into client-architect interaction in hope to conclude a cognitive model that can help us understand the dynamics.

scholarly journals Metaphors as Discourse Interaction Devices in Architectural Design

Buildings ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 52
Author(s):  
Hernan Casakin
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Design Problem ◽  
Architectural Design ◽  
Protocol Analysis ◽  
Analysis Approach ◽  
Front Edge ◽  
Levels Of Detail ◽  
Reasoning Mechanism ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Insight Into

Metaphor is a fundamental heuristic supporting cognitive and communicative requirements in design problem solving. This reasoning mechanism helps structure how architects reason about problems, and how they approach design situations from novel perspectives. This paper investigated empirically the use of metaphors during the conceptual front edge design, known as the most creative stage of the process. Figurative phenomena were analyzed in their original context of occurrence. Emerging metaphorical expressions generated during communication interactions maintained by sixty architects were identified and examined based on protocol analysis approach. Metaphors were further categorized according to main experiential domains at different levels of detail, as well as in terms of image and conceptual descriptions. The study contributed to gain a deeper insight into the rhetorical potential of metaphor during design problem solving, and to strengthen its centrality in architecture.

scholarly journals Students’ Consciousness of their Problem Solving Approaches as a Key to Creativity in Design

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 93
Author(s):  
Marwa Hassan Khalil
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Creative Thinking ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Design Problems ◽  
Problem Solving Skills ◽  
Architectural Engineering ◽  
Problem Solving Process

Architectural engineering students are constantly dealing with ill-defined and tangled design problems. Many scholars accentuated the importance of creative thinking in tackling such wicked and complex problems. Accordingly, getting engaged in an ill-defined problem solving process requires specific personality traits that are often critical to creativity and innovation in design. In that sense, architectural engineering curricula need to provide various strategies through which such individual skills can be nurtured and developed. The objective of this study is to empirically identify the different patterns of students’ approaches in solving problems and the role of group discussions in such a process. The study adopted a qualitative approach, in a live class setup, through a series of workshops to allow for in-depth exploration of the students’ problem solving skills and abilities. The intention is to help students in discovering and in being aware of their own way of solving problems and identifying its strengths and weaknesses. This is considered a core and significant step towards the improvement and development of their design thinking skills. The findings of the study have emphasized the positive impact of the cyclical behavior in the creative problem solving process and highlighted the different key issues and lessons emerging from students’ consciousness of the mental processes that occurred during this iterative process. Such awareness and consciousness of those emergent issues is expected to encourage conscious design, increase tolerance for ambiguity and improve self-confidence which are believed to dramatically help students in creatively solving ill-defined architectural design problems.

The Challenge of Complexity and Creativity Factor in Architectural Design

2012 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 38-47
Author(s):  
Saim Nalkaya
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Creative Thinking ◽  
Architectural Design ◽  
Theoretical Orientation ◽  
Underlying Structure ◽  
Problem Solver ◽  
Creative Design ◽  
Human Needs ◽  
State Of Affairs

Architectural design process is subject to ambiguities surrounding not only definition of the procedures and the flow of the process, but also the nature of the information to be analyzed. This state of affairs is generally thought to require creative thinking for solving both different aspects of the problem, and integration of the parts of the solution. Creativity is mainly explained on the basis of novelty, utility and surprise. But it is not considered to be a unitary concept. The underlying structure of the design process has been introduced by the present study in relation to the levels of the decision making concerning the process. In addition a multidimensional view of architectural design has been provided as part of creative design-solving process, based on a multi-sensory perception of architecture, human needs, designer's theoretical orientation for creativity, and incremental steps of creative problem-solving activity. The major realms of inquiry as part of the incremental steps of problem solving have been identified with reference to the study areas in professional degree programs in architecture. The model of architectural design process introduced is expected to help the problem solver interlink different parts of the solution established through creative design problem solving procedures.

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