Searching for Inspiration: An In-Depth Look at Designers Example Finding Practices

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scarlett R. Miller ◽  
Brian P. Bailey
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Design Problem ◽  
User Behavior ◽  
Design Task ◽  
Design Fixation ◽  
Retrieval Processes ◽  
Design Ideas

Designers frequently use examples during the design process as a way to provide a visual framework, allow for re-interpretation and allow for evaluation of design ideas. Although the use of examples is an important part of the design process, little is known about how designers retrieve these examples or the characteristics of the example set designers collect for a given project. Knowledge of this behavior is important, as research has shown that using examples too similar to the design problem or too familiar to the designer can cause design fixation and hinder creativity. Therefore, the current study was conducted to provide insights into these example retrieval processes by monitoring 18 professional designers during a 90-minute design task complemented by surveys and interviews for an in-depth understanding of user behavior. We relate our results to research on design fixation and provide implications for the development of example finding tools.

USING THE DIGITAL CONTEXT TO OVERCOME DESIGN FIXATION: A STRATEGY TO EXPAND STUDENTS’ DESIGN THINKING

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 228
Author(s):  
Han Hee Choi ◽  
Mi Jeong Kim
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Creative Design ◽  
Design Task ◽  
Design Fixation ◽  
Digital World ◽  
Team Based Learning ◽  
Physical Limitations ◽  
Design Ideas ◽  
Creative Design Process

Design fixation has been described as a lack of flexibility in relation to a limited set of design ideas. This study empirically sought to use different strategies to overcome various forms of design fixation. As strategic approaches to negating design fixation, a digital world that has no physical limitations was selected as a thinking expansion motif and an abstract task was given as a design problem. It was anticipated that combining limitlessness of the digital world with an abstract design task would break design fixation, leading to a creative design process. The results supported the usefulness of the adopted strategies. The combination of the digital context and the design task overcame participants’ design fixation and encouraged the creative design process by generating thinking expansion. Further, combining ‘Team Based Learning’ and an ‘abstract design task in a digital context’ led to natural brainstorming and problem solving that exhibited co-evolution. In conclusion, the digital context is one of promising strategies that could be used as a thinking motif to expand students’ design thinking and promote ‘creativity’ in education.

scholarly journals Uncovering early indicators of fixation during the concept development stage of children’s design processes

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 951-972 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Schut ◽  
Remke Klapwijk ◽  
Mathieu Gielen ◽  
Fenne van Doorn ◽  
Marc de Vries
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Creative Thinking ◽  
Idea Generation ◽  
Development Stage ◽  
Concept Development ◽  
Primary School Children ◽  
Design Processes ◽  
Design Fixation ◽  
Design Ideas ◽  
Early Indicators

Abstract In this paper, we explore the early indicators of design fixation occurring during the concept development stage of children’s design processes. This type of fixation, which we named: concept fixation, causes a blind adherence to the current (possibly unfavourable) state of a design idea. Its occurrence hampers the creative thinking processes present in a design process, which in turn stagnates the development of initial design ideas into final designs. Until now, research on design fixation has mainly focussed on creative idea generation in the early phases of the design process through analysing (intermediate) design ideas and completed artefacts. However, children’s fixation behaviours might be identified at an earlier moment through the conversations that take place in the classroom about their design ideas. To this end, we present a case study in which we explored early indicators of concept fixation of a group of 24 primary school children (ages 9–11) carrying out a co-design project. Fixation was observed through the manner in which the design teams responded to questions and comments from their peers and the client. Four categories of response behaviours indicating concept fixation emerged from the verbal data, namely: ‘band-aids’, ‘already-in-there’, ‘question-not-relevant’ and ‘it’s-not-possible’. We expect that the indicators will be helpful in identifying concept fixation during the design process, especially in an educational context. The process of identification of fixation, and reflecting on it, creates awareness. This is considered as an important step by professional designers towards guarding oneself from fixation episodes in future projects, and thus being more creative.

scholarly journals Triple-Helix Structured Model Based on Problem-Knowledge-Solution Co-evolution for Innovative Product Design Process

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Qian Hui ◽  
Yan Li ◽  
Ye Tao ◽  
Hongwei Liu
Keyword(s):  
Product Design ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Design Problem ◽  
Triple Helix ◽  
Problem Solution ◽  
Innovative Product ◽  
Innovative Design ◽  
Structured Model ◽  
Knowledge Spaces ◽  
Product Design Process

AbstractA design problem with deficient information is generally described as wicked or ill-defined. The information insufficiency leaves designers with loose settings, free environments, and a lack of strict boundaries, which provides them with more opportunities to facilitate innovation. Therefore, to capture the opportunity behind the uncertainty of a design problem, this study models an innovative design as a composite solving process, where the problem is clarified and resolved from fuzziness to satisfying solutions by interplay among design problems, knowledge, and solutions. Additionally, a triple-helix structured model for the innovative product design process is proposed based on the co-evolution of the problem, solution, and knowledge spaces, to provide designers with a distinct design strategy and method for innovative design. The three spaces interact and co-evolve through iterative mappings, including problem structuring, knowledge expansion, and solution generation. The mappings carry the information processing and decision-making activities of the design, and create the path to satisfying solutions. Finally, a case study of a reactor coolant flow distribution device is presented to demonstrate the practicability of this model and the method for innovative product design.

scholarly journals PEER DESIGNERS AS STRONG INFLUENCERS ON THE DESIGN PROCESS OF FOOD STARTUPS

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 2409-2418
Author(s):  
Summer D. Jung ◽  
Erika Perttunen ◽  
Senni Kirjavainen ◽  
Tua Björklund ◽  
Sohyeong Kim
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Design Research ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Peer Influences ◽  
Design Team ◽  
Food And Beverage ◽  
Design Ideas ◽  
Different Sources ◽  
Positive Effect

AbstractAs design research expands its horizon, there has been a recent rise in studies on nontraditional designers. Previous studies have noted the positive effect of diversity in generating ideas. Among different sources of influence, peers outside the design team have been noted for their positive impact on the design process, yet the research on this topic is still in its early stages. Using qualitative data from 40 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the American and Finnish food and beverage industries, the current study examines their interactions with other SMEs, shedding light on the influence of peers on creating new design solutions. The findings suggest that peer companies can act as a frequent and impactful source of inspiration for product design ideas. The most prevalent forms of interaction were co-creating products, sharing information, and sharing ingredients. Furthermore, the interactions were voluntary, organic, and improvisational in nature, and physical proximity or previous connections often initiated the interactions. Taken together, a great number of peer influences contributed towards creative new solutions.

A systematic approach to design task-specific ionic liquids and their optimal operating conditions

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fah Keen Chong ◽  
Dominic C. Y. Foo ◽  
Fadwa T. Eljack ◽  
Mert Atilhan ◽  
Nishanth G. Chemmangattuvalappil
Keyword(s):  
Ionic Liquid ◽  
Ionic Liquids ◽  
Design Problem ◽  
Systematic Approach ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Optimal Operating ◽  
Design Task

The contribution of this work is the introduction to identification of optimal operating conditions when simultaneously solving an ionic liquid design problem.

Categorization of Information Loss During the Dissemination of Design Ideas

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria Zhao ◽  
Conrad S. Tucker
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Information Source ◽  
Information Loss ◽  
Design Solution ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Comprehensive Review ◽  
Engineering Design Process ◽  
Design Idea ◽  
Design Ideas

Information is transferred through a process consisting of an information source, a transmitter, a channel, a receiver and its destination. Unfortunately, during different stages of the engineering design process, there is a risk of a design idea or solution being incorrectly interpreted due to the nonlinearity of engineering design. I.e., there are many ways to communicate a single design idea or solution. This paper provides a comprehensive review and categorization of the possible sources of information loss at different stages of the engineering design process. Next, the authors present an approach that seeks to minimize information loss during certain stages of the engineering design process. The paper i) explores design process and dissemination methods in engineering design; ii) reviews prior work pertaining to these stages of the engineering design process and iii) proposes an information entropy metric that designers can utilize in order to quantify information loss at different stages of the engineering design process. Knowledge gained from this work will aid designers in selecting a suitable dissemination solution needed to effectively achieve a design solution.

Investigating the Use of Large-Scale Immersive Computing Environments in Collaborative Design

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meisha Rosenberg ◽  
Judy M. Vance
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Collaborative Design ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Design Teams ◽  
Team Members ◽  
3D Cad ◽  
Cad Models ◽  
Computing Environments ◽  
Design Ideas ◽  
Human Motions

Successful collaborative design requires in-depth communication between experts from different disciplines. Many design decisions are made based on a shared mental model and understanding of key features and functions before the first prototype is built. Large-Scale Immersive Computing Environments (LSICEs) provide the opportunity for teams of experts to view and interact with 3D CAD models using natural human motions to explore potential design configurations. This paper presents the results of a class exercise where student design teams used an LSICE to examine their design ideas and make decisions during the design process. The goal of this research is to gain an understanding of (1) whether the decisions made by the students are improved by full-scale visualizations of their designs in LSICEs, (2) how the use of LSICEs affect the communication of students with collaborators and clients, and (3) how the interaction methods provided in LSICEs affect the design process. The results of this research indicate that the use of LSICEs improves communication among design team members.

Developing Design Requirements from Cognitive Task Data: Replacing Magic with Methodology

1998 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 291-294
Author(s):  
Christopher R. Hale ◽  
Anna L. Rowe
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Interaction Design ◽  
Interface Design ◽  
Design Problem ◽  
Cognitive Task ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Ecological Interface Design ◽  
Engineering Data ◽  
User Data ◽  
Design Requirements

This symposium addresses the challenge of translating user data to specifications suitable for interface development. Four methodologies will be presented: Decision requirements tables, ecological interface design, object-view and interaction design and procedural networks. These four methodologies will be contrasted relative to three dimensions: (1) type of data used in analysis, (2) point in the design process at which each methodology focuses its impact and (3) the formalisms each uses for translating psychological data into engineering data suitable for specification development. Our introductory remarks will elaborate on these three dimensions, and present an example design problem. The four session participants then will present their respective methodologies, how each addresses the three dimensions and how each can be used to address the example design problem.

A Comparison of Variety Metrics in Engineering Design

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Henderson ◽  
Kevin Helm ◽  
Kathryn Jablokow ◽  
Seda McKilligan ◽  
Shanna Daly ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Problem ◽  
Mechanical Engineering ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Solution Space ◽  
New Variety ◽  
Early Stages ◽  
Correlation Analyses ◽  
Design Ideas

This paper focuses on comparing and contrasting methods for assessing the variety of a group of design ideas. Variety is an important attribute of design ideas, because it indicates the extent to which the solution space has been explored. There is a greater likelihood of successfully solving a design problem when a more diverse set of ideas is generated in the early stages of design. While there are three existing metrics for variety, it has not been established how well they correlate with each other, so it is unknown whether they provide similar assessments of variety. This uncertainty inspired our investigation of the three existing metrics and, eventually, the development of a new variety metric — all of which we compared statistically and qualitatively. In particular, 104 design ideas collected from 29 sophomore mechanical engineering students were analyzed using the existing and new variety metrics. We conducted correlation analyses to determine if the four metrics were related and to what degree. We also considered the qualitative differences among these metrics, along with where they might be used most effectively. We found varying levels of statistically significant correlations among the four metrics, indicating that they are dependent. Even so, each metric offers a unique perspective on variety and may be useful in different situations.

Design Solutions Guided by User Behavior

2017 ◽  
pp. 138-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariam Ahmed Elhussein
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
General Framework ◽  
User Behavior ◽  
Systems Design ◽  
Structured Design ◽  
Design Solutions

Tagging systems design is often neglected despite the fact that most system designers agree on the importance of tagging. They are viewed as part of a larger system which receives most of the attention. There is no agreed method when it comes to either analyzing existing tagging systems or designing new ones. There is a need to establish a well-structured design process that can be followed to create tagging systems with a purpose. This chapter uses practical inquiry methodology to generate a general framework that can be applied to analyze tagging systems and proceeds to suggest a design process that can be followed to create new tagging systems. Existing user behavior while tagging is the main guide for the methodology.

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