Specifics of the color solution of the modern coworking center

The purpose of the article is to determine the features of the color component of interior design and to identify the aesthetic and artistic features of the color scheme of a modern work area on the example of the capital's coworking centers. Methodology. Art and art analysis in the aspect of design creativity is applied; structural-semiotic analysis, which involves the identification of symbolic, differentiating functions that are embedded in the color of the interior of the coworking center; the method of structural analysis, which contributed to the study of sign systems of the color of the interior of coworking centers with the decoding of the meanings embedded in them; method of comparative analysis, which establishes common features in the perception of color by modern man, identified the characteristics of the role of color in the interior design of the workspace. Scientific novelty. The semantic significance of color in the interior design of a coworking space is studied; the informativeness of color is analyzed on the basis of three parameters (tone, saturation, and brightness); the compositional and decorative function of color is considered; the aesthetic and artistic features of the color scheme of the modern work area are revealed on the example of Kyiv coworking centers and the priority color scale is determined, which contributes to the increase of working capacity. Conclusions. The basis of color perception – physiological, psychological, and aesthetic factors that determine color associations, semantics, and symbolism of color – are ancient archetypes formed under the influence of socio-economic and sacred factors. A variety of color harmonies are widely used in modern workspaces, in the process of organizing production processes, to create psychological accents that improve performance and reduce fatigue. In the context of coworking center design, the approach to color interior design is based primarily on the desire to create an atmosphere that promotes positive emotions, inspires workers to cooperate and productivity. The study found that the rich creative source of the artistic image of the interior of the coworking center is played by archetypes, which involve the image-associative thinking of designers. The color component is not limited to the characteristic scales that meet the latest trends – it is much wider and demonstrates the diversity of design searches. Key words: coworking center, interior design, colors, semantics, color, working capacity.

Development of the Theory and Practice of Higher Education Innovatics

Most of the innovative changes in higher education in relation to academic capitalism are based on market principles. The aim of the article is to further study and determine the innovative directions of the reform of higher education. For this, it is necessary to create and implement a scientific and applied system that combines theoretical and practical approaches to the innovative development of higher education. The authors propose the further development of a new scientific direction in the field of higher education - “innovatics of higher education”. Theoretical foundations and practical issues of higher education innovatics include innovative changes in a number of activities. The main of these activities are: teaching, training and study; R&D, engineering, IT and technologies development, projects activity and design creativity; financial and economic support of the educational process, R&D, activities development and business expanses; inventive and patent-licensing activities, technology transfer, academic/university entrepreneurship; cultural and moral development, upbringing of cultural, moral and human values; sports, recreational, festive and extracurricular activities including other types of universities activities. Thus, innovatics of higher education includes innovative changes in almost all areas of higher education to enhance the quality training of professionals and responsible citizens of the modern community. More over innovations can guarantee financial independence, economic stability and competitiveness for a university development. This will be useful both for reforming the higher education systems and for universities R&D in Ukraine and other countries.

Is group work beneficial for producing creative designs in STEM design education?

Creativity is a significant element in design education, and frequently a significant competency during recruitment for design professions. Group work and individual work are widely employed in higher education. Many studies have highlighted the merits of employing group work in design education, cultivating collaborative design abilities and fostering sought-after employability skills. Although the benefits of group work in design practice and education are widely recognised, few studies have shown evidence that group work outperforms individual work regarding creative design activities in higher education contexts. Therefore, the aim of this research is to explore whether group or individual work is more beneficial for fostering students in generating creative designs in STEM design education. A case study, involving two cohorts of second-year undergraduate students studying a UK Engineering degree Industrial Design programme, is reported. The case study compares the design outputs produced by the two cohorts tackling the same design challenge in a product design module but employing individual and group work, respectively. The case study results show that no significant differences have been found between the design outputs produced by group work and individual work, considering novelty, usefulness and overall creativity. Further analysis reveals that a student’s academic performance is not significantly related to the level of creativity of the design produced. This research indicates design educators should employ both group and individual work to complement each other in design education, and suggests potential solutions to enhance students’ design creativity.

Can Induced Gratitude Improve Creative Performance on Repurposing Tasks?

Urgent societal problems, including climate change, require innovation and can benefit from interdisciplinary solutions. A small body of research has demonstrated the potential of positive emotions (e.g., gratitude, awe) to promote creativity and prosocial behavior, which may help address these problems. This study integrates, for the first time, psychology research on a positive and prosocial emotion (i.e., gratitude) with engineering-design creativity research. In a pre-registered study design, engineering students and working engineers (pilot N = 49; full study N = 329) completed gratitude, positive-emotion control, or neutral-control inductions. Design creativity was assessed through rater scores of responses to an Alternate Uses Task (AUT) and a Wind-Turbine-Blade Repurposing Task (WRT). No significant differences among AUT scores emerged across conditions in either sample. While only the pilot-study manipulation of gratitude was successful, WRT results warrant further studies on the effect of gratitude on engineering-design creativity. The reported work may also inform other strategies to incorporate prosocial emotion to help engineers arrive at more original and effective concepts to tackle environmental sustainability, and in the future, other problems facing society.

Can Gratitude Promote More Creative Engineering Design?

Urgent societal problems, including climate change, require innovation, and can benefit from interdisciplinary solutions. A small body of research has demonstrated the potential of positive emotions (e.g., gratitude, awe) to promote creativity and prosocial behavior, which may help address these problems. This study integrates, for the first time, psychology research on a positive and prosocial emotion (i.e., gratitude) with engineering-design creativity research. In a pre-registered study design, engineering students and working engineers (pilot N = 49; full study N = 329) completed gratitude, positive-emotion control, or neutral-control inductions. Design creativity was assessed through rater scores of responses to an Alternate Uses Task (AUT) and a Wind-Turbine-Blade Repurposing Task (WRT). No significant differences among AUT scores emerged across conditions in either sample. While only the pilot-study manipulation of gratitude was successful, WRT results warrant further studies on the effect of gratitude on engineering-design creativity. The reported work may also inform other strategies to incorporate prosocial emotion to help engineers arrive at more original and effective concepts to tackle environmental sustainability, and in the future, other problems facing society.

Break It Down: Comparing the Effects of Lecture- and Module-Style Design for Additive Manufacturing Educational Interventions on Students’ Learning and Creativity

Given the growing presence of additive manufacturing (AM) processes in engineering design and manufacturing, there has emerged an increased interest in introducing AM and design for AM (DfAM) educational interventions in engineering education. Several researchers have proposed AM and DfAM educational interventions; however, some argue that these efforts might not be sufficient to develop higher-level skills among engineers (e.g., identifying design opportunities that leverage AM capabilities). Prior work has shown that longer, distributed educational interventions are more effective in encouraging learning and information retention; however, these interventions could also be time-consuming and expensive to implement. Therefore, there is a need to test the effectiveness of longer, distributed DfAM educational interventions compared to shorter, lecture-style interventions. Our aim in this research is to explore this research gap through an experimental study. Specifically, we compared two variations of a DfAM educational intervention: (1) a module-style intervention spread over two sessions with the introduction of DfAM evaluation metrics, and (2) a lecture-style intervention completed in a single session with no evaluation metrics introduced. From our results, we see that students who received the module-style intervention reported a greater increase in their DfAM self-efficacy. Additionally, students who received the module-style intervention reported having given a greater emphasis on part consolidation and feature size. Finally, we observe that the structure of the educational intervention did not influence the creativity of ideas generated by the participants. These findings highlight the utility of module-style DfAM educational interventions towards increasing DfAM self-efficacy, but not necessarily design creativity. Moreover, these findings highlight the need to formulate educational interventions that are effective and efficient.