The research objective of this Early-Concept Grant for Exploratory Research(EAGER)award is to determine the feasibility of combining elements of intuitive ideation methods with logical/experiential methods to investigate the creation of a holistic framework that will contain ideation strategies from both types. Engineering creativity lies at the intersection of originality and functional quality. A large number of structured ideation methods and tools have surfaced for enhancing engineering design creativity. They can be classified into intuitive and logical/experiential approaches, both of which have deficiencies. Intuitive and logical/experiential approaches represent opposite extremes. Given the diversity of design problems and designers, it is unlikely that the exclusive use of a single method or tool, whether intuitive, logical or experiential, would always lead to creative solutions. In this EAGER award, the feasibility of combining elements of these two approaches - intuitive ideation with logical/experiential - in order to overcome limitations of each and to expand the potentials for ideation will be explored. The foundations will be laid for a prototype Testbed for design and for creativity research. Preliminary investigations will be performed to determine if selected parts extracted from them can be combined with intuitive strategies. The experiential strategies to be included during the exploratory stage are: decomposition, abstraction, analogical reasoning, example exposure and conflict resolution. The intuitive strategies included will be: suspended judgment, incubation, provocative stimuli, action verbs and combinatorial play.
If successful, this EAGER award will be a preliminary step towards Testbeds that will provide a uniform and structured way of collecting data on creative design. This will lead to a better understanding of creative processes and strategies through empirical studies. By dissecting ideation methods, rather than using them in their entirety for empirical studies, the investigators will research at a finer granularity level (mini-strategies) for greater insights into design creativity. Studying the combination of intuitive and logical/experiential ideation in terms of how problems are posed in each and the ideation stage, problem type, designer type is unique and challenging. Success of this effort will lead to more extensive research on this topic. The impact could be extremely significant, given the importance of ideation to the engineering design process.
Holistic Ideation for Creative Design Background: Engineering creativity lies at the intersection of originality and functional quality. A large number of structured ideation methods and tools have surfaced for enhancing engineering design creativity. They can be classified into intuitive and experiential approaches. Intuitive methods claim to aid creativity by removing perceptual blocks and introducing so-called creativity enhancers. There is no guarantee that a good idea will be found or how much time it will take; the randomness of the process is claimed as its strength, opening paths to novel solutions. Conversely, logical or experiential methods, involve step-by-step problem analysis, direct use of experiential knowledge, design catalogs, repositories, general and domain specific design procedures. Convergence, time efficiency and technical quality of solutions are claimed as positives while novelty takes back stage. Intuitive and logical/experiential approaches represent opposite extremes. Given the diversity of design problems and designers, it is unlikely that the exclusive use of a single method or tool, whether intuitive, logical or experiential, would always lead to creative solutions. Research Procedure: In this exploratory project we investigated the feasibility of combining elements of intuitive ideation methods with logical/experiential methods. This involves dissecting selected ideation methods, representative of each type to extract the "mini-strategies" embedded in them. We then created a holistic framework to include ideation strategies from both types. We also implemented a pilot computer tool to serve as a prototype Testbed for design and for creativity research. The intrinsic merit of our approach is that it recognizes that designers go through many stages in conceptual design as their understanding of the design space evolves over time, which requires different ideation strategies. Therefore, it is necessary to identify and characterize such phases in generic terms and match them with effective ideation strategies. Outcomes: Major tasks completed in this exploratory study are: 1. Characterization of ideation states 2. Identification and classification of ideation mini-strategies by dissection of ideation methods 3. Development of holistic framework suitable for a future computer assisted ideation Testbed Future Impact: The proposed Testbed will serve two synergistic goals: 1. Creativity research tool (immediate Goal): To collect data on how creative designers navigate the design space by monitoring ideation states, strategies used and success rates in finding creative solutions. In this role the proposed system becomes a new research tool to study design creativity. 2. Proactive ideation aid (future Goal): Modeled after the Synectics approach, the Testbed will sense the ideation state and suggest possible strategies at a given state. In this role it becomes a "virtual" facilitator with "virtual" group members that generate provocative stimuli.
