Comparing Ideation Techniques for Beginning Designers

Abstract

Concept generation techniques can help to support designers in generating multiple ideas during design tasks. However, differences in the ways these techniques guide idea generation are not well understood. This study investigated the qualities of concepts generated by beginning engineering designers using one of three different idea generation techniques. Working individually on an open-ended engineering design problem, 102 first year engineering students learned and applied one of three different ideation techniques—design heuristics, morphological analysis, or individual brainstorming (using brainstorming rules to generate ideas working alone)—to a given design problem. Using the consensual assessment technique, all concepts were rated for creativity, elaboration, and practicality, and all participants' concept sets were rated for quantity and diversity. The simplest technique, individual brainstorming, led to the most concepts within the short (25 minute) ideation session. All three techniques produced creative concepts averaging near the scale midpoint. The elaboration of the concepts was significantly higher with design heuristics and morphological analysis techniques, and the practicality was significantly higher using design heuristics. Controlling for number of concepts generated, there were no significant differences in diversity of solution sets across groups. These results demonstrate that the use of design heuristics does not limit the creativity of ideation outcomes, and helps students to develop more elaborate and practical ideas. Design heuristics show advantages in the initial idea generation phase for beginning engineering students. These findings point to specific strengths in different ideation techniques, and the value of exposing beginning designers to multiple techniques for idea generation.

Design Fixation From Initial Examples: Provided Versus Self-Generated Ideas

“…A wide range of over 170 different concept generation techniques have been identified (Smith, 1998), including analogical thinking [55], morphological analysis [56], Synectics [57], questioning [58], lateral thinking [59], conceptual combination [60], Scamper [61], transformation principles [62], and TRIZ [63]. However, few of these strategies have been empirically validated for their effectiveness in improving the diversity of designs generated [64].…”

“…These cognitive "rules of thumb" were shown to prompt designers to consider ways to add variation into their concept set; however, each prompt was also shown to be applicable across different design problems and concepts, and even used repeatedly to produce different concepts [65]. Design heuristics have been shown to be effective for beginning, novice, and advanced engineering students [64,[67][68][69] as well as expert designers [70,71]. However, research has not yet examined whether "induced fixation" [22] on initial examples-both provided and self-generated-could be mitigated in the same session through the use of the design heuristics generation tool to spur changes in the diversity of concepts considered.…”

“…Our second research question was: Can designers showing evidence of fixation (from either source-a provided example or their own initial example) break away from it in the same session through the use of a design ideation tool? While several idea generation tools have been shown to reduce fixation [23], design heuristics were selected for this study as an example of a design ideation tool supporting idea generation [64]. Design heuristics are empirically tested and shown to be helpful in idea generation [64,69,70,72].…”

“…While several idea generation tools have been shown to reduce fixation [23], design heuristics were selected for this study as an example of a design ideation tool supporting idea generation [64]. Design heuristics are empirically tested and shown to be helpful in idea generation [64,69,70,72]. Our second hypothesis was as follows.…”

“…Though first-time users of design heuristics, students listed at least one design heuristic for 360 concepts, and more than one for 99 concepts, suggesting they were successful in using the design heuristics method. In addition, using this tool may require additional time as the student reads, understands, and applies the cards, taking time away from concept generation [64]. Even so, while producing fewer concepts in this second phase, using the design heuristics resulted in fewer concepts similar to their initial example.…”