Divergent thinking and the design process

lesa — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 23:49:08 +0000

This conference paper has been published in Roberts, P.H. and Norman, E.W.L. (eds). IDATER 99 : International Conference on Design and Technology Educational Research and Curriculum Development. Loughborough: Loughborough University, pp.224-229.

The paper explores a view of research on creativity in design not based on traditional cognitive science models. Research from the creative cognition standpoint is reviewed with an example and the problem of applying it to the design case is explained. Creative techniques used in design lack a scientific base and lack an evaluation of their effectiveness. They emphasise the generation of ideas and not the generation of tangible solutions. The argument states that design research should be looking neither to the act of idea generation nor to the act of form generation and reinterpretation but to the enacted use environment in which designers operate and from which functions emerge. Departing from new models in cognitive science two hypotheses are formed. The first claims that the creative outcome in design may be based on an enacted experience of use and not on a rationalisation of imagery or represented forms. The second claims that diagrams created during the design process, mainly in its first stages, may serve the purpose of problem finding and not of problem solving.

[Description taken from the abstract for this paper. Paper made available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 2.5 license.]

Product design and development 2.0 applied C-K theory [to innovate in a digital age]

lesa — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 23:17:06 +0000

The purpose of this paper is to discuss some applied implications of the Concept-Knowledge Theory (C-K Theory) introduced by Armand Hatchuel and Benoît Weil in their 2003 paper. This analysis is required because in a new information age; where powerful IT tools provide the means to work in multiuser collaborative virtual spaces, and where advanced automated semantical indexing engines allow the knowledge to be more readily available than ever, the implications for a design theory of these characteristics is deep since the concepts as well as the knowledge can be accelerated and reinforced. But this can only happens if the right tools are applied understanding the nature of the underling process that dominates creativity and innovation in human endeavours.

Some of the tools and theories that will be explored here to understand the potential links and interactions with C-K theory are: Web 2.0 collaboration tools, computer supported cooperative work (CSCW), knowledge management and Henry W Chesbrough’s Open Innovation model.

[Description taken from the abstract for this paper. Paper made available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license.]

Delores Selections » Creativity methods

Divergent thinking and the design process

Product design and development 2.0 applied C-K theory [to innovate in a digital age]