How creative versus technical constraints affect exploring a design space

Abstract

The creative design process can be conceptualized as the repeated search for highly-evaluated novel solutions within a design space of possibilities. Such design spaces are bounded by creative constraints of what are considered appropriate solutions as well as technical constraints of what solutions are possible given the tools in place. Past research on the role of constraints in creative design and innovation have found mixed results, hindered in part by not separating out the type of constraint—creative versus technical—and in part by focusing on singular projects that neglect the learning effects of repeated exploration of a design space. We analyzed ten years of data from an online innovation community hosting repeated creative design competitions, and we examined how creative and technical constraints in a design space affected how individuals learned to improve their performance as evaluated by their audience. We find that creative constraints lead to high rates of learning only if technical constraints are sufficiently relaxed. Our findings have implications for the management of creative design work in both online and offline settings.