Creative Design Ideas Research Articles

Understanding the rapid evaluation of innovative ideas in the early stages of design

This paper presents a study that analyses the activity of creative idea evaluation in the early stages of the New Product Development (NPD) process. The focus of this study is on the first evaluation of ideas carried out just after the idea generation phase, which means the very rapid preliminary screening of ideas, normally done by experts. This work was undertaken by analysing in detail the activities of professional design experts who evaluate creative design ideas or concepts in a company. The study shows that there are two distinct stages in their evaluation. The first one is based on the underlying judgement, effectively a technical feasibility filter, using criteria of quite an objective nature. The second one is based upon Subjective Criteria (SC) and interestingly on just a basic 'feeling' or instinct. The research also shows that generally experts spend more time with ideas that will be accepted than ones that will end up rejected. In addition the study indicates that long idea-evaluation sessions are not very beneficial. The data shows a distinct difference in the mindset of the participants after an hour and many more ideas were rejected. This research suggests that good ideas may have been excluded or lost due to the duration of the session.

“If I was going to design a chair, the last thing I would look at is a chair”: product analysis and the causes of fixation in students’ design work 11–16 years

Creativity is acknowledged to be important for economic growth and as an everyday life-skill, however several influential reports have suggested that education could do more to harness creative talent. Creative cognition literature suggests the lack of creativity is at least partly the result of ‘fixation’ (difficulty in generating novel ideas due to imagination being ‘structured’ by existing knowledge). This paper focuses on the secondary (students aged 11–16 years) design and technology (DT the use of product analysis to inform the generation of creative design ideas. Data is drawn from the preliminary phase of a research and intervention project from interviews with D&T teachers (N = 14), students (N = 126) and lesson observations (N = 10) and an analysis of documents and student work. Product analysis is widely used at different points in design projects but, as is shown, in all cases current practice can lead to fixation, as thinking is constrained down specific paths and tasks are at best at procedural rather than comprehension level. The implications of these findings and tentative ways forward for practitioners are discussed.

1406 連想プロセスの仮想モデリングによる創造的デザインアイデア生成(OS3-1 設計・デザイン論I,OS3 設計・デザイン論)

1406 連想プロセスの仮想モデリングによる創造的デザインアイデア生成(OS3-1 設計・デザイン論I,OS3 設計・デザイン論)

A Study of Playfulness Shown in the Haute Couture Collections- Mainly Focused on Works after the Year 2000 -

The purposes of this study are to find the values of playful design by exploring what forms of playful expressions and characteristics appear in the haute couture collections that feature high culture other than street fashion or popular fashion and to help expand the scope to include newer and more creative design ideas. Concerning theoretical background, the study reviewed the literature to understand the concept of playfulness and see what types of playfulness there are and how it is expressed. Based on the results, the study examined the features of playfulness by analyzing the works of haute couture collections which since 2000. The results can be summarized as follows: First, designers in the haute couture collections constructed their own identities by expressing their instinctive desire for playfulness through graffiti such as cartoons or scribbles and delivering direct and specific messages or ambiguous and symbolic meanings through such things. Second, the haute couture collections revealed the human body in a transformed or distorted shape through deformation of clothes or accessories presented brand-new dressing styles by breaking away from the past ways of dressing; and expressed playfulness intentionally with distorted materials. Third, is the depaysement technique. This collage technique selects all possible objects going beyond inartistic routine matters or boundaries of which we are aware and changes their positions and purposes of use to express the playfulness of harmony in disharmony. Fourth, the haute couture collections created a feeling of playfulness by featuring parodies of retro elements, a slice of popular culture, or a variety of painting styles. Finally, like using dolls or toys as accessories or making direct use of parts of clothes, combinations between attributes given by the images of those accessories themselves and creativities found in haute couture dresses are just as fun of authoritarian bias in favor of prestigiousness.

Similarity based and knowledge creating metaphors - a didactic framework for informing design

Metaphors are pervasive in language and thought. Metaphors can imply a change in knowledge and thereby create insight. The concept of metaphors has been widely used in research on design and learning. For that reason, I wish to bring attention to a distinction between two ways of using metaphors: A similarity based use of metaphors and a similarity creating use. In addressing the metaphorical mechanism from these two angles, I argue that the similarity based use of metaphor is well suited for practical design purposes in connection to the development of course design. On the other hand, when occupied with methodological issues concerning didactic design, we, as designers, have to be avant-garde. To help us behave as front-runners, we need tools for reflection about our creative practice. Therefore, I argue that we might turn to the use of metaphors in a similarity creating manner, since this use of metaphor can facilitate the creative exploration of new ideas by which we gain insight into the unique qualities of virtual learning cultures and environments. In this setting, the similarity creating potential of the metaphor is brought into focus as a useful mechanism for reflection about design. By means of a similarity based use of metaphors we can highlight certain features already dominant in a given source area in order to carry over a familiar understanding of a new environment. Making the unfamiliar familiar enables us to design a platform supportive of a given practice of learning, since a similarity based use of metaphor generates a conceptual fit between different areas. By introducing a similarity based use of metaphors in design we are able to establish a platform that reflects and supports a given didactic practice. Different metaphors points to different ways of conceptualizing a situation and bring about different ways of acting. However, at the same time, we have to be careful in choosing metaphors in view of the fact that they also narrow down our perspective. The metaphorically based ability of highlighting certain aspects of a situation naturally results in constraining items deemed irrelevant in a given context. Thus, bearing the similarity based use of metaphors in mind; we see and act, supported by metaphors that recast an already existing practice or perspective in a new setting. Therefore, I bring in a similarity creating use of metaphors, which might support a pro-active development of didactic design strategies within the field of networked learning. This use of metaphors highlights their creative power in emphasizing the mechanism by which the juxtaposition of different objects and situations may provide for a very new understanding of a domain to emerge in revealing an aha-experience. From a methodological point of view, it makes good sense to move beyond the similarity based use of metaphors, since looking at how the new world resembles the well known is not sufficient to ensure a forceful development of a theoretically based framework on the topic of design strategies. As a first step, to promote creative metaphor building, one might force a creation of similarity by, in the first place, deliberately making the familiar unfamiliar. Thus, from this foundation, we might carry on and concentrate to see if we can create new links between domains without previous similarities. By a similarity creating approach towards metaphor building, we are provided with a tool that may enable us to reflect upon creative design ideas supportive of strategies for future didactic design.

Participatory design with children in the development of a support system for patient-centered care in pediatric oncology

Developing software for children with severe illness poses a number of design challenges. In this paper we describe participatory design methods used in the development of SISOM, a support system for children with cancer age 7–12 to help children elicit and report their symptoms/problems in a child-friendly, age-adjusted manner, and to assist clinicians at the point of care in addressing and integrating children’s reported symptoms and problems in patient care. The particular design challenges in the development of a clinical support tool for seriously ill children are described, followed by the participatory design techniques we used to meet these challenges. Healthy children and children with cancer participated actively in different stages of the design process. We describe how children contributed to the graphical design of the system’s interface; selection of understandable, child-friendly terms used in the system; iconic and graphical representations; and its usability. The methods applied helped us to significantly improve and adapt SISOM to children’s cognitive and emotional developmental stage. Working with children as partners in the design also provided important insights into the role children can play in participatory design that may be helpful for other system developers who wish to design support applications for ill children. Children had very creative design ideas that considerably improved the software. However, system development for seriously ill children also requires psychological and pedagogical insights and design and usability expertise. This limits the role children can play as full design partners.

The Literary Marriage of Style and Substance

Literary journals are often nonconformists when it comes to design and presentation, and literary e-journals are no exception. This column reviews some prominent literary e-journals, to see what design elements they are employing. Other sites that contain unusual or creative design ideas also are reviewed. Serials Review 2003; 29:43–47.

The Literary Marriage of Style and Substance

Literary journals are often nonconformists when it comes to design and presentation, and literary e-journals are no exception. This column reviews some prominent literary e-journals, to see what design elements they are employing. Other sites that contain unusual or creative design ideas also are reviewed. Serials Review 2003; 29:43–47.

Chinese graphic design in the twentieth century

From posters and advertisements to book covers and magazines, this volume presents a dazzling panoply of graphics, brilliantly uncovered by the authors from long-forgotten sources, mostly in China itself, after surviving innumerable upheavals: natural catastrophes, war and revolution. Beginning with the basic traditions of Chinese graphics, the authors show how the writer and artist Lu Xun became the centre of cultural revival in the new China. We see Art Deco making its mark in the Shanghai Style, and the birth of a national design aesthetic, born of Russian Constructivism and Chinas own drive for new technology. The Socialist Realist art of Mao in turn adopted folk traditions to fuel the Revolutionary machine, while the continuing search for a new identity can be seen in the graphic images of protest from the summer of 1989. Throughout, creative design ideas are expressed with a freshness and vitality that recalls the beauty and character of Chinas own traditions. The results are not only a clear commentary on Chinas recent history and culture, but a revelation forWestern designers seeking to adopt traditional visual languages.

The Effect of Occupational Information on a Computerized Vocational Counseling System

Vocational Guidance QuarterlyVolume 33, Issue 2 p. 130-137 The Effect of Occupational Information on a Computerized Vocational Counseling System RICHARD S. SHARF, RICHARD S. SHARF Senior Psychologist Richard S. Sharf is a senior psychologist, Center for Counseling and Student Development, University of Delaware. Funds for the research and development of Exploring Careers were provided by Control Data Corporation. The author would like to thank John Holland and Consulting Psychologists Press for permission to use John Holland's theory and concepts in the development of the Occupation Locator. The author also wants to thank the following: Charles Collings, Louisa Frank, and Mark Laubach for accomplishing the difficult task of programming Exploring Careers. Laurie Bloom was responsible for the editing of the occupational data base. John Crites and Robert McGough gave creative design ideas. Patrick LeFevre took responsibility for the complex task of processing individual response data and analyzing statistics.Search for more papers by this author RICHARD S. SHARF, RICHARD S. SHARF Senior Psychologist Richard S. Sharf is a senior psychologist, Center for Counseling and Student Development, University of Delaware. Funds for the research and development of Exploring Careers were provided by Control Data Corporation. The author would like to thank John Holland and Consulting Psychologists Press for permission to use John Holland's theory and concepts in the development of the Occupation Locator. The author also wants to thank the following: Charles Collings, Louisa Frank, and Mark Laubach for accomplishing the difficult task of programming Exploring Careers. Laurie Bloom was responsible for the editing of the occupational data base. John Crites and Robert McGough gave creative design ideas. Patrick LeFevre took responsibility for the complex task of processing individual response data and analyzing statistics.Search for more papers by this author First published: December 1984 https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2164-585X.1984.tb01087.xCitations: 4 AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume33, Issue2December 1984Pages 130-137 RelatedInformation