Innovative Design Thinking Research Articles

Developing a regional economy through creative industries: innovation capacity in a regional Australian city

ABSTRACTCreative industries are driving economic growth across the world with their employment of innovation methodologies, including Co-creation and Design Thinking, which has spawned disruptive but beneficial business models. Creative industries are, therefore, cross-pollinating their ideas within other business sectors, primarily in major urban areas. This study examined whether those same innovation methodologies are used and can grow a regional economy, specifically in Townsville, Australia. Surveys and interviews were employed to gauge local business demand for creative industries services and also the creative industries sectors’ understanding of human-centred innovation methodologies and the potential for their use. Survey and interview results indicate confusion about the specifics of innovation methodologies – particularly in engaging with the end-users of services – but there is a general support for their use in the wider business community. Interviews with business owners highlighted a willingness to engage with regional creative industries, but concerns were raised about the affordability of such business services when compared to services offered in major urban centres. The findings propose that there is strong potential for creative industries to grow a regional economy, in this case Townsville in northern Australia, but only if the creative sector markets itself better to the wider business community.

Influences of three-dimensional printing to product innovation design thinking

The increasing demand of individuation brings new challenges to traditional product design. This paper studies and analyzes three-dimensional print technology promotes the future development of product innovation design. The advantages of 3D printing equipment can help creative products enterprises shorten product manufacturing period and make them powerful in competition.

Integration of Industrial Design Method and Engineering Innovative Course

At present, engineering education is faced with a lot of problems. It focuses on cultivating students’ ability of product manufacturing and industrial innovation. However, it lacks communications with other fields. Industrial design education o ff ers fantastic thinking and logical methods. As a result, many universities have opened the multi- disciplinary course about product design engineering. According to settings of the course, it is found that its main idea is innovative design thinking which reflects the industrial design method. This paper discusses the feasibility of integrating the industrial design method into engineering education, aiming to inspire the design thinking of the students. The authors attended the Summer Program for Innovative Engineering Design (SPIED) for two years, and gained some experience in teaching the engineering students during this program. In this paper, the project and needs of engineering students were analyzed with the course in SPIED 2015 as an example. The authors used industrial design to guide the students to find the possible innovative points. During the course, a questionnaire survey was conducted to evaluate the teaching e ff ect. The survey result shows that innovative thinking training was the most popular method for students. The design thinking course in the SPIED gave the students some new thinking modes. The industrial design course motivated interest of the students.

A Unified Model of Action Learning and Design Thinking for Social Innovation

A Unified Model of Action Learning and Design Thinking for Social Innovation

Innovative Design Thinking for Breakthrough Product Development

Concept generation is the most critical task in breakthrough product development. This paper presents an Innovative Design Thinking (IDT) framework that models concept generation as a proposition-making activity according to the formation definition of logic propositions. IDT formalizes designers’ verbal statements as either analytic or synthetic propositions through a cyclic operation of “specify-ideate-validate” at each abstraction level to generate a design concept which is logically feasible, functionally simple, and physically certain. Then, IDT guides designers through a zigzagging process which repeats the same cyclic operation at progressively less abstract levels to complete concept generation. Details of this cyclic operation and the zigzagging process are explained in this paper with an illustrative example presented.

A crowdsourcing design framework for concept generation

Abstract In the Internet era, customers become increasingly used to publishing their reviews of products online. This paper presents a crowdsourcing design framework (CDF) that exploits those online customer reviews to support concept generation in conceptual design. CDF guides designers through a systemic qualitative data analysis process to abstract relevant design intelligence based on highlighted customer reviews published by lead users, towards a database of logic propositions, which is queried by designers to increase knowledge and inspire creativity. A controlled experiment shows that CDF significantly enhances novice designers’ ideation effectiveness and improves their innovative design thinking.

On the Value of Design Thinking for Innovation in Complex Contexts: A Case from Healthcare

This paper discusses the use of different approaches to design in complex contexts, exemplified through a case from healthcare. Specifically, the value of Design Thinking (DT) for understanding of a problem at hand is discussed. The paper argues that a design approach based on a holistic understanding of problems constitutes a prerequisite for innovations in complex contexts where problems are open, complex, dynamic, networked and have a wicked character. The argument is made for the importance of differentiating design approaches with respect to their ability to support broader and more open explorations of the underlying problems, especially those in complex contexts. A case from healthcare illustrates the value of DT and is used to discuss the importance of avoiding what I refer to as deceptive problems. The potential of DT to increase the relevance of innovations through a better understanding of underlyingproblems is discussed.

A new coevolution process for conceptual design

Conceptual design involves coevolution of decisions between functional and physical domains. Different methods prescribe different processes to achieve coevolution, hence are suitable for different kinds of design practices. Analytical Target Cascading (ATC) features successive decompositions followed by coordinated optimizations to improve existing systems. Axiomatic Design Theory (ADT) follows a back-and-forth zigzagging process to create completely new systems. A new coevolution process, which is a hybrid between ATC and ADT, is developed from our Innovative Design thinking (IDT) research. This paper explains its theoretical underpinnings and illustrates its suitability for practices between the two extremes, e.g., innovative design on existing systems.

Design Science for Business Management

This issue of the Journal of Integrated Design and Process Science explores the connection between design science and business management. The relationship may not be obvious since it is rather subtle in some instances. However, the nature of problems that design science is confronted with is analogous to the nature of problems business management tackles. Both design science and business management, are concerned with open ended solutions rather than closed solutions and one correct answer. Also, both disciplines’ approach to finding solutions is process oriented. The process may involve taking two steps forward and, after finding the outcome not satisfactory, taking one step back – simply because there may be not just one correct answer but rather several answers differing in quality. Creativity and the selection of one of a variety of options constitute the essence of product design; consequently, exploring the connection between design science and business management can benefit both of these complex disciplines and also enhance the innovation of organizations. The first paper in this issue is entitled “Towards Formalizing and Formulating the Successful Organizational Innovation Process.” The authors, while pointing out the importance of innovation as the main factor of successful organization, present the application of a design model to a model for innovation processes. The model is able to separate two aspects of innovation, namely, the innovation process and the organizational innovative behaviour. Furthermore, the Axiomatic Theory of Design Modelling is used to analyse the organizational innovation process from a design point of view. The paper demonstrates clearly that strategic planning methods (business management) are similar to product design methods. At Concordia University in Montreal, it was shown that Design Thinking can be used as a basis for organizational innovation change (de Guerre et al., 2013). The organization on which the study was performed was the School of Extended Learning. The change process that resulted had four phases, namely, Connect, Innovate, Design, and Implement. The resulting organization (School of Extended Learning) had innovation design and Design Thinking fused into the organizational infrastructure. The second paper, “Engineering Design as Hearing,” uses the metaphor of “Hearing” to approach the teaching of design. The author presents the pedagogical challenges and opportunities related to the introduction of design into the engineering curricula, pointing out the differences between open-ended problem/solution sets (central to design) and closed problem/solution sets. By nature, the open-ended sets typical for design are more vague and abstract. Therefore, the use of metaphor is particularly effective for

From Solving Puzzles to Designing Solutions: Integrating Design Thinking into Evidence Based Practice

No abstract.

Research on LED Based on the Adjusting and Combining of Modularization

Based on existing study on LED modularization, how to make flexible and convenient modular adjustments and combination on LEDs is studied in order to serve as requirements of LED’s functions and modeling. This research laid emphasis on the recombination of LEDs inside the module and the adjustments of modules. Combining with the theories of man-machine engineering, product system design, innovative design thinking and techniques in the product development, a set of systematic design procedures and methods on LED modular adjustments and combination were set up. With the application of research results, the author constructed a flexible and convenient LED lawn lamp which can make modular adjustments and combination.

Design Thinking for Social Innovation

DESIGNERS HAVE TRADIIONALLY FOCUSED ON ENHANCING THE LOOK AND FUNCTIONALITY OF PRODUCTS. RECENTLY, THEY HAVE BEGUN USING DESIGN TOOLS TO TACKLE MORE COMPLEX PROBLEMS, SUCH AS FINDING WAYS TO PROVIDE LOW-COST HEALTH CARE THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. BUSINESSES WERE FIRST TO EMBRACE THIS NEW APPROACH—CALLED DESIGN THINKING—NOW NONPROFITS ARE BEGINNING TO ADOPT IT TOO.

The Emergence of a Sustainable Future: Brainstorming Better Ways to Globalize at the Esalen Institute

This article provides excerpts and highlights from the insights of twenty global leaders, business executives, and sustainability experts who gathered at the Esalen Institute in California for four days in March 2002 to discuss how to best leverage change toward an environmentally sustainable and socially equitable global economy. The conference topic was sparked by the path-breaking book Natural Capitalism, which outlines an expanded vision of capitalism suitable for the environmental era. The natural capitalism model is qualitatively different from industrial era capitalism in that it counts both humanity and ecosystem services as valid sources of capital in addition to the traditionally recognized sources, financial and manufactured. One early adopter of natural capitalism, CEO of the Atlanta-based carpet tiling company, Interface, shared how increased efficiency and greater employee and customer satisfaction have resulted. Although some of the conference participants forecasted that globalization is likely to bring humanity face-to-face with a planetary-wide environmental, financial, and social crisis, the overall message of this gathering was positive. Through the imaginative implementation of evolutionary and biomimicry design models in the cultural, financial, and economic spheres, novel solutions to global problems already are being discovered, and, if such innovative and solutions-oriented design thinking can spread rapidly enough, humanity may be able to ameliorate-or even obviate-the deleterious effects of globalization.

Recurring Surfaces: Architecture in the Experience Economy

Architecture today is split. Arrayed on the one hand are varied, intelligent, and often provocative investigations into the making of form. New materials, new design processes, virtuoso manipulations of irregular geometries, whole new metaphors for the generation of form, surprising borrowings from unlikely sources: each of these characterizes some of the most innovative design thinking of our time. Equally, architects working with self-imposed formal constraints and strict spatial orders have brought minimalist modernism to new levels, while others speculate on the future of architecture in a world increasingly dominated by visual media and virtual flows of information.

Discussions of Papers Published in Vol. 33/1 and 33/2

In the Internet era, customers become increasingly used to publishing their reviews of products online. This paper presents a crowdsourcing design framework (CDF) that exploits those online customer reviews to support concept generation in conceptual design. CDF guides designers through a systemic qualitative data analysis process to abstract relevant design intelligence based on highlighted customer reviews published by lead users, towards a database of logic propositions, which is queried by designers to increase knowledge and inspire creativity. A controlled experiment shows that CDF significantly enhances novice designers’ ideation effectiveness and improves their innovative design thinking.