The Personal Trait Myth: A Comparative Analysis of the Innovation Impact of Design Thinking Tools and Personal Traits

Design thinking asserts that individuals and teams have the ability to build their innovative capacity through various tools and methods no matter their predispositions to creativity and innovation. The contexts of design thinking attempt to alter design process towards more innovative ideas. This work attempts to experimentally disentangle the impact of disposition and situation during design activity. We present a variety of design contexts intended to be tested against dispositional factors during an experimental design task. We then present a pilot study exploring how process-priming impacts design process during a problem-solving task and an open-ended design task. Our preliminary results suggest that short process-priming activities may not be the most effective means for altering design process. Rather, more integrated contextual interventions may be better candidates for impacting design process and would be interesting test variables for future studies.

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