Effectiveness of the means of expression in creative problem-solving in design groups

Designers usually work with drawings, especially in the form of sketching, and with very rudimentary objects or models. However, creative problem-solving methodology is predominantly based on sentential, written or spoken, means of expression. Taking one of the best known and most widely used creative methods, brainstorming, as our starting point, we have developed three variants, each of which highlights one of the three forms of expression used in design groups: sentential, visual and objectual (with pieces or rudimentary objects). The effectiveness of the design process according to the means of expression was analysed using the transcription of the protocols. To carry out the evaluation we studied the extent to which the ideas fulfilled the requirements, and the linkography technique was adapted so as to be able to analyse the links between ideas. In all cases the results were validated statistically by repeating the experiment under controlled conditions. A wide range of ideas is produced with sentential brainstorming, although not all of them meet the requirements of the problem. With the objectual variant, fewer ideas are obtained but these have a higher level of resolution and are better suited to the fulfilment of the requirements of the problem. The visual variant is an alternative lying between the other two.