The Effects of Designers' Contextual Experience on the Ideation Process and Design Outcomes

Personal context-specific experience can affect how a designer evaluates a design problem and proposes solutions. However, this effect was seldom discovered in a quantitative manner in problem-solving design tasks. This paper uses empirical evidence and quantitative methods to show the effects of novice designers' contextual experience on design tasks, particularly as it relates to the design process and design outcomes. Thirty-three people performed two design tasks while their cognitive states were assessed using electroencephalography (EEG). Moreover, the objective ratings (i.e., quantity, novelty and quality) from prospective users were analyzed to gauge the effect of contextual experience on design outcomes. Results suggest that during ideation, contextual experience has a negative effect on mental states associated with creativity and also on the novelty evaluations of the proposed solutions in the tested design tasks. This research advances the development of design methods for novice designers.

[1]  Nira Liberman,et al.  Temporal construal effects on abstract and concrete thinking: consequences for insight and creative cognition. , 2004, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[2]  Henri Christiaans,et al.  Problem structuring and information access in design , 2004 .

[3]  Nigel Cross,et al.  Expertise in Design: an overview , 2004 .

[4]  Robert G. Cooper,et al.  The misuse of marketing: An American tragedy , 1981 .

[5]  D. Cox,et al.  An Analysis of Transformations , 1964 .

[6]  Joshua D. Summers,et al.  A study of designer familiarity with product and user during requirement elicitation , 2013, Int. J. Comput. Aided Eng. Technol..

[7]  Deana McDonagh,et al.  Disability + Relevant Design: Empathic Design Strategies Supporting More Effective New Product Design Outcomes , 2010 .

[8]  Celine Latulipe,et al.  Triangulating the personal creative experience: self-report, external judgments, and physiology , 2012, Graphics Interface.

[9]  John Merrill,et al.  CEDA: A research instrument for creative engineering design assessment. , 2008 .

[10]  D. F. Radcliffe,et al.  The Tacit Nature of Design Knowledge , 2000 .

[11]  Tahira Reid,et al.  NOVICE ENGINEERS’ PREDISPOSITION TO COMPASSIONATE DESIGN , 2015 .

[12]  Kristin L. Wood,et al.  User Extreme Conditions to Enhance Designer Empathy and Creativity: Applications Using Visual Impairment , 2016 .

[13]  Donald A. Norman,et al.  Incremental and Radical Innovation: Design Research vs. Technology and Meaning Change , 2014, Design Issues.

[14]  John S. Gero,et al.  The structure of concurrent cognitive actions: a case study on novice and expert designers , 2002 .

[15]  I. Nonaka,et al.  The Knowledge Creating Company , 2008 .

[16]  Peter R. Magnusson,et al.  Users as a Hidden Resource for Creativity: Findings from an Experimental Study on User Involvement , 2002 .

[17]  Matthew M. Mehalik,et al.  What Constitutes Good Design? A Review of Empirical Studies of Design Processes* , 2006 .

[18]  Gustaf Östberg.  What goes on when a designer thinks? , 2005, AI & SOCIETY.

[19]  Nigel Cross,et al.  Design cognition: results from protocol and other empirical studies of design activity , 2016 .

[20]  Runette Kruger.  Design and empathy , 2008 .

[21]  Lassi A. Liikkanen,et al.  Time constraints in design idea generation , 2009 .

[22]  Erin A. Carroll,et al.  Quantifying the personal creative experience: evaluation of digital creativity support tools using self-report and physiological responses , 2013 .

[23]  S. Tobias.  Interest, Prior Knowledge, and Learning , 1994 .

[24]  Julie S. Linsey,et al.  The effects of time and incubation on design concept generation , 2014 .

[25]  Samuel C. Karpen,et al.  Lessons from a Faraway land: The effect of spatial distance on creative cognition , 2009 .

[26]  David Wallace,et al.  Assessing the quality of ideas from prolific, early-stage product ideation , 2013 .

[27]  Jay F. Nunamaker,et al.  On the Measurement of Ideation Quality , 2007, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[28]  Carolyn Conner Seepersad,et al.  A cross-sectional and longitudinal examination of the development of innovation capability in undergraduate engineering students , 2015 .

[29]  M.G.D. Steen,et al.  Benefits of co-design in service design projects , 2011 .

[30]  C. Martindale.  Biological bases of creativity. , 1998 .

[31]  A. Isen,et al.  Positive affect facilitates creative problem solving. , 1987, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[32]  Pieter Jan Stappers,et al.  Co-creation and the new landscapes of design , 2008 .

[33]  Jami J. Shah,et al.  Evaluation of Empirical Design Studies and Metrics , 2016 .

[34]  W. Newstetter,et al.  Design Knowing and Learning: Cognition in Design Education , 2001 .

[35]  Peter R. Magnusson,et al.  Tuning Users' Innovativeness During Ideation , 2010 .

[36]  Hernan Casakin,et al.  Visual analogy as a cognitive strategy in the design process. Expert versus novice performance , 2004 .

[37]  Peter R. Magnusson,et al.  Benefits of involving users in service innovation , 2003 .

[38]  Ryad Titah,et al.  Measure for Measure: A two study multi-trait multi-method investigation of construct validity in IS research , 2013, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[39]  Ken M. Wallace,et al.  The role of knowledge and experience in engineering design , 2005 .

[40]  Joran W. Booth,et al.  Reducing Sketch Inhibition During Concept Generation: Psychophysiological Evidence of the Effect of Interventions , 2015 .

[41]  J. Smallwood,et al.  Inspired by Distraction , 2012, Psychological science.

[42]  Paul Nightingale,et al.  A cognitive model of innovation , 1998 .

[43]  D. Hocevar,et al.  The Development of the Creative Behavior Inventory (CBI). , 1979 .

[44]  Linden J. Ball,et al.  Spontaneous analogising in engineering design: a comparative analysis of experts and novices , 2004 .

[45]  Anthony J. Ries,et al.  Usability of four commercially-oriented EEG systems , 2014, Journal of neural engineering.

[46]  Donald R. Woods,et al.  An Evidence‐Based Strategy for Problem Solving , 2000 .

[47]  Peter Bradwell,et al.  Making the most of collaboration an international survey of public service co-design , 2017 .

[48]  L. Chlan,et al.  Effectiveness of a music therapy intervention on relaxation and anxiety for patients receiving ventilatory assistance. , 1998, Heart & lung : the journal of critical care.

[49]  Evan Polman,et al.  Decisions for Others Are More Creative Than Decisions for the Self , 2011, Personality & social psychology bulletin.

[50]  Cynthia J. Atman,et al.  Engineering Design Processes: A Comparison of Students and Expert Practitioners , 2007 .

[51]  Yi Ren,et al.  When Crowdsourcing Fails: A Study of Expertise on Crowdsourced Design Evaluation , 2015 .

[52]  A. Neubauer,et al.  EEG alpha oscillations during the performance of verbal creativity tasks: differential effects of sex and verbal intelligence. , 2006, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[53]  N. Bonnardel,et al.  Evocation Processes by Novice and Expert Designers: Towards Stimulating Analogical Thinking , 2004 .

[54]  Yong Zeng,et al.  A physiological study of relationship between designer's mental effort and mental stress during conceptual design , 2014, Comput. Aided Des..

[55]  A. Gustafsson,et al.  Idea generation: customer co‐creation versus traditional market research techniques , 2011 .

[56]  Jon Touryan,et al.  A Comparison of Electroencephalography Signals Acquired from Conventional and Mobile Systems , 2014 .

[57]  Teresa M. Amabile,et al.  How to kill creativity. , 1998, Harvard business review.

[58]  Reinhard Prügl,et al.  Lead users and the adoption and diffusion of new products: Insights from two extreme sports communities , 2006 .

[59]  Tahira Reid,et al.  The Relationship Between Design Outcomes and Mental States During Ideation , 2017 .

[60]  Carolyn Conner Seepersad,et al.  An Experimental Investigation of the Effectiveness of Empathic Experience Design for Innovative Concept Generation , 2014 .

[61]  Chris Berka,et al.  Drowsiness/alertness algorithm development and validation using synchronized EEG and cognitive performance to individualize a generalized model , 2011, Biological Psychology.

[62]  A. Isen,et al.  Positive affect facilitates creative problem solving , 1987 .

[63]  Martin Schreier,et al.  The Value of Crowdsourcing: Can Users Really Compete with Professionals in Generating New Product Ideas? , 2009 .

[64]  A. Diamond.  Executive functions. , 2014, Handbook of clinical neurology.

[65]  Ammon Salter,et al.  Sources of ideas for innovation in engineering design , 2003 .

[66]  Hasan Ayaz,et al.  Optical brain monitoring for operator training and mental workload assessment , 2012, NeuroImage.

[67]  Karl T. Ulrich,et al.  Design: Creation of Artifacts in Society , 2011 .

[68]  野中 郁次郎,et al.  The knowledge-creating company , 2008 .

[69]  John Yen,et al.  A Fuzzy Logic-based Methodology for the Acquisition and Analysis of Imprecise Requirements , 1994 .

[70]  Barry M. Kudrowitz,et al.  When Does a Paper Clip Become a Sundial? Exploring the Progression of Originality in the Alternative Uses Test , 2013, J. Integr. Des. Process. Sci..

[71]  Ruth Sims,et al.  Empirical investigation of the impact of using co-design methods when generating proposals for sustainable travel solutions , 2016 .

[72]  Jacob Cohen.  Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences , 1969, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Research Design.

[73]  Ozgur Ozkan,et al.  Cognitive strategies of analogical reasoning in design: Differences between expert and novice designers , 2013 .

[74]  Irem Y. Tumer,et al.  A comparison of creativity and innovation metrics and sample validation through in-class design projects , 2013 .

[75]  Ronald Mascitelli.  From Experience: Harnessing Tacit Knowledge to Achieve Breakthrough Innovation , 2000 .

[76]  Bruce Hanington,et al.  Methods in the Making: A Perspective on the State of Human Research in Design , 2003, Design Issues.

[77]  Brigitte Moench,et al.  Engineering Design A Systematic Approach , 2016 .

[78]  Chris Berka,et al.  Real-Time Analysis of EEG Indexes of Alertness, Cognition, and Memory Acquired With a Wireless EEG Headset , 2004, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Interact..

[79]  Lucienne Blessing,et al.  Understanding the differences between how novice and experienced designers approach design tasks , 2003 .

[80]  Y. Trope,et al.  Construal-level theory of psychological distance. , 2010, Psychological review.

[81]  Nigel Cross,et al.  Expertise in engineering design , 1998 .

[82]  Peter R. Magnusson,et al.  Managing User Involvement in Service Innovation , 2003 .

[83]  Mark A. Runco,et al.  Cognition and creativity , 1995 .

[84]  C. Prahalad,et al.  Co-creation experiences: The next practice in value creation , 2004 .

[85]  Michelle N. Lumicao,et al.  EEG correlates of task engagement and mental workload in vigilance, learning, and memory tasks. , 2007, Aviation, space, and environmental medicine.

[86]  C. Mele,et al.  “Five Co‐s” in innovating: a practice‐based view , 2012 .

[87]  Raymond A. Dixon,et al.  Selected Core Thinking Skills and Cognitive Strategy of an Expert and Novice Engineer. , 2011 .

[88]  Steven M. Smith,et al.  Metrics for measuring ideation effectiveness , 2003 .