Do the best design ideas (really) come from conceptually distant sources of inspiration?

Chan, Joel; Dow, Steven P.; Schunn, Christian D.

doi:10.1016/j.destud.2014.08.001

Cited by 119 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…However, this supposed close link between distant analogies and conceptual leaps has recently been questioned Chan, Dow, & Schunn, 2015), suggesting instead that any analogy involves creative potential. While most of the design-by-analogy literature focuses on the problem solving potential of analogies, analogies also serve other functions in actual design practice.…”

Section: Analogical Reasoningmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, as also predicted by the POLR model, it has been shown that stimulus categories compete for designers' attention, and that withindomain products not only attract the most attention but are also considered to be the most inspirational to designers (Christensen, 2010; Christensen & Schunn, 2009). While these POLR studies control experimentally for the accessibility of analogies, the POLR theory would nevertheless predict that source analogies from a designer's own educational domain should be more accessible or 'available' (e.g., Reber, 2004) than those from outside of their educational domain.Anecdotal claims regarding the creative potential for analogies in problem solving often refer to the capacity for between-domain analogies to fuel innovative leaps within a conceptual space.However, this supposed close link between distant analogies and conceptual leaps has recently been questioned Chan, Dow, & Schunn, 2015), suggesting instead that any analogy involves creative potential. While most of the design-by-analogy literature focuses on the problem solving potential of analogies, analogies also serve other functions in actual design practice.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Creative analogy use in a heterogeneous design team: The pervasive role of background domain knowledge

Christensen

Ball

2016

Design Studies

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Abstract-2 -We integrated two research traditions -one focusing on analogical reasoning, the other on knowledge sharing -with the aim of examining how designers' unique knowledge backgrounds can fuel analogy-based creativity. The present dataset afforded a unique opportunity to pursue this aim since the design dialogue derived from team members with highly disparate educational backgrounds. Our analyses revealed that analogies that matched (versus mismatched) educational backgrounds were generated and revisited more frequently, presumably because they were more accessible. Matching analogies were also associated with increased epistemic uncertainty, perhaps because domain experts appreciate the challenge of mapping such analogies between domains. Our findings support claims from the knowledge-sharing literature for a direct route from knowledge diversity through analogical reasoning to novel idea production. KeywordsDesign cognition, analogical reasoning, creative design, collaborative design, conceptual designThe design process typically involves designers drawing on personal experiences relating to their past design work as well as on knowledge of other design projects or products (e.g., Ball, Lambell, Reed, & Reid, 2001;Cross, 2006). Such prior experience and knowledge then serves to inform a solution for the current design problem, shaping both its initial development and its subsequent refinement. Indeed, the very notion of 'design-by-analogy' (e.g., Helms, Vattam, & Goel, 2009;Moreno et al., 2014) points specifically to the frequent capacity for designers to transfer solution structures or elements from a known source domain to a target design problem.In studying such design-by-analogy, researchers have often tended -perhaps inadvertently -to control out individual variation in the background domain knowledge of the designers being analysed, instead focusing on homogeneous participants with very similar backgrounds in terms of their design education, training and company-based experiences, for example, in domains such as industrial product design (e.g., Ball, Ormerod, & Morley, 2004), electronic engineering design (e.g., Jagodzinski, Reid, Culverhouse, Parsons, & Phillips, 2000) or the design of medical plastics (e.g., Christensen & Schunn, 2007). In the extreme case of numerous laboratory experiments that have investigated design-by-analogy the source analogies are presented directly to individual participants in the form of one or more initial examples for perusal (e.g., Casakin, 2004;Casakin & Goldschmidt, 1999;Goldschmidt, 1995). In this way very tight constraints are placed on the experimental setting so that the researcher can assess the specific role that such source materials have on the design process and the resulting design products. These latter kinds of laboratory studies are actually rather paradoxical, since although it is assumed that analogy sources in real-world design practice are frequently drawn from a designer's own background knowledge and experience, the examination of analogy use i...

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Section: Analogical Reasoningmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Creative analogy use in a heterogeneous design team: The pervasive role of background domain knowledge

Christensen

Ball

2016

Design Studies

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“…Inspiration sources can take various forms such as geometrical shapes, objects, phenomena from nature, as well as abstract texts, sketches, and diagrams 68 . Sources of inspiration significantly contribute to design defining the contexts for new designs and provoking idea generation 65,67 . In design, comparable designs, other types of design, images, objects, and phenomena 67 , as well as knowledge from patents 69 and information in the form of design concepts 6 are often used by designers for triggering idea generation.…”

Section: The Inspiration-driven Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In design, inspiration is known as a process, which integrates the use of any entities in any forms, of generating creative solutions for existing problems 63 . Prior experiences, knowledge, and examples, as well as previous designs are often served as sources of inspiration [64][65][66][67] . Inspiration sources can take various forms such as geometrical shapes, objects, phenomena from nature, as well as abstract texts, sketches, and diagrams 68 .…”

Section: The Inspiration-driven Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Three driven approaches to combinational creativity: Problem-, similarity- and inspiration-driven

Han

Park

Shi

et al. 2017

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C:

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Creativity is a crucial element of design. The aim of this study is to investigate the driving forces behind combinational creativity. We propose three driven approaches to combinational creativity, problem-, similarity-, and inspiration-driven, based on previous research projects on design process, strategy, and cognition. A case study involving hundreds of practical products selected from winners of international design competitions has been conducted to evaluate the three approaches proposed. The results support the three driven approaches and indicate that they can be used independently as well as complementarily. The three approaches proposed in this study have provided an understanding of how combinational creativity functions in design. The approaches could be used as a set of creative idea generation methods for supporting designers in producing creative design ideas.

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“…Some authors have argued that the stimuli used in these techniques should have no strong link to the problem, or perhaps be selected at random; in this way, participants can be led towards less common, more unorthodox ideas in the manner of a conceptual leap (e.g., Daly, Christian, Yilmaz, Seifert, & Gonzalez, 2012). Chan, Dow and Schunn (2015) encapsulate this with the term 'Conceptual Leap Hypothesis', and note its concordance with anecdotal accounts of creative discoveries such as George Mestral's invention of an adhesive material, Velcro, from the inspiration of burdock root seeds (Freeman & Golden, 1997). According to this view, for a conceptual leap to occur, individuals must assume a position at a different level of abstraction and/or semantic domain.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Bridge Too Far: Conceptual Distance and Creative Ideation

Hocking

Вернон

2017

Creativity. Theories – Research - Applications

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Previous research has shown changing perspectives to be important in problem finding, with viewpoint-based techniques like the 'six thinking hats' and the 'six honest serving men' improving performance (e.g. Vernon & Hocking, 2014). To date, however, evidence for similar techniques based on conceptually 'near' and 'far' cues, where conceptual distance is defined topologically in a semantic space, has shown mixed results.In a sample of 171 participants, we used two standard verbal problem scenarios together with a novel technique comprising six concepts that were either conceptually near or far from the problem scenario. Participants in the experimental group used the concepts when generating solutions; controls were given empty placeholders instead of concepts. Performance was measured for fluency, quality, originality and flexibility.Apart from flexibility, participants did worse when using concepts of either type in comparison to controls. For flexibility, a borderline boost for far concepts was observed (η 2 = .03, p = .06). We conclude that the cognitive load overhead introduced by our concept-cueing technique, or any other similar technique that attempts to shape the creative process, needs to be minimised through a variety of methods before we can better determine its usefulness and, thus, the role of conceptual distance in creative problem solving.

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Do the best design ideas (really) come from conceptually distant sources of inspiration?

Cited by 119 publications

References 54 publications

Creative analogy use in a heterogeneous design team: The pervasive role of background domain knowledge

Creative analogy use in a heterogeneous design team: The pervasive role of background domain knowledge

Three driven approaches to combinational creativity: Problem-, similarity- and inspiration-driven

A Bridge Too Far: Conceptual Distance and Creative Ideation

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