Examining design fixation in engineering idea generation: the role of example modality

Abstract

Design fixation is a major concern in engineering idea generation because it restricts the solution space in which designers search for their ideas. For designers to be more creative, it is essential to mitigate their fixation. The majority of studies in the literature investigate the role of pictorial stimuli in design fixation; however, the role of examples presented in other formats, including physical prototypes, is largely unknown. This paper presents a study that compares design fixation, in novice designers, caused by pictorial and physical representations. The effects of defixating materials proposed by Linsey et al (2010) are also investigated. The results show that physical formats cause a higher magnitude of fixation compared to pictorial form; however, participants utilizing physical examples produce a greater quantity of non-redundant ideas.Consistent with prior studies, the results also indicate that the defixation materials may not facilitate mitigation of novice designers' fixation.

The effects of representation on idea generation and design fixation: A study comparing sketches and function trees

“…Studies show that designers fixate to examples given to them whether the examples are in the form of sketches, line drawings, photographs, or physical models (Cardoso & Badke-Schaub, 2011;Cardoso, Badke-Schaub, & Luz, 2009;Christensen & Schunn, 2005;Kiriyama & Yamamoto, 1998;Linsey, et al, 2010;Purcell & Gero, 1996;Viswanathan & Linsey, 2010;Viswanathan & Linsey, 2011;Viswanathan & Linsey, 2012a, 2012bViswanathan & Linsey, 2013a). Previous studies on design fixation compare other representations, including line drawings to photographs (Cardoso & Badke-Schaub, 2011;Cardoso, et al, 2009), sketches to physical models (Viswanathan & Linsey, 2013b;Youmans, 2011), and sketches to textual representations (McKoy, Vargas-Hernández, Summers, & Shah, 2001). All of these studies present poor examples to participants in order to reveal where design fixation negatively influences the design process.…”

“…For instance, Fu et al (2010) measure how good and poor examples influence team convergence and how teams fixate to the examples given. In fixation studies that use poor examples to solely measure fixation to features of the examples, designers copy the poor features of an example without realizing that they are doing so (Linsey, et al, 2010;Viswanathan & Linsey, 2013a, 2013b, 2013c). This is the exact definition of fixation and an undesirable engineering design behavior.…”

“…Figure 2 shows the gas-powered press sheller and the solution description. The design chosen is one that has been used in other studies (Fu, et al, 2010;Linsey, et al, 2010;Viswanathan & Linsey, 2013a, 2013b, 2013c. In the first study that utilized the gaspowered press sheller design (Linsey, et al, 2010), the authors chose the example based upon features commonly found in participant solutions from prior experiments.…”

“…In the context of the problem given, the design is poor because it uses a gas-powered press, which is an unsustainable and expensive energy source that would not be effective. Since the example chosen proves to cause fixation (Fu, et al, 2010;Linsey, et al, 2010;Viswanathan & Linsey, 2013a, 2013b, 2013c, we want to determine how function trees may help to reduce this fixation. Table 1 shows the features within the gas-powered peanut sheller example that was provided to the participants.…”

A study on the effects of example familiarity and modality on design fixation

“…Because of this, for the purpose of this study, the gas press example was considered as a familiar example. This example was used by various other studies on design fixation as well (Viswanathan & Linsey, 2013a, 2013b. The hand sketch of gas press example provided to the participants in the gas press picture condition.…”