Abstract:Design researchers have long sought to understand the mechanisms that support creative idea development. However, one of the key challenges faced by the design community is how to effectively measure the nebulous construct of creativity. The social science and engineering communities have adopted two vastly different approaches to solving this problem, both of which have been deployed throughout engineering design research. The goal of this paper was to compare and contrast these two approaches using design ra… Show more
“…Each design was rated for novelty and quality on a Likert-type scale that ranged from one (low novelty or quality) to seven (high novelty or quality) (Besemer 1998; Besemer & O’Quin 1999; Miller et al 2020). Novelty was defined as “original and surprising,” and quality was defined as “value, logic, utility, and how understandable the ideas were” (Miller et al 2021, p. 031404-3). To determine a creativity score for each design, the average was taken between the novelty and quality ratings.…”
Section: Resultsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…These designs were rated for creativity using the Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT; Amabile 1982Amabile , 1996Amabil 1983). CAT is a commonly used technique for measuring creativity in many disciplines that relies on the ratings of subject-matter experts (Baer & Kaufman 2019;Miller et al 2021) and does not depend on a specific definition 13/33 of creativity but instead asserts that creativity is subjective and can be recognized and agreed upon by domain experts (Baer & Kaufman 2019).…”
Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) for engineering design are promising for their stress management, cognition and well-being benefits. Prior work concluded that engineering design is stressful and that each engineering design stage has unique stressors. This non-randomized study investigated the effect of an MBI on students’ cognitive stress and final design creativity during a multistage, hands-on design assessment. Data were collected using surveys, project deliverables and follow-up interviews. While no significant increase was found in students’ measured state mindfulness due to the intervention, students in the MBI condition were more likely to perceive the intervention positively compared to students in the control condition (alternative use tasks). Students in both conditions were found to have similar levels of state stress, which indicates that the MBI had no observable effect on students’ measured stress during design. Although students in the MBI condition were found to produce higher-quality final designs, there were no differences in design creativity or novelty. When data were clustered to identify types of student experiences, state mindfulness was found to meaningfully contribute, but state stress was not. Future research should continue to investigate MBIs in engineering design as a potential approach to improve design education and outcomes.
“…Each design was rated for novelty and quality on a Likert-type scale that ranged from one (low novelty or quality) to seven (high novelty or quality) (Besemer 1998; Besemer & O’Quin 1999; Miller et al 2020). Novelty was defined as “original and surprising,” and quality was defined as “value, logic, utility, and how understandable the ideas were” (Miller et al 2021, p. 031404-3). To determine a creativity score for each design, the average was taken between the novelty and quality ratings.…”
Section: Resultsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…These designs were rated for creativity using the Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT; Amabile 1982Amabile , 1996Amabil 1983). CAT is a commonly used technique for measuring creativity in many disciplines that relies on the ratings of subject-matter experts (Baer & Kaufman 2019;Miller et al 2021) and does not depend on a specific definition 13/33 of creativity but instead asserts that creativity is subjective and can be recognized and agreed upon by domain experts (Baer & Kaufman 2019).…”
Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) for engineering design are promising for their stress management, cognition and well-being benefits. Prior work concluded that engineering design is stressful and that each engineering design stage has unique stressors. This non-randomized study investigated the effect of an MBI on students’ cognitive stress and final design creativity during a multistage, hands-on design assessment. Data were collected using surveys, project deliverables and follow-up interviews. While no significant increase was found in students’ measured state mindfulness due to the intervention, students in the MBI condition were more likely to perceive the intervention positively compared to students in the control condition (alternative use tasks). Students in both conditions were found to have similar levels of state stress, which indicates that the MBI had no observable effect on students’ measured stress during design. Although students in the MBI condition were found to produce higher-quality final designs, there were no differences in design creativity or novelty. When data were clustered to identify types of student experiences, state mindfulness was found to meaningfully contribute, but state stress was not. Future research should continue to investigate MBIs in engineering design as a potential approach to improve design education and outcomes.
“…Participants were asked to sketch the idea in addition to writing a short description of the idea. This form of task during idea generation has been used in prior studies in design research (Starkey et al , 2016; Toh and Miller, 2016 a ; Miller et al , 2021). Fig.…”
Over the past decade, engineering design research has seen a significant surge of the discussion of empathy. As such, design researchers have been devoted in devising and assessing empathic design activities. While prior research has examined the utility of empathic design experiences on driving creative concept generation, little is known about the role of a designer's empathic tendencies in driving creative concept generation and selection in an engineering design project. Without this knowledge, we cannot be sure if, when, or how empathy influences the design process. Thus, the main goal of this paper was to identify the role of trait empathy in creative concept generation and selection in an engineering design student project. In order to achieve this objective, a study was conducted with 103 first-year engineering students during two design stages of an 8-week design project (concept generation and concept selection). The main findings from this paper highlighted that empathic concern tendencies positively impacted the generation of more ideas while personal distress tendencies negatively impacted the generation of more ideas. During concept selection, perspective-taking tendencies positively impacted participants’ propensity for selecting elegant ideas. This research took the first step in encouraging empirical investigations aimed at understanding the role of trait empathy across different stages of the design process.
“…It should be noted that multiple measures of uniqueness were used in our study in light of prior research suggesting the lack of agreement between objective and subjective measures of uniqueness [49], especially in studies related to DfAM [50]. Using multiple measures would help identify any potential differences in effects due to the choice of measure and also work toward triangulating our findings.…”
Designers from around the world have proposed numerous engineering design solutions for problems related to the COVID-19 pandemic, many of which leverage the rapid prototyping and manufacturing capabilities of additive manufacturing (AM). While some of these solutions are motivated by complex and urgent requirements (e.g., face masks), others are motivated by simpler and less urgent needs (e.g., hands-free door openers). Previous research suggests that problem definition influences the creativity of solutions generated for it. In this study, we investigate the relationship between the definition of problems related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the characteristics of AM solutions that were openly shared for these problems. Specifically, we analyze 26 AM solutions spanning three categories: (1) hands-free door openers (low complexity problem), (2) face shields (moderate complexity problem), and (3) face masks (high complexity problem). These designs were compared on (1) DfAM utilization, (2) manufacturability (i.e., build time, cost, and material usage), and (3) creativity. We see that the solutions designed for the high complexity problem, i.e., face masks, were least suitable for AM. Moreover, we see that solutions designed for the moderate complexity problem, i.e., face shields, had the lowest build time, build cost, and material consumption. Finally, we observe that the problem definition did not relate to the creativity of the AM solutions. In light of these findings, designers must sufficiently emphasize the AM suitability and manufacturability of their solutions when designing for urgent and complex problems in rapid response situations.
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