Design by taking perspectives: How engineers explore problems, 2019
Background Problem exploration includes identifying, framing, and defining design problems and b... more Background Problem exploration includes identifying, framing, and defining design problems and bounding problem spaces. Intentional and unintentional changes in problem understanding naturally occur as designers explore design problems to create solutions. Through problem exploration, new perspectives on the problem can emerge along with new and diverse ideas for solutions. By considering multiple problem perspectives varying in scope and focus, designers position themselves to increase their understanding of the “real” problem and engage in more diverse idea generation processes leading to an increasing variety of potential solutions. Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate problem exploration to describe systematic patterns in the early design phase of mechanical engineers. Design/Method Thirty-five senior undergraduate students and experienced designers with mechanical engineering backgrounds worked individually following a think-aloud protocol. They explored problems and generated solutions for two of four randomly assigned design problems. After generating solutions, participants framed and rewrote problem statements to reflect their perspectives on the design problem their solution addressed. Participants also described their thinking aloud as they worked. Thematic analysis and a priori codes guided the identification of problem exploration patterns within and across problems. Results The set of patterns in engineers’ problem exploration that emerged from the analysis document alternative strategies in exploring problems to arrive at solutions. The results provide evidence that engineering designers, working individually, apply both problem-specific and more general strategies to explore design problems. Conclusions Our study identified common patterns in the explorations of presented problems by individual engineering designers. The observed patterns, described as Problem Exploration Strategies, capture alternative approaches to discovering problems and taking multiple problem perspectives during design. Learning about Problem Exploration Strategies may be helpful in creating alternative perspectives on a design problem, potentially leading to more varied and innovative solutions. This paper concludes with an extended example illustrating the process of applying Problem Exploration Strategies to move between problem perspectives to generate varied design outcomes.
Microfluidics has been an important method in providing answers to a wide variety of research que... more Microfluidics has been an important method in providing answers to a wide variety of research questions in chemistry, biochemistry , and biology. Microfluidic designers benefit from instructional textbooks describing foundational principles and practices in developing microfluidic devices; however, these texts do not offer guidance about how to generate design concepts for microfluidic devices. Research on design in related fields, such as mechanical engineering, documents the difficulties engineers face when attempting to generate novel ideas. For microfluidic device designers, support during idea generation may lead to greater exploration of potential innovations in design. To investigate successful idea generation in microfluid-ics, we analyzed successful microfluidic US patents, selecting those with the key word " microfluidic " over a 2-year period. After analyzing the features and functions of 235 patents, we identified 36 distinct design strategies in microfluidic devices. We document each strategy, and demonstrate their usefulness in a concept generation study of practitioners in microfluidic design. While some of the identified design strategies may be familiar to microfluidic designers, exposure to this large set of strategies helped participants generate more diverse, creative, and unique microfluidic design concepts, which are considered best practices in idea generation.
This symposium explores the relationship between expertise and competence, two terms used to desc... more This symposium explores the relationship between expertise and competence, two terms used to describe skilled performance. Expertise has long been a foundational topic of inquiry in Cognitive Science (Chi, Glaser, & Farr, 1988; Ericsson, Charness, Feltovich & Hoffman, 2006). Research in this area has produced a much better understanding of how expertise develops at the highest levels of performance (Ericsson et al., 2006). It might seem reasonable that theories of expertise might inform the methods used to assess ...
Abstract Research in engineering design has revealed approaches and processes used by engineers t... more Abstract Research in engineering design has revealed approaches and processes used by engineers to move through a design task. While studies have made evident general approaches in ideation, it is unclear how multiple and varied ideas are generated. When faced with a design problem, how do engineers generate multiple alternative solutions? How do they move from one idea to another? Research in psychology has shown that decision-making often relies on simplified cognitive heuristics.
ABSTRACT How do designers explore a design space to generate diverse solutions? This work focuses... more ABSTRACT How do designers explore a design space to generate diverse solutions? This work focuses on the identification of design heuristics used in the ideation process in the domains of industrial design and engineering design. Design heuristics are cognitive strategies applied to a design problem to help designers create novel solutions. In a think-aloud protocol, engineers and industrial designers with varying levels of experience were asked to develop multiple concepts for a novel design problem.
How do designers explore a design space to generate diverse solutions? This work focuses on the i... more How do designers explore a design space to generate diverse solutions? This work focuses on the identification of design heuristics used in the ideation process in the domains of industrial design and...
This work reports on a case study in which we followed the design processes of eight student
desi... more This work reports on a case study in which we followed the design processes of eight student design teams enrolled in a semester-long upper-level design course involving a new ideation tool, “Design Heuristics.” We observed how students formulated concepts and implemented ideas using the Design Heuristics tool in their ongoing projects. Our analysis revealed that all teams carried their heuristic-inspired concepts to their latter stage designs, with seven teams carrying their heuristic-inspired concepts to their final designs and prototypes. As all eight teams studied were working on different design problems, our findings demonstrate the utility and practicality of Design Heuristics across various design contexts. In addition, we found patterns in the design teams’ general approaches to the design process, including synthesis, transformation, and abstraction. Seven of the eight teams showed some evidence of concept synthesis in their design processes, but often struggled in synthesizing multiple concepts together. Additionally, all teams seemed to directly transfer their ideas, concepts, or prototypes from one phase of the design process to another without abstraction (the use of a heuristic in an unanticipated way as a prompt to think of something new), while only three teams showed evidence of abstract transformation to develop their ideas across design process phases (such as from an early design phase to a later one). Our findings provide pedagogical recommendations for using the Design Heuristics tool in design classes and suggest opportunities for further research related to concept generation, development, and synthesis throughout the design process.
Design by taking perspectives: How engineers explore problems, 2019
Background Problem exploration includes identifying, framing, and defining design problems and b... more Background Problem exploration includes identifying, framing, and defining design problems and bounding problem spaces. Intentional and unintentional changes in problem understanding naturally occur as designers explore design problems to create solutions. Through problem exploration, new perspectives on the problem can emerge along with new and diverse ideas for solutions. By considering multiple problem perspectives varying in scope and focus, designers position themselves to increase their understanding of the “real” problem and engage in more diverse idea generation processes leading to an increasing variety of potential solutions. Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate problem exploration to describe systematic patterns in the early design phase of mechanical engineers. Design/Method Thirty-five senior undergraduate students and experienced designers with mechanical engineering backgrounds worked individually following a think-aloud protocol. They explored problems and generated solutions for two of four randomly assigned design problems. After generating solutions, participants framed and rewrote problem statements to reflect their perspectives on the design problem their solution addressed. Participants also described their thinking aloud as they worked. Thematic analysis and a priori codes guided the identification of problem exploration patterns within and across problems. Results The set of patterns in engineers’ problem exploration that emerged from the analysis document alternative strategies in exploring problems to arrive at solutions. The results provide evidence that engineering designers, working individually, apply both problem-specific and more general strategies to explore design problems. Conclusions Our study identified common patterns in the explorations of presented problems by individual engineering designers. The observed patterns, described as Problem Exploration Strategies, capture alternative approaches to discovering problems and taking multiple problem perspectives during design. Learning about Problem Exploration Strategies may be helpful in creating alternative perspectives on a design problem, potentially leading to more varied and innovative solutions. This paper concludes with an extended example illustrating the process of applying Problem Exploration Strategies to move between problem perspectives to generate varied design outcomes.
Microfluidics has been an important method in providing answers to a wide variety of research que... more Microfluidics has been an important method in providing answers to a wide variety of research questions in chemistry, biochemistry , and biology. Microfluidic designers benefit from instructional textbooks describing foundational principles and practices in developing microfluidic devices; however, these texts do not offer guidance about how to generate design concepts for microfluidic devices. Research on design in related fields, such as mechanical engineering, documents the difficulties engineers face when attempting to generate novel ideas. For microfluidic device designers, support during idea generation may lead to greater exploration of potential innovations in design. To investigate successful idea generation in microfluid-ics, we analyzed successful microfluidic US patents, selecting those with the key word " microfluidic " over a 2-year period. After analyzing the features and functions of 235 patents, we identified 36 distinct design strategies in microfluidic devices. We document each strategy, and demonstrate their usefulness in a concept generation study of practitioners in microfluidic design. While some of the identified design strategies may be familiar to microfluidic designers, exposure to this large set of strategies helped participants generate more diverse, creative, and unique microfluidic design concepts, which are considered best practices in idea generation.
This symposium explores the relationship between expertise and competence, two terms used to desc... more This symposium explores the relationship between expertise and competence, two terms used to describe skilled performance. Expertise has long been a foundational topic of inquiry in Cognitive Science (Chi, Glaser, & Farr, 1988; Ericsson, Charness, Feltovich & Hoffman, 2006). Research in this area has produced a much better understanding of how expertise develops at the highest levels of performance (Ericsson et al., 2006). It might seem reasonable that theories of expertise might inform the methods used to assess ...
Abstract Research in engineering design has revealed approaches and processes used by engineers t... more Abstract Research in engineering design has revealed approaches and processes used by engineers to move through a design task. While studies have made evident general approaches in ideation, it is unclear how multiple and varied ideas are generated. When faced with a design problem, how do engineers generate multiple alternative solutions? How do they move from one idea to another? Research in psychology has shown that decision-making often relies on simplified cognitive heuristics.
ABSTRACT How do designers explore a design space to generate diverse solutions? This work focuses... more ABSTRACT How do designers explore a design space to generate diverse solutions? This work focuses on the identification of design heuristics used in the ideation process in the domains of industrial design and engineering design. Design heuristics are cognitive strategies applied to a design problem to help designers create novel solutions. In a think-aloud protocol, engineers and industrial designers with varying levels of experience were asked to develop multiple concepts for a novel design problem.
How do designers explore a design space to generate diverse solutions? This work focuses on the i... more How do designers explore a design space to generate diverse solutions? This work focuses on the identification of design heuristics used in the ideation process in the domains of industrial design and...
This work reports on a case study in which we followed the design processes of eight student
desi... more This work reports on a case study in which we followed the design processes of eight student design teams enrolled in a semester-long upper-level design course involving a new ideation tool, “Design Heuristics.” We observed how students formulated concepts and implemented ideas using the Design Heuristics tool in their ongoing projects. Our analysis revealed that all teams carried their heuristic-inspired concepts to their latter stage designs, with seven teams carrying their heuristic-inspired concepts to their final designs and prototypes. As all eight teams studied were working on different design problems, our findings demonstrate the utility and practicality of Design Heuristics across various design contexts. In addition, we found patterns in the design teams’ general approaches to the design process, including synthesis, transformation, and abstraction. Seven of the eight teams showed some evidence of concept synthesis in their design processes, but often struggled in synthesizing multiple concepts together. Additionally, all teams seemed to directly transfer their ideas, concepts, or prototypes from one phase of the design process to another without abstraction (the use of a heuristic in an unanticipated way as a prompt to think of something new), while only three teams showed evidence of abstract transformation to develop their ideas across design process phases (such as from an early design phase to a later one). Our findings provide pedagogical recommendations for using the Design Heuristics tool in design classes and suggest opportunities for further research related to concept generation, development, and synthesis throughout the design process.
International Conference on Engineering Design (ICED), Aug 2011
Creative strategies play a central role in successful concept generation; however, few studies ha... more Creative strategies play a central role in successful concept generation; however, few studies have documented the application of creative strategies in engineering design. From protocol studies of engineering and industrial designers, heuristics, or cognitive shortcuts, were identified that support novel and diverse concept generation [1]. In this study, professional engineers from a manufacturing company participated in a small group innovation workshop using the developed “Design Heuristics.” The team was videotaped as they worked with the instructional cards we developed based on the heuristics. This paper reports on the investigation of the design team’s idea generation process with five of the cards, analyzing the diversity of their ideas, how Design Heuristics were used, and their role in stimulating both new design solutions and problems. The introduction of a specific design heuristic often guided designers to a different part of the design space, and facilitated them in considering other unprompted heuristics.
Annual Conference of American Society of Engineering Education, Jun 2011
We developed a set of teachable design ideation strategies to support diversity in concept genera... more We developed a set of teachable design ideation strategies to support diversity in concept generation. These strategies, called “Design Heuristics,” are intended to facilitate the discovery of diverse concept ideas in the design of products. Design Heuristics were extracted from the work of students and professionals from engineering and industrial design. When applied to a new design problem, Design Heuristics serve as cognitive "shortcuts" for exploring the space of possible design solutions. In this study, we provided an educational session about Design Heuristics to 48 students in an introductory engineering course, and analyzed the design concepts they generated for a specific design task. The results showed that concepts guided by the Design Heuristics were more original than concepts that did not include their application. In a short intervention, some students were able to make use of the heuristics, and to generate original concepts. The findings demonstrate that Design Heuristics facilitate exploration of the design space beyond the “obvious” solutions.
International Conference of Engineering and Product Design Education (EPDE), Sep 2013
Design Heuristics are an idea generation tool based on empirical evidence from successful designs... more Design Heuristics are an idea generation tool based on empirical evidence from successful designs. The heuristics serve as cognitive “shortcuts” that encourage exploration of novel directions during concept generation. Design Heuristics were identified from an analysis of hundreds of innovative products and from studies of expert engineering and industrial designers. The research reported in this paper examines the utility of Design Heuristics instruction in two different classroom settings with engineering and industrial design students. The aim was to test whether design heuristics can play a useful role in creating new designs and overcoming fixations in the design process. Twenty novice industrial design students and forty-eight novice engineering students were given a short design task along with a set of twelve Design Heuristics. The heuristics were illustrated on cards describing their use and two example images of products using each heuristic. The students participated in a short instructional session on the use of heuristics, and were asked to generate concepts for a given problem. The results showed that the Design Heuristics helped the students to generate more diverse candidate concepts, and that the concepts they produced were creative and complex. Students sometimes applied multiple heuristics within a single design, leading to more complex and well-developed solutions.
This paper explores the use of design heuristics as cognitive strategies in the creation of innov... more This paper explores the use of design heuristics as cognitive strategies in the creation of innovative products. Design heuristics are guidelines that help the designer to consider areas of possible designs that may not otherwise come to mind during the idea generation stage. Current design theory lacks a systematic methodology to identify the strategies used in the creation of innovative products. This paper presents the hypothesis that innovative products often reflect the application of design heuristics in the creative process. The study identifies 40 heuristic principles extracted through a content analysis of key features and functional elements in the designs of 400 award-winning products. These heuristics are defined according to their perceived role in transforming a product idea into a novel design. This methodology provides designers with a set of heuristic principles demonstrated to be useful to creative designers and a process by which they can be applied to create new designs.
Annual Conference of American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE), 2012
Design Heuristics is an empirically driven design ideation tool intended to support variation and... more Design Heuristics is an empirically driven design ideation tool intended to support variation and novelty in concept generation. The set of heuristics was extracted from observations of professional and novice designers at work, and by analyses of a large set of award-winning products. Through the observations of designers at work, we realized that the subconscious use of heuristics could manifest as either a modification of an existing concept or as the development of a new idea seemingly from scratch. Acknowledging this, we sought to understand how Design Heuristics are best taught to novice designers. In this study, we conducted separate instructional sessions on Design Heuristic use, teaching them as a concept generation technique and as a concept transformation technique. Our results show that both approaches yielded design improvements, though the variation between concepts tends to be larger when using a generative approach. Also, Design Heuristics in both approaches helped students elaborate their concepts, generate new ideas, and encouraged them to push forward with previous ideas. These findings contribute to our knowledge about how to best teach Design Heuristics in the classroom.
This paper describes research investigating the role of Design Heuristics, a concept generation t... more This paper describes research investigating the role of Design Heuristics, a concept generation tool used during the design ideation process to support engineers in generating multiple, diverse concepts. Design Heuristics have been successfully tested in engineering classrooms, and have been readily adopted by students to help them create more, more creative, and more diverse concepts. This research brings evidence, methods, and perspectives from multiple disciplines, including cognitive and social psychology, to bear on the problem of innovation in engineering design.
Annual Conference of American Society of Engineering Education, Jun 2010
Research in engineering design has revealed approaches and processes used by designers to move th... more Research in engineering design has revealed approaches and processes used by designers to move through a design task. While studies have made evident general approaches engineers use in ideation, it is unclear how multiple and varied ideas are generated and related. When faced with a design problem, how do engineers generate multiple alternative solutions? How do they move from one idea to another? Research in psychology has shown that decision making often relies on simplified cognitive heuristics. Heuristics are reasoning processes that do not guarantee the best solution, but often lead to potential solutions by providing a “short-cut” within cognitive processing1.
Using a case-study framework, this research examined the types of overall approach and local heuristics engineers used to explore potential designs solutions. Using a think-aloud protocol, engineers at varying levels of expertise were asked to develop conceptual designs for a solar-powered cooking device that was inexpensive, portable, and suitable for family use. The instructions emphasized generating a variety of solution types, and technical requirements were omitted to encourage open consideration of alternatives. Following the think-aloud session, the engineers participated in a retrospective interview designed to provide additional perspective on the source of their ideas and a deeper understanding whether they were aware of their own methods of ideation. The results show evidence of frequent heuristic use in some of the solution sets proposed by engineers, while other solution sets were limited to very few concepts and lacked evidence of many heuristics. Engineers in this study did not report conscious application of local heuristics; that is, they were not aware of applying these techniques in their approaches to concept generation. Evidence for the utility of cognitive heuristics in the ideation stage is examined, along with guidelines for lessons incorporating design heuristics.
International Conference on Design Computing and Cognition (DCC), Jul 2010
How does concept generation differ between trained engineers and industrial designers? Both grou... more How does concept generation differ between trained engineers and industrial designers? Both groups are often called upon to create new products and innovative redesigns; yet, their training in creative techniques differs greatly. In industrial design, training emphasizes repeated experience with design concepts and a critique process to educate students. In engineering training, a greater emphasis is typically placed on solving technical issues within a design; however, engineers are also called upon to create novel designs and concepts, and receive training on a variety of techniques to stimulate creativity [6]. The present study focuses on the exploration and identification of types and frequency of design heuristics used in the ideation process in both the industrial design and engineering design domains. Design heuristics are cognitive strategies that, when applied to a design problem, help the designer explore novel design solutions. These heuristics may differ based on the design problem, the context defined, and the designers’ preferences.
In a think-aloud protocol, five engineers and five industrial designers with varying levels of experience were asked to develop product concepts for a novel problem. We analyzed these protocols to document and com-pare industrial designers’ and engineers’ concept generation approaches and what evidence existed of heuristics in their proposed solutions. The results show evidence of heuristic use and effectiveness of heuristics in generating diverse, creative, and practical concepts, suggesting that heuristics stimulate higher-quality designs. Also, some differences were ob-served between the designers from the two domains, in terms of their approach to the design problem, how they utilized each heuristic in generating alternatives, and the strategies they used to reduce design fixation.
Proceedings of LearnxDesign: The 3rd International Conference for Design Education Researchers and PreK-16 Design Educators
Idea generation has frequently been explored in design education as an exercise of students’ “inn... more Idea generation has frequently been explored in design education as an exercise of students’ “innate” creativity, and few tools or techniques are offered to scaffold ideation ability. As students develop their design skills, we expect them to demonstrate increasing ideation flexibility—a cognitive and social ability to see a problem from multiple perspectives, and to create more varied concepts within the problem space. In this study, we introduced three tools— functional decomposition, Design Heuristics, and affinity diagramming—to aid students’ ideation in a three-hour workshop. Participants included 20 students in a junior industrial design studio arranged in five pre-existing teams. These participants first decomposed the functions within an existing set of concepts they had generated, then selected a specific function and generated additional concepts using the Design Heuristics ideation method. Finally, teams organized these concepts using affinity diagramming to find patterns and additional concepts. Our findings suggest that this process encouraged students to try multiple ways of examining the existing problem space, resulting in a broadened set of final concepts. More striking, the instructional activities served to foreground differences in team members’ understanding of the problem they were addressing, fostering alignment of their problem statement and aiding in its further development.
International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 2017
Numerous studies have shown the value of introducing cognitive supports to encourage the developm... more Numerous studies have shown the value of introducing cognitive supports to encourage the development of creative ability, and researchers have developed a variety of methods to aid in generating ideas. However, design students often struggle to explore more ideas after their initial ideas are exhausted. In this study, an empirically validated tool for idea generation, called Design Heuristics, was introduced as a means of productively pushing past creative exhaustion in an industrial design course at a large Midwestern university. Students worked on a simple design task on their own, generating an average of 6.1 concepts in a 30-min session; then, after 10 min of instruction on the Design Heuristics tool, students generated an average of 2.8 additional concepts for the same task using Design Heuristics for an additional 30 min. The concepts created in this second session using Design Heuristics were rated as higher in novelty, specificity and relevance. These results suggest that students benefit from introducing support tools following a period of working on their own ideas. Once their own ideas are exhausted, students may be more open to using and learning from support tools, and these tools may support skill development while producing higher quality outcomes.
Concept generation techniques can help to support designers in generating multiple ideas during d... more Concept generation techniques can help to support designers in generating multiple ideas during design tasks. However, differences in the ways these techniques guide idea generation are not well understood. This study investigated the qualities of concepts generated by beginning engineering designers using one of three different idea generation techniques. Working individually on an open-ended engineering design problem, 102 first year engineering students learned and applied one of three different ideation techniques—design heuristics, morphological analysis, or individual brainstorming (using brainstorming rules to generate ideas working alone)—to a given design problem. Using the consensual assessment technique, all concepts were rated for creativity, elaboration, and practicality, and all participants' concept sets were rated for quantity and diversity. The simplest technique, individual brainstorming, led to the most concepts within the short (25 minute) ideation session. All three techniques produced creative concepts averaging near the scale midpoint. The elaboration of the concepts was significantly higher with design heuristics and morphological analysis techniques, and the practicality was significantly higher using design heuristics. Controlling for number of concepts generated, there were no significant differences in diversity of solution sets across groups. These results demonstrate that the use of design heuristics does not limit the creativity of ideation outcomes, and helps students to develop more elaborate and practical ideas. Design heuristics show advantages in the initial idea generation phase for beginning engineering students. These findings point to specific strengths in different ideation techniques, and the value of exposing beginning designers to multiple techniques for idea generation.
Current design theory lacks a systematic method to identify what designers know that helps them t... more Current design theory lacks a systematic method to identify what designers know that helps them to create innovative products. In the early stages of idea generation, designers may find novel ideas come readily to mind, or may become fixated on their own or existing products. This may limit the ability to consider more, and more varied candidate concepts that may potentially lead to innovation. To aid in idea generation, we sought to identify “design heuristics,” or “rules of thumb,” evident in award-winning designs. In this paper, we demonstrate a content analysis method for discovering heuristics in the designs of innovative products. Our method depends on comparison to a baseline of existing products so that the innovative change can be readily identified. Through an analysis of key features and functional elements in the designs of over 400 award-winning products, forty heuristic principles were extracted. These Design Heuristics are outlined according to their perceived role in changing an existing product concept into a novel design, and examples of other products using the heuristics are provided. To demonstrate the ease of use of these Design Heuristics, we examined outcomes from a classroom study, and found that concepts created using Design Heuristics were rated as more creative and varied. The analysis of changes from existing to innovative products can provide evidence of useful heuristic principles to apply in creating new designs.
How do product designers create multiple concepts to consider? To address this question, we combi... more How do product designers create multiple concepts to consider? To address this question, we combine evidence from four empirical studies of design process and outcomes, including award-winning products, multiple concepts for a project by an experienced industrial designer, and concept sets from 48 industrial and engineering designers for a single design problem. This compilation of over 3450 design process outcomes is analyzed to extract concept variations evident across design problems and solutions. The resulting set of patterns, in the form of 77 Design Heuristics, catalog how designers appear to introduce intentional variation into conceptual product designs. These heuristics provide 'cognitive shortcuts' that can help designers generate more, and more varied, candidate concepts to consider in the early phases of design.
This paper explores " problem exploration heuristics, " or cognitive strategies used to identify ... more This paper explores " problem exploration heuristics, " or cognitive strategies used to identify and reframe design problem descriptions. The way a design problem is structured influences the types of ideas a designer generates; in particular, some framings may lead to more creative solutions and using multiple framings can support diverse solutions. Most existing problem exploration strategies have not been derived from empirical studies of engineering design practice. Thus, in our work, we drew upon a sample of engineering design problems and analyzed how the problem descriptions evolved during design. Examining iterations on the problem description allowed us to identify heuristics evident in designers' re-crafting of problem descriptions. Heuristics were defined based on the elements in each problem description and their perceived role in transforming the problem. We present a systematic methodology for identifying problem exploration heuristics, and describe five unique Problem Exploration Heuristics commonly observed in structuring design briefs.
International Conference of Design Research Society (DRS)
Ideally, designers move past existing ideas to create novel designs. But designers often experien... more Ideally, designers move past existing ideas to create novel designs. But designers often experience “fixation,” where new ideas are similar to existing designs. An example concept in a brief, or early attachment to one’s initial ideas, can limit the range of designs considered. This research study explored the use of “Design Heuristics,” to overcome fixation in a design education setting. Design Heuristics are a set of prompts intended to point designers toward different types of concepts. The 77 prompts are derived from empirical studies of designers, and have been shown to be effective in developing design capability. In the study, novice engineering design students first used brainstorming, and continued to generate more ideas using Design Heuristics. The results showed that ideas created during brainstorming were more similar to initial ideas. Concepts created with Design Heuristics were judged less similar and more creative. This suggests fixation on initial examples can be mitigated by using tools like Design Heuristics during design, which contributes to how educators can help students develop ideation skills.
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Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate problem exploration to describe systematic patterns in the early design phase of mechanical engineers.
Design/Method Thirty-five senior undergraduate students and experienced designers with mechanical engineering backgrounds worked individually following a think-aloud protocol. They explored problems and generated solutions for two of four randomly assigned design problems. After generating solutions, participants framed and rewrote problem statements to reflect their perspectives on the design problem their solution addressed. Participants also described their thinking aloud as they worked. Thematic analysis and a priori codes guided the identification of problem exploration patterns within and across problems.
Results The set of patterns in engineers’ problem exploration that emerged from the analysis document alternative strategies in exploring problems to arrive at solutions. The results provide evidence that engineering designers, working individually, apply both problem-specific and more general strategies to explore design problems.
Conclusions Our study identified common patterns in the explorations of presented problems by individual engineering designers. The observed patterns, described as Problem Exploration Strategies, capture alternative approaches to discovering problems and taking multiple problem perspectives during design. Learning about Problem Exploration Strategies may be helpful in creating alternative perspectives on a design problem, potentially leading to more varied and innovative solutions. This paper concludes with an extended example illustrating the process of applying Problem Exploration Strategies to move between problem perspectives to generate varied design outcomes.
design teams enrolled in a semester-long upper-level design course involving a new ideation
tool, “Design Heuristics.” We observed how students formulated concepts and implemented
ideas using the Design Heuristics tool in their ongoing projects. Our analysis revealed that all
teams carried their heuristic-inspired concepts to their latter stage designs, with seven teams
carrying their heuristic-inspired concepts to their final designs and prototypes. As all eight teams
studied were working on different design problems, our findings demonstrate the utility and
practicality of Design Heuristics across various design contexts. In addition, we found patterns in
the design teams’ general approaches to the design process, including synthesis, transformation,
and abstraction. Seven of the eight teams showed some evidence of concept synthesis in their
design processes, but often struggled in synthesizing multiple concepts together. Additionally, all
teams seemed to directly transfer their ideas, concepts, or prototypes from one phase of the
design process to another without abstraction (the use of a heuristic in an unanticipated way as a
prompt to think of something new), while only three teams showed evidence of abstract
transformation to develop their ideas across design process phases (such as from an early design
phase to a later one). Our findings provide pedagogical recommendations for using the Design
Heuristics tool in design classes and suggest opportunities for further research related to concept
generation, development, and synthesis throughout the design process.
Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate problem exploration to describe systematic patterns in the early design phase of mechanical engineers.
Design/Method Thirty-five senior undergraduate students and experienced designers with mechanical engineering backgrounds worked individually following a think-aloud protocol. They explored problems and generated solutions for two of four randomly assigned design problems. After generating solutions, participants framed and rewrote problem statements to reflect their perspectives on the design problem their solution addressed. Participants also described their thinking aloud as they worked. Thematic analysis and a priori codes guided the identification of problem exploration patterns within and across problems.
Results The set of patterns in engineers’ problem exploration that emerged from the analysis document alternative strategies in exploring problems to arrive at solutions. The results provide evidence that engineering designers, working individually, apply both problem-specific and more general strategies to explore design problems.
Conclusions Our study identified common patterns in the explorations of presented problems by individual engineering designers. The observed patterns, described as Problem Exploration Strategies, capture alternative approaches to discovering problems and taking multiple problem perspectives during design. Learning about Problem Exploration Strategies may be helpful in creating alternative perspectives on a design problem, potentially leading to more varied and innovative solutions. This paper concludes with an extended example illustrating the process of applying Problem Exploration Strategies to move between problem perspectives to generate varied design outcomes.
design teams enrolled in a semester-long upper-level design course involving a new ideation
tool, “Design Heuristics.” We observed how students formulated concepts and implemented
ideas using the Design Heuristics tool in their ongoing projects. Our analysis revealed that all
teams carried their heuristic-inspired concepts to their latter stage designs, with seven teams
carrying their heuristic-inspired concepts to their final designs and prototypes. As all eight teams
studied were working on different design problems, our findings demonstrate the utility and
practicality of Design Heuristics across various design contexts. In addition, we found patterns in
the design teams’ general approaches to the design process, including synthesis, transformation,
and abstraction. Seven of the eight teams showed some evidence of concept synthesis in their
design processes, but often struggled in synthesizing multiple concepts together. Additionally, all
teams seemed to directly transfer their ideas, concepts, or prototypes from one phase of the
design process to another without abstraction (the use of a heuristic in an unanticipated way as a
prompt to think of something new), while only three teams showed evidence of abstract
transformation to develop their ideas across design process phases (such as from an early design
phase to a later one). Our findings provide pedagogical recommendations for using the Design
Heuristics tool in design classes and suggest opportunities for further research related to concept
generation, development, and synthesis throughout the design process.
sessions on Design Heuristic use, teaching them as a concept generation technique and as a concept transformation technique. Our results show that both approaches yielded design improvements, though the variation between concepts tends to be larger when using a generative approach. Also, Design Heuristics in both approaches helped students elaborate their concepts, generate new ideas, and encouraged them to push forward with previous ideas. These findings contribute to our knowledge about how to best teach Design Heuristics in the classroom.
Using a case-study framework, this research examined the types of overall approach and local heuristics engineers used to explore potential designs solutions. Using a think-aloud protocol, engineers at varying levels of expertise were asked to develop conceptual designs for a solar-powered cooking device that was inexpensive, portable, and suitable for family use. The instructions emphasized generating a variety of solution types, and technical requirements were omitted to encourage open consideration of alternatives. Following the think-aloud session, the engineers participated in a retrospective interview designed to provide additional perspective on the source of their ideas and a deeper understanding whether they were aware of their own methods of ideation. The results show evidence of frequent heuristic use in some of the solution sets proposed by engineers, while other solution sets were limited to very few concepts and lacked evidence of many heuristics. Engineers in this study did not report conscious application of local heuristics; that is, they were not aware of applying these techniques in their approaches to concept generation. Evidence for the utility of cognitive heuristics in the ideation stage is examined, along with guidelines for lessons incorporating design heuristics.
The present study focuses on the exploration and identification of types and frequency of design heuristics used in the ideation process in both the industrial design and engineering design domains. Design heuristics are cognitive strategies that, when applied to a design problem, help the designer explore novel design solutions. These heuristics may differ based on the design problem, the context defined, and the designers’ preferences.
In a think-aloud protocol, five engineers and five industrial designers with varying levels of experience were asked to develop product concepts for a novel problem. We analyzed these protocols to document and com-pare industrial designers’ and engineers’ concept generation approaches and what evidence existed of heuristics in their proposed solutions. The results show evidence of heuristic use and effectiveness of heuristics in generating diverse, creative, and practical concepts, suggesting that heuristics stimulate higher-quality designs. Also, some differences were ob-served between the designers from the two domains, in terms of their approach to the design problem, how they utilized each heuristic in generating alternatives, and the strategies they used to reduce design fixation.