FLUENCY AND FLEXIBILITY OF CONCEPTS ARISING FROM PERSONALISED IDEATION TECHNIQUES
Year: 2011
Editor: Culley, S.J.; Hicks, B.J.; McAloone, T.C.; Howard, T.J. & Ion, B.
Author: Field, Bruce William
Series: ICED
Section: Design Education
Page(s): 35-44
Abstract
When presented with a novel problem, a novice designer faces the daunting task of formulating suitable concepts to develop into a solution. Some novices, with a creative flair, can easily conceive several potential solutions. Various design methods have been published to help engineers generate ideas. Studies show that designers who generate many possible solutions to a problem are more likely to identify one of high quality. At Monash University, 244 undergraduate engineering design students were individually presented with a real design problem in which a split pin fastener was deemed unreliable, and were asked to propose plausible options. Only 44 students chose to apply a systematic ideation technique. Those who used Morphology generated a slightly below-average number of options, of limited variety. Other students who applied a Classification technique generated a greater number of options, with more variety. In a parallel investigation, it was confirmed that those students with better spatial skills tended to generate options with more variety and perform better in the design course in which they were enrolled, whether or not they used systematic design methods.
Keywords: MORPHOLOGY; IDEATION TECHNIQUES; FLUENCY; FLEXIBILITY