A novel systematic approach for analysing exploratory design ideation

Two kinds of design ideation process may be distinguished in terms of the problems addressed: (i) solution-focused, i.e. generating solutions to address a fixed problem specifying a desired output; and (ii) exploratory, i.e. considering different interpretations of an open-ended problem and generati...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of engineering design Vol. 31; no. 3; pp. 127 - 149
Main Authors Hay, L., Duffy, A. H. B., Grealy, M., Tahsiri, M., McTeague, C., Vuletic, T.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Taylor & Francis 03.03.2020
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Coding
Creative design
Design
Design analysis
design novelty
exploratory design
Medical imaging
novelty assessment
novelty metrics
Performance evaluation
Product design
Sketches
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Summary:Two kinds of design ideation process may be distinguished in terms of the problems addressed: (i) solution-focused, i.e. generating solutions to address a fixed problem specifying a desired output; and (ii) exploratory, i.e. considering different interpretations of an open-ended problem and generating associated solutions. Existing systematic analysis approaches focus on the former; the literature is lacking such an approach for the latter. In this paper, we provide a means to systematically analyse exploratory ideation for the first time through a new approach: Analysis of Exploratory Design Ideation (AEDI). AEDI involves: (1) open-ended ideation tasks; (2) coding of explored problems and solutions from sketches; and (3) evaluating ideation performance based on coding. We applied AEDI to 812 concept sketches from 19 open-ended tasks completed during a neuroimaging study of 30 professional product design engineers. Results demonstrate that the approach provides: (i) consistent tasks that stimulate problem exploration; (ii) a reliable means of coding explored problems and solutions; and (iii) an appropriate way to rank/compare designers' performance. AEDI enables the benefits of systematic analysis (e.g. greater comparability, replicability, and efficiency) to be realised in exploratory ideation research, and studies using open-ended problems more generally. Future improvements include increasing coding validity and reliability.
ISSN:0954-4828
1466-1837
DOI:10.1080/09544828.2019.1662381