Showing papers by "Colleen M. Seifert published in 2011"

A Comparison of Cognitive Heuristics Use between Engineers and Industrial Designers

Abstract: The present study focuses on an exploration and identification of design heuristics used in the ideation process in both industrial designers and engineering designers. Design heuristics are cognitive strategies that help the designer generate novel design concepts. These cognitive heuristics may differ based on the design problem, the context defined, and designers’ preferences.

Teaching Design Ideation

Abstract: Teaching Design IdeationAbstractA continuous challenge for engineering students is to generate creative designs. Many times,creative outcomes can be traced to idea generation; however, engineering students struggle togenerate multiple ideas (Cross, 2001) and become attached to first ideas, even when they realizethose ideas have serious flaws or challenges (Ball et al., 1994; Rowe, 1987; Ullman et al., 1988).Even when students suggest creative ideas, they do not use a specific strategy that can help themexplore the larger potential solution space, limiting their ability to suggest alternative creativesolutions.The challenge for engineering educators, on the other hand, is how to teach students creativity inengineering design courses. Based on advanced student and practitioner data from engineeringand industrial design, we developed design strategies to support diverse and creative conceptsduring initial idea generation for the design of products. We call these strategies “designheuristics,” because, once integrated into a designer’s ideation process, they serve as cognitiveshortcuts for creative, multiple, and diverse idea generation.In this study, we provided a brief educational session about the design heuristics toapproximately 100 students in an introductory engineering course, and analyzed their designconcepts as a result of heuristic use. This paper demonstrates example outcomes of thoseconcepts, along with a discussion of the creativity and diversity of their ideas, and a comparisonto some example concepts for the same design problem that were generated without the use

Collaborative idea generation using design heuristics

Abstract: 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.

Idea generation in collaborative settings

Abstract: Creative strategies play a central role in design ideation; yet, few studies have empirically tested the success of ideation strategies in engineering design. In previous work, we extracted and further developed design strategies, called “design heuristics,” to support exploration of the space of potential designs. Once integrated into an engineer’s ideation process, they serve as cognitive "shortcuts" for generating multiple, diverse, and creative ideas. In this study, professional engineers from a manufacturing company applied the design heuristics to their current work as part of a small group innovation workshop. Using design heuristics not only allowed the team to generate new solutions to their existing problems, but also to discover and define new design opportunities. Additionally, the group spent a much longer time developing multiple designs for each heuristic than individuals have in past studies [1]. Our results suggest that the combination of heuristics and group interplay may enhance diverse idea generation.

Design Heuristics: Cognitive Strategies for Creativity in Idea Generation

Abstract: This paper explores the use of heuristics as cognitive strategies invoked during the process of design. We propose new heuristics for design that provide ways to explore the problem space of potential designs, and often lead to the generation of creative solutions. We test whether Design Heuristics can be taught to novices, and whether doing so will improve the creativity of their resulting designs.