Design Inspiration During Ideation and Its Effects
Year: 2016
Editor: Julie Linsey, Maria Yang, and Yukari Nagai
Author: Blake, Perez; Bradley, Camburn; Kristin, Wood
Series: ICDC
ISBN: 978-1-904670-82-7
Abstract
The use of inspiration in ideation is pervasive among designers of all levels of experience. Inspiration can
be found serendipitously or actively sought out by the designer using directed search methods. In this
study, workshop participants were first asked to ideate solutions around a particular design problem. The
participants were then exposed to design principles from a distant field to help inspire and influence
additional solutions around a design problem. The provided examples employed simple visual
descriptions as well as textual descriptions of additive manufacturing centric design principles. This study
analyses the results of this exercise to determine the impact of these principles on the resulting designs
proposed by the participants. Herein we explore how the principles were applied to the problem if at all.
Dimensioned assessed include analogical versus direct principle transfer and form versus functional
feature transfer.
Keywords: Ideation, Creativity, Inspiration, Additive Manufacturing