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With increased globalization, Internet connectivity, and competitive economic conditions, global organizations are increasingly recognizing the importance of effective global collaborations. Hence, there is a need to extend the use of psychological teaming strategies for domestic team-formations to also accommodate teams that are globally distributed. Previous research efforts have investigated psychological factors for design creativity and effective global collaboration; however, few have addressed these factors concurrently. The focus of this dissertation is therefore on the formation of creative design teams in a globally distributed and culturally diverse environment. This dissertation provides a theoretical foundation for teaming methodologies for globally distributed and culturally diverse teams. It also presents a new global collaborative and creative design team formation method: the Global Design Team Formation (GDTF) method. This is a novel computational method that uses potential team members' psychological and cultural traits, in an attempt to form effective teams that are psychologically and culturally cohesive. The method is based upon and merges Jung's theory with the theoretical frameworks of (a) Teamology and (b) Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE), and it provides a quantitative representation scheme combining scores from the Meyers-Briggs Test Indicator (MBTI) and the Kogut and Singh index (KS index) using the GLOBE dataset. The GDTF method has been applied to three populations. The control group consisted of 42 three-person teams in a sophomore-level mechanical engineering design course at a US university, to validate the Teamology framework, which is based on Jung's and Belbin's theories. The GDTF method was then applied to two international teaming situations: a globally team-taught course on engineering design at the senior and graduate levels with 8 globally distributed teams across the US, Germany, Mexico, and China; and 23 dyadic teams of US undergraduate students performing automotive research with German graduate students in Germany. Results of this research shows that psychologically balanced and cohesive teams provide improved design creativity, and that this performance difference can be predicted using the team members' psychological traits. Statistical analysis indicates that creativity in engineering design depends on the presence of Te, Fe, Fi, and Si psychological traits, in decreasing order of importance, within the teams. The importance of these traits remains dominant in global teams, though global diversity negatively impacts team cohesiveness and hence their effectiveness, though not their creativity. / Ph. D.

The main goal of this thesis is the development of a novel methodology to generate creative solutions at functional level for design tasks without binding solution spaces with designers&rsquo / individual experiences and prejudices. For this purpose, an evolutionary methodology for the conceptual design of engineering products has been proposed. This methodology performs evaluation, combination and modification of the existing solutions repetitively to generate new solution alternatives. Therefore, initially a representation scheme, which is generic enough to cover all alternatives in solution domain, has been defined. Following that, the evolutionary operations have been defined and two evaluation metrics have been proposed. Finally, the computer implementation of the developed theory has been performed. The test-runs of developed software resulted in creative alternatives for the design task. Consequently, the evolutionary design methodology presents a systematic design approach for less experienced or inexperienced designers and establishes a base for experienced designers to conceive many other solution alternatives beyond their experiences.

Purpose – This paper explores how creativity is affected by implementing Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the design process. Current usage of AI and desired areas for its use in the Swedish architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) will be investigated to form an understanding of its effect on creativity in the design process. Methodology – The study conducted five (5) interviews with industry representatives as well as a literature and document study. Findings – The thesis contributes to understanding how new technology such as AI can affect creativity in the design process. It explored how the creative process is currently structured and how it will be affected by the implementation of AI. It provides an overview of the desired applications of AI in the AEC sector and how these can change the design process in the future. / Syfte – Detta arbete syftar till att utforska hur kreativitet påverkas av implementering av artificiell intelligens (AI) i designprocessen. Nuvarande användning av AI och dess efterfrågade användningsområden i den svenska arkitektur, ingenjör och konstruktions (AEC) sektorn kommer utforskas för att forma en förståelse av dess påverkan på kreativitet i designprocessen. Metod – Studien genomförde fem (5) intervjuer med industrirepresentanter, samt genomförde en litteratur- och dokumentstudie. Resultat – Arbetet bidrar till en förståelse av hur ny teknologi så som AI kan påverka kreativitet i designprocessen. Studien bidrar till en överblick av efterfrågade användningsområden för AI i AEC sektorn och hur dessa kan ändra designprocessen i framtiden. Arbetet utforskade hur den kreativa processen är utformad idag och hur den kommer påverkas av införandet av AI.

Designers often look for inspiration in their environment when exploring possible solutions to a given problem. However, many studies have reported that external stimuli may constrain designers’ imagination and limit their exploration to similar solutions, a phenomenon described as design fixation. Inspiration and fixation effects are traditionally studied with a similar experimental paradigm, which has produced a complex web of findings and explanations. Yet, when analysing the experiments and their findings closely, it becomes clear that there is considerable variation in how studies are conducted and the results they produce. Such variation makes it difficult to formulate a general view of how external stimuli affect the design process, and to translate the research findings into education and practice. Moreover, it raises questions about the reliability and effectiveness of the traditional experimental method. This thesis reports on a collection of studies that examine how design inspiration and fixation research is done and how it can be improved. It explores the research area by reviewing the literature and analysing data from a workshop; describes the research method by scrutinising experiments and their procedures; and explains the variation in research findings by testing experimental procedures empirically and suggesting new interpretations. My main findings are that: abstract stimuli can inspire or fixate designers to different degrees depending on how explicitly the stimuli are represented; external stimuli can inhibit the exploration of ideas that would otherwise be explored; the effect of experimental instructions varies depending on how encouraging the instructions are; and the way participants represent and elaborate ideas can moderate fixation results. Whilst this thesis offers insights into design practice and education, its main contribution is to design research, where it represents a fundamental material for those who are new to inspiration and fixation research, and for those who are already expert.