Corporations spend a great deal of time and money trying to facilitate innovation in their employees. The act of introducing something new, a product or a service that is viable and innovative is often increased by enhancing or nurturing creativity.This experimental study investigated the effect of group verbally interactive brainstorming (social interaction) on creativity, not by comparing the number of ideas generated on a simple task in a brainstorming session, but by assessing creativity in the final product of a complex heuristic task. The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of group interactive brainstorming to individual brainstorming on individual creativity assessed in the final product.The hypothesis which was tested in this study was that participation in group verbally interactive brainstorming prior to developing a design solution would not facilitate creativity in the final product more than individual brainstorming. Indeed, it was hypothesized that individuals brainstorming in teams.Participants were 36 interior design students in a FIDER accredited program at Virginia Tech. The Multidimensional Stimulus Fluency Measure (MSFM) was administered before beginning the experiment in order to determine individual differences in creativity. Subjects were randomly assigned to either a treatment group than participated in group verbally interactive brainstorming prior to developing a product individually, or a control group that participated in an individual brainstorming session. All subjects then created a design project individually that was assessed for creativity by judges who were recruited from professional interior design organizations. Creativity was measures using the Consensual Assessment for Interior Design Creativity (Barnard, 1992). A post session questionnaire also was used to measure attitudes and perceptions of the subjects about the creative process.Analysis of variance revealed no significant differences when creativity scores were compared between two brainstorming groups. That is, projects developed by interior design students did not differ significantly in creativity systematically between the two brainstorming techniques. When scores on the two dependent variables of secondary interest (novelty and appropriateness) were compared between groups they also did not differ significantly.Responses to post-session questionnaires indicated that although students found it more difficult to generate ideas in a group, they still believed they would generate more ideas and preferred to generate ideas in a group rather than alone. However, when developing a project students preferred to work independently.This study supports past research which suggests that group verbally interactive brainstorming does not enhance creativity. In this study, interactive brainstorming neither enhanced nor constrained creativity in the final product. The creativity scores were higher for those in the individual brainstorming condition, although not significantly so. This study also supports findings which indicate that people still believe they will generate more ideas in a group and that they prefer to generate ideas as a group. / Ph. D.

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.

This master thesis is a case study, in the experience industry, of prototypes in the early stage of the innovation process – the front end of innovation. The innovation is augmented reality (AR) that adds digital made graphics or information in the user's environment. To answer the research questions and to fulfill the purpose of this thesis, which is to gain an understanding of the role of a prototype in an innovation process, a prototype was created. The designing tools used for developing the prototype were brainstorming and storyboarding. The prototype presents a concept of using AR-glasses at an ice hockey venue. A workshop was carried out for evaluating the finished prototype, using the "thinking hats"-method. The conclusion of this study is that a prototype can be used as a starting point for further creativity by creating a common perspective of a technology at the front end of innovation. Further on, it was discovered that a prototype can be good to use earlier in their innovation process, to accelerate the process. In the process of designing the prototype, it was shown that the creation is iterative, rather than linear.

In Sweden, there are students who live in small student apartments. These apartments can be called compact living as a student apartment can be as small as 16 square meters. To take advantage of the place that is in small homes, it would be good if larger furniture could be combined into a piece of furniture. On behalf of Husmuttern AB, this work has been aimed at exploring furniture concepts with sleeping and their functions in a compact living environment for students. The issues being examined are: -          What functions are desirable in a multifunctional seating and sleeping furniture for students and people living in compact living environments? -          How can a multifunctional seating and sleeping furniture be designed, that is applied to students living in a compact-living environment? Human Centered Design was used as a method and thus a qualitative data collection was carried out in the form of observations. The respondents were in the primary target group and were observed in their everyday lives in their homes. A focus group was involved in generating ideas and concepts. Functional prototypes were built, and 3D models were created in SolidWorks. Digital testing of the concepts was carried out and the development of the Generation Sofa Bed was realized. There is a discussion about how reliable this study is, when the results became situational. However, the respondents were from a limited audience and had different views on what they wanted from a sofa bed, which provided rewarding information for the development of the furniture. The conclusion is that while the Generation Sofa Bed needs to be further developed through testing and evaluation of storage facilities, it has great potential to become a finished product. / I Sverige bor det studenter i små studentlägenheter. De lägenheterna kan kallas för compact living då en studentlägenhet kan vara så liten som 16 kvadratmeter. För att ta vara på den plats som finns i små hem vore det bra om större möbler kunde kombineras till en möbel. På uppdrag av Husmuttern AB har detta arbete haft som syfte att utforska möbelkoncept med sov- och sittfunktioner i en compact living miljö för studenter. De frågor som undersöks är: 1.      Vilka funktioner är önskvärda i en multifunktionell sitt- och sovmöbel för studenter och personer som bor i compact living miljö? 2.      Hur kan en multifunktionell sitt- och sovmöbel konstrueras, som är tillämpad för studenter som bor i compact-living miljö?  Human Centered Design användes som metod och därmed genomfördes en kvalitativ datainsamling i form av observationer. Respondenterna var med i den primära målgruppen och observerades i sin vardag i sina hem. En fokusgrupp var med och genererade idéer och koncept. Funktionsprototyper byggdes och 3D modeller skapades i SolidWorks. Digital testning av koncepten genomfördes och utvecklingen av Bäddsoffan Generations blev förverkligad. Det finns en diskussion om hur pålitlig denna studie är, då resultaten blev situationsbaserade. Dock var respondenterna från en begränsad målgrupp och hade olika syn på vad de ville ha av en bäddsoffa, vilket gav givande information till utvecklingen av möbeln. Slutsatsen är att medan Bäddsoffan Generations behöver vidareutvecklas genom testning och utvärdering om förvaringsmöjligheter, så har den stor potential att bli en färdig produkt.

No description available.

<p>From idea generation to conceptualization and development of products and technologies is a non-linear and iterative process. The work in this thesis follows a process that initiates with the review of existing technologies and products, examining their unique value proposition in the context of the specific applications for which they are designed. Next, the unmet needs of novel or emerging applications are identified that require new product or technologies. Once these user needs and product requirements are identified, the specific functions to be addressed by the product are specified. The subsequent process of design of products and technologies to meet these functions is enabled by engineering tools such as three-dimensional modelling, physics-based simulations, and manufacturing of a minimum viable prototype. In these steps, un-biased decisions have to be taken using weighted decision matrices to cater to the design requirements. Finally, the minimum viable prototype is tested to demonstrate the principal functionalities. The results obtained from the testing process identify the potential future improvements in the next generations of the prototype that would subsequently inform the final design of product. This thesis adopted this methodology to initiate the design two product-prototypes: i) an image-recognition-integrated service (IRIS) robotic hand for children and ii) cascaded multi-core vapor chamber (CMVC) for improving performance of next-generation computing systems. Minimum viable product-prototypes were manufactured to demonstrate the principal functionalities, followed by clear identification of future potential improvements. Tests of the prosthetic hand indicate that the image-recognition based feedback can successfully drive the actuators to perform the intended grasping motions. Experimental testing with the multi-core vapor chamber demonstrates successful performance of the prototype, which offers notable reduction in temperatures relative to the existing benchmark solid copper spreader. </p>