Design idea generation is a significant part of the designer’s work and most frequently associated with creative problem-solving. However, an outstanding challenge in design is translating empirical findings or other inspirational sources into ideas or knowledge that inform design, also known as generating implications for design. Though great efforts have been made to bridge this gap, there is still no overall consensus on how to appropriately incorporate research data and external sources into the design ideas generation process. Besides, design ideas generation is a process that is rooted in personal knowledge. It is often considered a precedent-based type of reasoning where knowledge is continuously transformed to frame new insights and this creative leap across the divide is perceived to be difficult, especially for novice and student designers. Based on the grounded theory, the author conducted open-ended, semi-structured qualitative interviews with eighteen designers, including design professors, practitioners and students to learn about the knowledge on how the contemporary designers select inspirational sources and transform them into ideas with appropriate methods in different contexts, the design mindset involved during the iterative and generative ideation process, and the criteria of evaluating design ideas. The results indicated seven commonly used categories of sources: ‘personal,’ ‘daily stuff,’ ’media,’ ‘technology,’ ‘knowledge of other disciplines,’ ‘fieldwork’ and ‘design practice.’ The methods could be allocated to three stages: investigation, analysis and synthesis. In each specific phase, designers applied different methods to cope with various sources for various purposes, depending on different situations. A general framework was built for designers to conduct a proper selection of sources and methods to transform them into the knowledge that informs design. The study emphasized the flow of inspirational sources, the relationship between sources and methods, and the transformation procedures which tried to help the designer get more scientific structure and give design students more practical guidance in idea generation. The comparison was continuously made within the matrix structure on the matter of sources and methods selection, the role of design research and ideation process among different groups of designers in academics and practice, which revealed the knowledge and skills missed or ignored in university education and challenges in the design project development. The implications for design education were discussed, such as the development of design students’ competence, especially the skills that should be learned in a new digital society to help design education refine idea generation methods and improve corresponding techniques to discover a dynamic balance between theory and practice. / Das Hervorbringen von Designideen ist ein wichtiger Teil der Arbeit eines Designers und wird meistens mit kreativer Problemlösung assoziiert. Eine besondere Herausforderung ist dabei die mentale Verarbeitung von Informationen und Inspirationsquellen und deren Umsetzung zu Gestaltungsentwürfe. Dieser kreative Prozess wird vor allem von Anfängern und Designstudenten als schwierig wahrgenommen. Trotz vielfältiger Forschungsanstrengungen gibt es noch immer keinen allgemeinen Konsens dazu, auf welche Weise Informationen in den Designprozess einbezogen werden und wie sich diese präzedenzbasierte Art des Denkens vermitteln lässt. Da dieser Prozess stark auf Erfahrung basiert, wird er oft als Präzedenz-basierte Art des Denkens betrachtet, bei welcher Wissen fortwährend in neue Erkenntnisse umgeformt wird. Dieser kreative Akt wird vor allem von Anfängern als schwierig wahrgenommen. Dem Paradigma der 'grounded theory' folgend hat die Autorin ergebnisoffene, teilstrukturierte und qualitative Interviews mit Designern durchgeführt. Interviewt wurden Designprofessoren, Praktiker und Studenten, um zu erfahren, wie zeitgenössische Designer Inspirationsquellen recherchieren und mit welchen Methoden sie diese in unterschiedlichen Kontexten zu Ideen umwandeln. Weiterhin werden die Vorgehensweise der Designer während des Gestaltungsprozesses und die Evaluationskriterien der Designideen untersucht. Anhand der Untersuchungsergebnisse lassen sich sieben Informationskategorien unterscheiden: Persönliches, alltägliches, mediales, technologisches Wissen sowie Wissen aus anderen Fachbereichen, aus Feldforschung und aus der Designpraxis. Diese Methoden finden im Designprozess innerhalb von drei Phasen Anwendung: Untersuchung, Analyse und Synthese. In jeder dieser Phase wenden Designer dabei verschiedene Methoden an, um Informationsquellen aufzubereiten und in den Designprozess einzubeziehen. Ausgehend von einem Prozessmodell untersuchte die durchgeführte Studie insbesondere die Einbeziehung von Inspirationsquellen, die Beziehung zwischen Quellen und Methoden und die mentalen Verarbeitungsprozeduren. Mit den erzielten Ergebnissen unterstützt die Untersuchung die Designforschung und gibt Designstudenten eine fundierte Anleitung für die Entwicklung von Ideen. Ein besonderer Fokus der Studie lag auf dem Vergleich von verschiedenen Gruppen von Designern – insbesondere auch mit Blick auf den Unterschied zwischen tären Ausbildung vermittelten Kompetenzen mit den praktischen Anforderungen korrespondieren. Darauf aufbauend diskutiert diese Arbeit Empfehlungen für die Designausbildung, z.B. hinsichtlich des Kontexts der digitalen Gesellschaft oder der Verfeinerung von Methoden der Ideengenerierung. Damit soll die Arbeit dazu beitragen, die Designausbildung zu verbessern und ein dynamisches Gleichgewicht zwischen Theorie und Praxis zu ermöglichen.

Community-based care facilities have a positive effect in supporting older adults and people with dementia thus improving their well-beings. Despite authoring empirical studies focused on providing design interventions, researchers often remain unclear about whether and how exactly practitioners and architects should implement these interventions. This paper presents an on-going project of a senior center in a small municipality in Germany. It aims to explain how the municipality (the client) and the design team (the architect) cooperate to apply updated research-based interventions, and how trade-offs are made. It discusses several research-based interventions during the design process. They include: 1) the early engagement of architects into the planning process; 2) the use of small-scale care units as care concept; 3) offering easily accessible and visible communal areas within the building; 4) providing an area open to the neighborhood; and 5) taking into consideration of the local urban form and materials. The article enables the readers to gain an insider look of the design process of a care facility and become familiar with some of the common trade-offs in design practice. Sufficient access to research materials and efficient communication with the client from the beginning of a project are the key elements to successfully implement research-based design interventions.

This project is about designing for alternative public engagementin infrastructure projects that span over longtime scales and long distances: Looking specifically atthe case of the North Bothnia Line – a train line plannedbetween the two northern Swedish cities of Umeå andLuleå, 270 km apart, which could be estimated to befinished around 2040. With a participatory design approach, I investigate thescope of the infrastructure project – the different stakeholdersand examples of current public engagement efforts.I then explore how to facilitate dialogues on futurelife and mobility in the north in alternative ways. In my initial research I seek a systemic understandingof the project from public employees in city planning,project management and communication. Through interviews, field explorations, design probesand workshops, I identify a set of qualities that characterisethis particular project – to design for and with:Future anticipation, temporal uncertainty, and situatedhuman experiences. These qualities are used to create aframework for prototyping interactions to facilitate dialoguesaround expectations around future life, and howto engage people in discussing this now. Synthesizing from insights, ideas, and interactionsexplored in an iterative design process, I develop aconceptual platform and digital service design. Thedesign I eventually set out to create is a conceptualpublic engagement platform for infrastructure projectsspanning long distances and uncertain timeframes.Enabling a space for open anticipation in the regions ofVästerbotten and Norrbotten, and working with aspectsand metaphors of celebration, longing, and collectiveplanning and dialogues.