Search

Idea development in the early phases of the design process often involves the transformation of initial concepts into more feasible alternatives. However, this important component of design activity is often under-emphasized in design education, and tools to facilitate iteration of designs are limited. This study investigated "Design Heuristics" as a tool for the further development of initial concepts created by student designers. In a single session, advanced engineering students created initial concepts, and then used "Design Heuristics" to transform these concepts into alternative designs. The concept sets generated were analyzed, and eight types of transformations were identified, including the enhancement of aesthetics, features, functions, settings, materials, sizes, organizations, and usability. "Design Heuristics" supported students' concept development by providing specific suggestions about ways to iterate on their initial concepts. As a result, students explored alternative concepts by producing multiple transformations of their designs, and were more likely to select these transformed concepts as their most creative, unique, and favourite designs.

Background: Problem exploration includes identifying, framing, and defining design problems and bounding problem spaces. Intentional and unintentional changes in problem understanding naturally occur as designers explore design problems to create solutions. Through problem exploration, new perspectives on the problem can emerge along with new and diverse ideas for solutions. By considering multiple problem perspectives varying in scope and focus, designers position themselves to increase their understandings of the "real" problem and engage in more diverse idea generation processes leading to an increasing variety of potential solutions. Purpose/Hypothesis: The purpose of this study was to investigate systematic patterns in problem exploration in the early design phases of mechanical engineers. Design/Method: Thirty-five senior undergraduate students and experienced designers with mechanical engineering backgrounds worked individually following a think-aloud protocol. They explored problems and generated solutions for two of four randomly assigned design problems. After generating solutions, participants framed and rewrote problem statements to reflect their perspectives on the design problem their solutions addressed. Thematic analysis and a priori codes guided the identification of problem exploration patterns within and across problems. Results: The set of patterns in engineers' problem exploration that emerged from the analysis documents alternative strategies in exploring problems to arrive at solutions. The results provide evidence that engineering designers, working individually, apply both problem-specific and more general strategies to explore design problems. Conclusions: Our study identified common patterns in the explorations of presented problems by individual engineering designers. The observed patterns, described as Problem Exploration Perspectives, capture alternative approaches to discovering problems and taking multiple problem perspectives during design. Learning about Problem Exploration Perspectives may be helpful in creating alternative perspectives on a design problem, potentially leading to more varied and innovative solutions. This paper concludes with an extended example illustrating the process of applying Problem Exploration Perspectives to move between problem perspectives to generate varied design outcomes.

Designers are accustomed to solving problems that are provided to them; in fact, common practice in engineering is to present the problem with carefully delineated and detailed constraints required for a promising solution. As a consequence, engineers focus on creating feasible solutions rather than exploring novel perspectives on the presented problems. However, the Engineer of 2020 needs to respond with innovations for multiple and dynamic user needs, diverse users and cultures, and rapidly changing technologies. These complex demands require engineering students to learn that problems are not "fixed" as presented, and to build the habit of exploring alternative perspectives on the stated problem. Creative innovations in problem understanding may lead directly to more innovative solutions. While previous research has documented the "co-evolution" of problem and solution during the design process, the present work aims to understand how designers intentionally explore variants of problems on the way to solutions. Summaries of two empirical studies provide initial evidence about how stated problems are altered within successful solutions in open design challenges, along with evidence of problem think aloud protocols. Analysis of qualitative changes in problem perspectives reveals systematic patterns, or cognitive "heuristics," and these same patterns are evident as student engineers solve problems. By exploring diverse perspectives on a stated problem, engineers can incorporate innovations into both problems and solutions during the design process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]