Julie S. Linsey

A Study of Design Fixation, Its Mitigation and Perception in Engineering Design Faculty

The bridge between engineering design and cognitive science research is critical to understand the effectiveness of design methods as implemented by human designers. The study reported in this paper evaluates the effects of design fixation in a group of engineering design faculty, and also provides evidence for approaches to overcome design fixation. Three conditions are compared, a control, a fixation group whom were provided with an example solution, and a defixation group whom were also given materials to mitigate their design fixation. Measures include indicators of design fixation and participant perceptions. The study demonstrates that the engineering design faculty show statistically significant evidence of design fixation, but only partially perceive its effects. This study also indicates that design fixation can be mitigated. The group of participants in this study, due to their background in engineering design research and experience with student design teams, was expected to have more accurate perceptions or awareness of design fixation than the typical participant. Understanding the incongruities between participant perceptions and quantitative design outcomes are particularly of interest to researchers of design methods. For this study, clear evidence exists that designers, even those that study and teach design on a regular basis, do not know when they are being influenced or fixated by misleading or poor information. DOI: 10.1115/1.4001110

Modality and representation in analogy

Abstract Design by analogy is a powerful part of the design process across the wide variety of modalities used by designers such as linguistic descriptions, sketches, and diagrams. We need tools to support peoples ability to find and use analogies. A deeper understanding of the cognitive mechanisms underlying design and analogy is a crucial step in developing these tools. This paper presents an experiment that explores the effects of representation within the modality of sketching, the effects of functional models, and the retrieval and use of analogies. We find that the level of abstraction for the representation of prior knowledge and the representation of a current design problem both affect peoples ability to retrieve and use analogous solutions. A general semantic description in memory facilitates retrieval of that prior knowledge. The ability to find and use an analogy is also facilitated by having an appropriate functional model of the problem. These studies result in a number of important implications for the development of tools to support design by analogy. Foremost among these implications is the ability to provide multiple representations of design problems by which designers may reason across, where the verb construct in the English language is a preferred mode for these representations.

Design by Analogy: A Study of the WordTree Method for Problem Re-Representation

This paper presents a novel approach, referred to as the WordTree design-by-analogymethod, for identifying distant-domain analogies as part of the ideation process. TheWordTree method derives its effectiveness through a design team’s knowledge and read-ily available information sources (e.g., patent databases, Google) and does not requirespecialized computational knowledge bases. A controlled cognitive experiment and anevaluation of the method with redesign projects illustrate the method’s influence in assist-ing engineers in design-by-analogy. Individuals using the WordTree method identifiedsignificantly more analogies and searched outside the problem domain as compared tothe control group. The team redesign projects demonstrate the WordTree method’s effec-tiveness in longer-term, more realistic, higher validity team projects and with a variety ofdifferent design problems. Teams successfully identified effective analogies, analogousdomains, and analogous patents. Unexpected and unique solutions are identified usingthe method. For example, one of the teams identified a dump truck and panning forgold as effective analogies for the design of a self-cleaning cat litter box. In thecontrolled experiment, a cherry pitter was identified and implemented as a solution fordesigning a machine to shell peanuts. The experimental results also highlight potentialimprovements for the method and areas for future research in engineering design theory.[DOI: 10.1115/1.4006145]Keywords: analogy, conceptual design, innovation, design method, idea generation

Design Fixation in Physical Modeling: An Investigation on the Role of Sunk Cost

Physical models are very commonly used as tools for engineering idea generation, yet the guidelines in literature about their implementation are conflicting. A prior study has shown that physical models have the potential to supplement designers’ erroneous mental models; whereas a few observational studies have shown that physical models can cause a high degree of fixation under certain circumstances. At the same time, a previous controlled study fails to show the presence of fixation in idea generation with physical models. This study hypothesizes that prior observed fixation in physical modeling is due to Sunk Cost Effect, which is the reluctance to choose a different path of action once significant money, time or effort is invested in present one. Consistent with the prior study, this study also hypothesizes that physical models supplement designers’ mental models. These hypotheses are investigated through a controlled between-subject experiment. The results show that cost of building plays a vital role in fixation and fixation is not likely inherent in physical representations. Results also show that physical models supplement designers’ mental models and lead them to higher quality ideas.Copyright

Sketch recognition algorithms for comparing complex and unpredictable shapes

In an introductory Engineering course with an annual enrollment of over 1000 students, a professor has little option but to rely on multiple choice exams for midterms and finals. Furthermore, the teaching assistants are too overloaded to give detailed feedback on submitted homework assignments. We introduce Mechanix, a computer-assisted tutoring system for engineering students. Mechanix uses recognition of freehand sketches to provide instant, detailed, and formative feedback as the student progresses through each homework assignment, quiz, or exam. Free sketch recognition techniques allow students to solve free-body diagram and static truss problems as if they were using a pen and paper. The same recognition algorithms enable professors to add new unique problems simply by sketching out the correct answer. Mechanix is able to ease the burden of grading so that instructors can assign more free response questions, which provide a better measure of student progress than multiple choice questions do.

Physical Models in Idea Generation: Hindrance or Help?

Engineering idea generation is a critical part of new product development and physical models are one tool used in this phase of design. Unfortunately, few guidelines about the effective use of physical models to support idea generation exist. The advantages and disadvantages of physical models need to be clarified so that engineers know when and where to implement them effectively. Previous literature indicates there is potential for design fixation on physical prototypes. This limits the solutions considered. In contrast, other recommendations encourage the extensive use of physical models and the psychological literature indicates that physical representations have the potential to lead to more feasible design by supporting designers’ mental models of physical phenomena. This study evaluates these questions with a between-subjects experiment with four conditions, sketching only, building, building & testing, and constrained sketching. No evidence for design fixation is observed. The results show that physical models supplement designers’ mental models, thereby leading to higher quality ideas (fraction of functional ideas). This result shows a potential way of improving designer’s innovation by strategically implementing fast and cheap prototyping methods.Copyright

Using Evolved Analogies to Overcome Creative Design Fixation

Human cognition is critically important in all creative conceptual design. People are susceptible to design fixation, blocks or impasses caused by a variety of unconscious cognitive processes. Insight that resolves fixation can be triggered by accidentally encountered cues, but designers cannot know in advance which environmental triggers are most appropriate. Two domains, patents and life forms, encompass countless well-tested mechanisms for solving environmental problems. A patent database and a compendium of life forms could provide rich sources of analogies that might trigger insight, thereby overcoming design fixation.

Perspectives on design creativity and innovation research

The aim of this extended editorial is to offer a perspective on design creativity and innovation research on the occasion of launching the International Journal of Design Creativity and Innovation. Thirty six members of the editorial board present their expectations, views, or opinions on the topics of the journal. All of these articles are presented in Section 2. In Section 3, summaries of the 36 articles are consolidated. This editorial also analyzes keywords from each of the articles, and the results are visualized in Section 4. The keyword analysis covers not only those words taken directly from each of the articles but also the implicit keywords that are suggested by the explicit ones. We believe this extended editorial will help the researchers, in particular young researchers, comprehend the essence of design creativity and innovation research and obtain a clue to tackle the new discipline.The aim of this extended editorial is to offer a perspective on design creativity and innovation research on the occasion of launching the International Journal of Design Creativity and Innovation. Thirty six members of the editorial board present their expectations, views, or opinions on the topics of the journal. All of these articles are presented in Section 2. In Section 3, summaries of the 36 articles are consolidated. This editorial also analyzes keywords from each of the articles, and the results are visualized in Section 4. The keyword analysis covers not only those words taken directly from each of the articles but also the implicit keywords that are suggested by the explicit ones. We believe this extended editorial will help the researchers, in particular young researchers, comprehend the essence of design creativity and innovation research and obtain a clue to tackle the new discipline.

Mechanix: A Sketch-Based Tutoring and Grading System for Free-Body Diagrams

Introductory engineering courses within large universities often have annual enrollments which can reach up to a thousand students. It is very challenging to achieve differentiated instruction in classrooms with class sizes and student diversity of such great magnitude. Professors can only assess whether students have mastered a concept by using multiple choice questions, while detailed homework assignments, such as planar truss diagrams, are rarely assigned because professors and teaching assistants would be too overburdened with grading to return assignments with valuable feedback in a timely manner. In this paper, we introduce Mechanix, a sketch-based deployed tutoring system for engineering students enrolled in statics courses. Our system not only allows students to enter planar truss and free body diagrams into the system just as they would with pencil and paper, but our system checks the students work against a hand-drawn answer entered by the instructor, and then returns immediate and detailed feedback to the student. Students are allowed to correct any errors in their work and resubmit until the entire content is correct and thus all of the objectives are learned. Since Mechanix facilitates the grading and feedback processes, instructors are now able to assign free response questions, increasing teachers knowledge of student comprehension. Furthermore, the iterative correction process allows students to learn during a test, rather than simply displaying memorized information.

Increasing Innovation in Multi-Function Systems: Evaluation and Experimentation of Two Ideation Methods for Design

Many methods for design have been explored as the engineering community seeks to increase the efficiency, quality, and novelty of innovation. Some design methodologies are well equipped for use with any problem; others are best suited for specific domains or applications. Recent studies have developed two new independent methods for design. The first, WordTree Design-by-Analogy, uses a graphical structure of related words to help identify far-field analogies that have relevance to a given problem. The second method, Transformation Design, describes the mechanics and characteristics that drive the transformation of a reconfigurable mechanical system from one state to another. This paper presents a study of the effectiveness of these two methods in generating concepts for a specific problem statement requiring multiple sets of capabilities, i.e., tagging and tracking vehicles for military or civilian law enforcement purposes. Forty-one mechanical engineering students were assembled into groups and given specific guidelines to follow in generating concepts. A typical full-factorial experiment and ANOVA analysis was used to compare the effect of using the two design methods, as well as the interaction between them. Results from the design teams were evaluated quantitatively by the number concepts generated. Analysis of these results revealed that using the Transformation Design method increased the number of concepts developed by 25–30%. Use of the WordTree method was not judged to increase the number of concepts generated; however, the novelty and diversity of solutions were distinct for this method compared to Transformation Design or the control group.Copyright