Understanding Creativity Methods in Design Michael Mose Biskjaer Peter Dalsgaard Kim Halskov CAVI CAVI CAVI Helsingforsgade 14 Helsingforsgade 14 Helsingforsgade 14 DK-8200 Aarhus N, Denmark DK-8200 Aarhus N, Denmark DK-8200 Aarhus N, Denmark [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] ABSTRACT the process have a clear understanding of where they are or This paper contributes an analytical framework to improve want to proceed to in the process. But if no such clear point understanding of the composition of recognized creativity or position can be established, or if the design process methods used in design. Based on an extensive literature features fluent phases that are hard to compartmentalize review, our framework synthesizes key concepts from (which is typically the case), phase-based categorizations design and particularly creativity research, and is further become more difficult to apply directly to design practice. supported by significant experience with creativity methods in design. We propose that nine concepts are relevant for To supplement this body of work, the present paper takes analyzing creativity methods in design: process structure, one step back in order to examine the creative basis of such materials, tools, combination, metaphor, analogy, framing, methods. We explore how these methods can be understood divergence, and convergence. To test their relevance as through the lens of creativity research, which tends to be a components of an analytical framework, we use these key ‘silent partner’ in many of the methods, i.e., an implicit and concepts to analyze three recognized creativity methods critical, yet rarely articulated, premise for the composition that we have often used ourselves: Inspiration Card of the methods, especially when ideation is the objective. Workshops, Fictional Inquiry, and Extreme Characters. Our Based on a comprehensive literature review of design and analytical framework expands current categorizations of creativity research, we propose that nine key concepts from methods and offers new insight into how creativity methods this body of work are central and productive for analyzing are composed, how and why they work, and how they creativity methods for deployment in design. To test how potentially may be tweaked or refined for enhanced well these proposed key concepts can serve as components deployment in design. of an analytical framework to pry open creativity methods in design and provide an improved understanding of how Author Keywords and why these methods work, we use the nine key concepts Creativity; ideation; design methods; creativity methods; to analyze three recognized creativity methods in design: analytical framework. Inspiration Card Workshops [41], Fictional Inquiry [24], ACM Classification Keywords and Extreme Characters [27]. H.5.m. Information interfaces and presentation (e.g., HCI): Our main contribution is the analytical framework proper Miscellaneous; comprised of the proposed nine components from design INTRODUCTION and creativity research. The framework is relevant to design Design is inherently a creative activity. Be it in incremental researchers since it lends itself to analytical inquiries into or disruptive ways, design aims at reshaping and improving design activities by, compared to the current phase-based the existing through the introduction of something novel. categorizations, providing even richer insight into the inner Consequently, literature and practice in the DIS community workings of creativity methods that are often integral to abound with creativity methods to be utilized either by design. Also, our framework enables practical application individuals or, as is often the case, by design teams. Design by aiding professional designers in making informed research offers a number of phase-based categorizations of decisions when they orchestrate design processes, e.g., creativity methods to help designers select a suitable when they are asked to devise and tweak creativity methods method for a particular juncture in the process, e.g., the to best match the creative challenge at hand. transition from concept generation to concept evaluation. The paper is structured thus. First, we give an overview of Such overviews are valuable when the designers engaged in key contributions to creativity methods pertaining to design. Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for On this basis, we offer a literature review of design and personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are creativity research, which leads to the formulation of nine not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies key concepts. We treat these as propositions that in sum bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third- comprise an analytical framework in which the nine party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the owner/author(s). Copyright is held by the author/owner(s). concepts are components. We test the framework’s DIS 2017, June 10–14, 2017, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. relevance and explanatory power by analyzing the above ACM ISBN 978-1-4503-4922-2/17/06. three creativity methods. Finally, we discuss the potentials http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3064663.3064692 and limitations of the analytical framework. CLARIFICATION OF CREATIVITY METHODS IN DESIGN (p196), and finally approach (the overall mindset dictating When looking at the entire design community very broadly, how the research plan should be conducted) (op.cit.). For many creativity methods are on offer; however, it would studies on designers’ use of methods ‘in the wild’, other seem that some of them might be based more on anecdotes researchers have argued for sustaining an inclusive and less than on evidence. It is well established that creativity is hierarchical understanding of methods in general, thereby integral to design [18], and it has been argued that design is pooling together design methods, tools, techniques, i.e., marked by (at least) two main views on creativity [2], and basically any resource that might support a design process that even experienced design educators find it difficult to [38,81]. We appreciate this particular approach for studying define creativity [46]. Runco and Jaeger [69,p92] note that design practitioners’ in-situ use of such methods, but we the standard definition of creativity is dual: creativity needs argue that a proposed theoretical contribution such as this originality (novelty, surprise) and effectiveness (usefulness, may benefit from a more critical filtering of some of the appropriateness). Our use of the term ‘creativity’ is above design process components. informed by this consensual standard definition, but we subscribe to the more elaborate definition offered by In order to specifically explore creativity methods used in Plucker, Beghetto, and Dow [63]: “Creativity is the design, we find it fruitful to begin by bringing together the interaction among aptitude, process, and environment by above views on creativity and method in order to build a which an individual or group produces a perceptible terminological foundation before we examine in more detail product that is both novel and useful as defined within a the array of creativity methods for use in design. Our social context” (p90, orig. emphasis). proposed working definition is the following: a creativity method in design is a well-specified repeatable procedure A similar clarification is needed with regard to methods. that through the combination of relevant tools, toolkits, and We have noted that the terms ‘method’ and ‘technique’ are techniques aims to bring about a perceptible product that is often used interchangeably. This is somewhat unfortunate novel and useful as defined within a specific design context. since distinguishing between the two in terms of complexity and richness enables a more nuanced view. On a domain- This working definition means that we do not single out any general level, ‘method’ can be seen as: “[a] well-specified design methods as being completely non-creative. On the repeatable procedure for doing something: an ordered contrary, the argument we wish to make is that all methods sequence of goal-directed operations” [15,p180]. This in design contain an element of creativity since creativity is deliberately generic expounding is a relevant terminological integral to design proper. This is the reason why we refer to basis; however, echoing [80], we consider it important that the methods as ‘creativity methods in design.’ the development of new creativity methods in design be Categorizations of Creativity Methods in Design grounded in a thorough understanding of design practice. As shown by Dubberly’s [29] extensive compilation, any Also, we appreciate the need for a ‘common language’ for designer today literally has hundreds of different design problem framing in design [53]. We therefore subscribe to process models to choose from, including specific methods Löwgren and Stolterman’s [55] domain-specific distinction integral to them. This means than any attempt to classify between design methods and techniques: methods in design is a challenge. The fact that recent years have seen a plethora of more business-oriented books trying “Simply put, a method refers to a description of a way of to mass-market design thinking by improvised (and at times working or a recipe for action. A method is always based on seemingly purely anecdotal) methods have