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A Further Exploration of the Three Driven Approaches to Combinational Creativity

Part of: Methods of Design Research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2019

Ji Han ,
Min Hua ,
Feng Shi  and
Peter R. N. Childs
Ji Han*
Affiliation:
University of Liverpool;
Min Hua
Affiliation:
Imperial College London;
Feng Shi
Affiliation:
Imperial College London; The Alan Turing Institute
Peter R. N. Childs
Affiliation:
Imperial College London;
*
Contact: Han, Ji, University of Liverpool, Industrial Design, United Kingdom, ji.han@liverpool.ac.uk

Abstract

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Combinational creativity is a significant element of design in supporting designers to generate creative ideas during the early phases of design. There exists three driven approaches to combinational creativity: problem-, similarity- and inspiration-driven. This study provides further insights into the three combinational creativity driven approaches, exploring which approach could lead to ideas that are more creative in the context of practical product design. The results from a case study reveal that the problem- driven approach could lead to more creative and novel ideas or products compared with the similarity- and inspiration-driven approach. Products originating from the similarity- and inspiration-driven approach are at comparable levels. This study provides better understanding of combinational creativity in practical design. It also delivers benefits to designers in improving creative idea generation, and supports design researchers in exploring future ideation methods and design support tools employing the concept of 'combination'.

Keywords

CreativityConceptual designDesign methodsProduct DesignCombinational Creativity
Type
Article
Information
Proceedings of the Design Society: International Conference on Engineering Design , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , July 2019 , pp. 2735 - 2744
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2019

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