Abstract: Design creativity is a special type of imaginative capacity that plays an important, albeit still little understood, role in design activity. This paper returns to the primary sources to inform a critical review of the early studies of creative reasoning that have heavily influenced what we know and how we know it. It does this to inductively and reflectively formulate a prospective for the future study of design creativity that emphasizes a designerly outlook, facilitation skills, associative reasoning, the unearthing of assumptions, methodological awareness, types and stages of design ideas, design briefs, and purpose of ideation. A rethinking of the premises underlying the study of creative ideation has the potential to transform how we study, teach, and support the creative aspects of design practice in the twenty-first century and beyond.

1. Retrospective and
Prospective of the Study of
Design Creativity: 80 Years
into the Past and the Future
The Sixth International Conference on Design Creativity (ICDC2020)

2. Ricardo Sosa
Monash University & Auckland University of Technology
ricardo.sosa@monash.edu
ricardo.sosa@aut.ac.nz
@designcomputing

3. (1940) 80 years --------------------------------------- 2020 ------------------------------ 80 years (2100)

4. Brainstorming a (semi)structured ideation method
Gaps between practice and research of design creativity

5. Prai-Barshana (India) where generation and evaluation of ideas are deliberately separated

6. To conduct a “triple attack of individual-group-individual
ideation” since both “can be just as productive”
New ideas need “the most impartial scrutiny”; they can be
“worthless or we shall not know how to elicit their
value”. All are “sceptically entertained… for the thousandth
idea may be the one that will change the world”
The goal is not to solve, but to storm a problem: to
produce “a checklist of ideas” that can “serve as leads” to
be “subsequently evaluated and further processed”
“Four rules of brainstorming”: rule out criticism; welcome
“free-wheeling” (wild ideas); pursue quantity; seek to
combine and improve ideas.
“Chain reactions” produce “hitch-hikes” ideas: an
associative process of “re-processing ideas by means of
modification and combination” can transform
“mediocre ideas into sterling ideas”.

7. Adequately formulate the problem to be stormed. It needs to
be specific, “simple rather than complex”, and narrowed down
to “a single target”
Participants receive a background memo “at least two days in
advance of the session” of “not more than one page in length”
to let them “sleep on the problem thus allowing incubation to
enhance the workings of association”
The panel leader (facilitator) prepares their own list of ideas.
When a session slows down or gets off track, they “can prime
the joint flow of ideas by contributing some of their own”
Leaders use their own ideas to prepare leads that they can suggest
during a session “by way of classifications or categories”. They also
prepare “idea-spurring questions” to move a session forward, such as
“Put to Other Uses? Adapt? Magnify? Reverse? Combine?”

8. Participants only offer “one idea at a
time”. To achieve this, they are
encouraged to “make notes of ideas they
plan to offer when their turn comes”.
Turn-taking is expressly recommended
to create opportunities for “hitch-hikes”
by idea association, thus encouraging
ideas that are “directly sparked by a
previous idea”
A secretary captures all the ideas in
ways that are “reportorially -not word for
word” -brainstorms can also be audio
recorded.
In closing, participants are thanked and directed “to keep the problem
on their minds until the next day when they will be asked for their
afterthoughts”. A list of all the ideas is sent to participants asking
them to reply with new ideas formed after the session.
The leader monitors and incentivises the
“spirit of a brainstorm session” for which
both self and mutual encouragement are
crucial

9. Not just ideas!
Brainstorms have five additional functions:
1. Tools for improving morale
2. To discover what people think about problems
3. To gain a better understanding of each other
4. To produce enjoyment
5. To supplement creative training

10. 15 papers on brainstorming between 1954
and 1963, the first decade since the first
edition of Osborn’s book.
Since then, nearly 3,000 papers, and 268
in the last twelve months.
https://www.connectedpapers.com/

11. Most ideation studies:
• Employ inexperienced students
• Who are randomly assigned to groups
• Instructed to generate ‘solutions’ in response to
a problem statement (or design task)
• Task often fun but inconsequential toy problems
• Often with time limits of 5 to 15 minutes
• Single session, compensated
• Often no audio recordings
• No facilitator involved
• No background memo, no follow-up
• Single output: early sketchy ideas
• Ideas judged by a panel
Most studies end up testing
“quasi-brainstorming procedures”

12. • Weak conceptual and methodological bases
• Logical fallacies and illusory refutations (‘nominal groups’)
• Overreliance on testing divergent thinking
• Do not perform due diligence in applying rules
• Low external validity
A “lack of understanding, lack of adherence to critical procedural
guidelines, [and a] parochial research agenda”
Jablin and Seibold, 1978
Sutton and Hargadon, 1996
Isaksen and Gaulin, 2005
Piffer, 2012
Kalargiros, 2014
Dietrich, 2015

13. Retrospective and
Prospective of the Study of
Design Creativity: 80 Years
into the Past and the Future
The Sixth International Conference on Design Creativity (ICDC2020)

14. Emphasis on design creativity:
A designerly voice to critically
assess the relevance and
applicability of the themes,
methods, constructs, and
definitions from mainstream
creativity research for the
advancement of design
knowledge and practice.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasamarshall/46932231884/

15. https://www.flickr.com/photos/tedxkyoto/8741342982
Emphasis on facilitation:
Expert practitioners highlight
contextual dimensions including
psychological safety, mutual
learning, trust, and facilitation.
The principles and rules used by
practitioners should be accounted
for in research studies

16. https://www.flickr.com/photos/geckzilla/31409065484/
Emphasis on association:
Accretion: an extended
combinatorial process where
multiple combinations of
fragmentary ideas are “sceptically
entertained” until a more complete
idea is formed

17. https://www.flickr.com/photos/chloe-boissonnet/31543372196/
Emphasis on revealing
assumptions:
Design-research questions need
not be prescribed by other
disciplinary ways of knowing.
In formulating designerly research
questions, critically adopt, modify,
or refute the assumptions and
procedures of seminal works. For
this, it is crucial to examine to the
original sources.

18. Emphasis on methodology:
Mixing methods to triangulate the
study of design creativity to
increase the validity and
applicability of findings.
Design researchers benefit from
cultivating collaborations to
combine research methodologies.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sparetomato/2641114425

19. Emphasis on design ideas:
From tests or puzzle problems
such as the Alternate Uses or the
Remote Associates Tasks to
design concepts.
Terms are interchangeably used
(ideas, concepts, designs, and
solutions) denoting a lack of
clarity, uniqueness, parsimony,
and measurement properties.
Studies of design creativity need
to spell out a theoretically sound
definition of design ideas.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/hdaparis/13842789665

20. https://www.flickr.com/photos/chloe-boissonnet/31543372196/
Emphasis on design briefs:
Wicked problems.
Problem reframing indicative of
design creativity.
Fruitful to study participants as
they work on…
• reframing an early brief
• influencing a design direction
• storming a specific aspect of
an open-ended and complex
design problem

21. Emphasis on ideation purpose:
Practitioners use brainstorming
throughout a project.
Study a variety of purposes, from
sessions where “fully-formed”
ideas are sought to those aiming
for early fragmentary ideas for
further development.
Justify data collection, analysis
strategies, metrics, and tools
accordingly.
Feasibility?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jcestnik/6790371197/

22. Numerous misconceptions of creativity are
based on research that follows “academic
rigour” but ignores the rigour of design
practice.
Future design research needs to
acknowledge the double challenge of
being scientifically and designerly relevant
Yee, 2017
Crilly, 2019

23. Ricardo Sosa
Monash University & Auckland University of Technology
ricardo.sosa@monash.edu
ricardo.sosa@aut.ac.nz
@designcomputing