Representaatioiden tuottaminen ja muuntaminen suunnittelun ideointivaiheessa

The complexity of the current world is contributing to an increased dependency on innovative approaches and competences for solving open-ended problems and adjusting to multi-layered work environments. Creative ideation is valued not only in traditional creative fields such as design, craft and art, but also in all areas of work life. In design ideation the focus is on seeing beyond the obvious and developing personal constraints on the design task. Therefore, it can be seen as increasing the creativity in problem solving in general. Ideation is important as it is the basis for the rest of the design process. However, the research concerning design ideation is still sparse in Finland, as previous research has emphasised the entire design process. Accordingly there is lack of knowledge, concepts and definitions of ideation to support communication in designing and design education. The aim of this study was to understand design ideation and aspects that inspire and guide designers in the idea generation process. The study explored the conceptual and material premises for ideation, ways of creating novel standpoints towards ideation and the nature of the design context. The study used multiple qualitative methods; data were collected from a virtual e-learning database, by interviewing and using a mobile, context-sensitive data-collecting tool. The data-analyses applied qualitative content analysis. The study explored student teachers and professional designers design thinking in the ideation focusing on material resources and materially embodied practices for generating and transforming representations. The findings illustrated that interpreting sources of inspiration requires processes such as the use of analogical thinking and abstraction. In addition, creative ideation is a gradual development of ideas. The designer constrains the design situation through creation of visual-material ideas until a suitable idea(s) emerge. The findings encourage viewing design ideation as a multi-modal process in which representations are important triggers for ideation. The exploratory process of generating and transforming representations is a holistic making-related activity that is best supported by interaction with peers and different types of externalization methods. The study proposes two objectives that design tasks in education should address. Firstly, the ideation phase should include deliberate practices and a variety of techniques for manipulating representations to develop visual ideas. Secondly, the ideation process should embed meaning-making for personal engagement and exploration to pursue ideation towards wider contexts of learning. Keywords: Idea generation, design representations, design practices, creativity, materiality, design learningTutkimus kohdentui tekijöihin jotka inspiroi ja ohjaa suunnittelijoita ideoiden synnyttämisessä. Tutkimus käynnistyi käytännön ongelmista joita ideointia opiskelevat ja opettavat kohtaavat. Erityisesti tutkimus kohdentuu tekstiiliopettajien koulutuksen tarpeisiin, mutta tulokset ovat myös sovellettavissa suunnittelun ja muotoilun alueille sekä ideoinnin prosesseihin yleisesti. Tutkimuksen avulla selkiytettiin ideointiprosessin vaiheita ja käsitteitä. Tuloksena oli, että inspiroivia lähtökohtia ideoinnille ovat mielikuvat, inspiraationlähteet, kantavat ideat ja suunnittelua säätelevät tekijät eli rajoitteet. Kantavan idean luomisella on erityinen merkitys ideointiprosessissa. Kantava idea on suunnittelijan oma näkökulma tehtävään, alkuidea, joka rajaa suunnitteluprosessia jatkossa. Se on motivoiva lähtökohta ja usein sen löytäminen tuo koko prosessille sielun sekä mahdollisuuden uutta luovaan otteeseen. Ideointia vaativa tehtävä on aina joiltain osin avoin ja erilaiset käytänteet auttavat muuntamaan inspiraationlähteitä, rajaamaan idea-avaruutta sekä löytämään motivoivan lähtökohdan niin, että voidaan mielekkäästi jatkaa suunnitteluvaiheeseen. Ideointivaiheen käytänteet voivat olla materiaalin keräämistä, kokeilujen työstämistä ja luonnostelua. Ideointivaihe on siten tutkimuksen mukaan aktiivista työstämistä sopivan inspiraation ja idean löytämiseksi. Tutkimuksessa esitetty materiaalinen lähestyminen ideointiin on kokeilevaa ja moniaistisen runsasta. Ideoinnissa tärkeä rooli on myös prosessin käsittelemisellä yhdessä ryhmän tai kollegojen kesken. Se tukee inspiroivien asioiden ymmärtämistä ja siten edistää syntyvien ideoiden tulkintaa ja muokkausta. Ideointi saa siis tukea siitä yhteisöstä jossa se tapahtuu. Koulutuksen kontekstissa suunnittelutehtävien tulisi tukea tarkoituksenmukaisia suunnittelun käytänteitä. Tehtävien tulisi sisältää erilaisia tekniikoita ideoiden visuaaliseen tuottamiseen ja tehtävien rajaamiseen. Ideoinnin tulisi myös tähdätä merkitykselliseen prosessiin. Merkityksellisyys syntyy kun avointa aihetta lähestytään tutkivasti ja kokemuksellisesti. Tällä pyritään henkilökohtaiseen sitoutumiseen, joka kantaa yksittäistä tuotetta laajempiin oppimisen mahdollisuuksiin. Tutkimuksessa käytettiin monimenetelmäistä tutkimusotetta. Aineisto kerättiin virtuaaliselta oppimisalustalta, haastattelemalla muotoilijoita ja opiskelijoita sekä käyttämällä kontekstisensitiivistä mobiilisovellusta

Recovery From Design

Through research, inquiry, and an evaluation of Recovery By Design, a ‘design therapy’ program that serves people with mental illness, substance use disorders, and developmental disabilities, it is my assertion that the practice of design has therapeutic potential and can aid in the process of recovery. To the novice, the practices of conception, shaping form, and praxis have empowering benefit especially when guided by Conditional and Transformation Design methods together with an emphasis on materiality and vernacular form

Weaving Lighthouses and Stitching Stories: Blind and Visually Impaired People Designing E-textiles

We describe our experience of working with blind and visually impaired people to create interactive art objects that are personal to them, through a participatory making process using electronic textiles (e-textiles) and hands-on crafting techniques. The research addresses both the practical considerations about how to structure hands-on making workshops in a way which is accessible to participants of varying experience and abilities, and how effective the approach was in enabling participants to tell their own stories and feel in control of the design and making process. The results of our analysis is the offering of insights in how to run e-textile making sessions in such a way for them to be more accessible and inclusive to a wider community of participants

From Codes to Patterns: Designing Interactive Decoration for Tableware

ABSTRACT We explore the idea of making aesthetic decorative patterns that contain multiple visual codes. We chart an iterative collaboration with ceramic designers and a restaurant to refine a recognition technology to work reliably on ceramics, produce a pattern book of designs, and prototype sets of tableware and a mobile app to enhance a dining experience. We document how the designers learned to work with and creatively exploit the technology, enriching their patterns with embellishments and backgrounds and developing strategies for embedding codes into complex designs. We discuss the potential and challenges of interacting with such patterns. We argue for a transition from designing ‘codes to patterns’ that reflects the skills of designers alongside the development of new technologies

ICS Materials. Towards a re-Interpretation of material qualities through interactive, connected, and smart materials.

The domain of materials for design is changing under the influence of an increased technological advancement, miniaturization and democratization. Materials are becoming connected, augmented, computational, interactive, active, responsive, and dynamic. These are ICS Materials, an acronym that stands for Interactive, Connected and Smart. While labs around the world are experimenting with these new materials, there is the need to reflect on their potentials and impact on design. This paper is a first step in this direction: to interpret and describe the qualities of ICS materials, considering their experiential pattern, their expressive sensorial dimension, and their aesthetic of interaction. Through case studies, we analyse and classify these emerging ICS Materials and identified common characteristics, and challenges, e.g. the ability to change over time or their programmability by the designers and users. On that basis, we argue there is the need to reframe and redesign existing models to describe ICS materials, making their qualities emerge

Producing Goods, Shaping People: The Materiality of Crafting

The study of craft production has a long and venerable history in archaeological research on ancient societies. In this chapter, I consider the crafting of useful and desired things from a materiality perspective by looking at the interactions between the craftpersons, the materials with which they work, and the ways that their end products are valued in society. I use two examples: working with fibers by the Maya of Mesoamerica and with metals by the Moche of Andean South America. These are two very different kinds of materials whose characteristics affect how one interacts with them. Crafting was a part of everyday life for the Maya and Moche. Through these two case studies I illustrate the role crafting plays in the development of identities and personhood, in the process contributing to the meaning of everyday life to people in these societies

Creating Sources of Inspiration through eCollage, the FEA Model, and a Future Visioning Concept Design Project

This article presents an approach to creating sources of inspiration through a collabora-tive concept design that was developed and observed during a future visioning concept design project concerning the theme of “performance wear,” which was conducted at the University of Helsinki for second-year textile student teachers. During the project, the stu-dents created future scenarios; used the functional, expressive, and aesthetic (FEA) con-sumer needs model for apparel design (Lamb and Kallal in Cloth Text Res J 10(2):42–47, 1992) when considering what performance wear could be like in a future scenario; and cre-ated digital collages (eCollages) to present their concepts. In the course that followed the concept design project, the students designed and made actual clothes using the concepts developed during the concept design project as one of their sources of inspiration. The outcomes of the process are described in this article through four research questions: (1) What type of future scenarios did the teams create, what types of eCollages did the teams make, and how did the teams use information and communication technologies (ICT) in their collages? (2) How did the use of eCollages enrich the concept presentations? (3) How were the three dimensions of the FEA model utilized and presented in the eCollages and team presentations? (4) How did the future visions of the concepts and the eCollages act as sources of inspiration in the students’ clothing designs? Five of the six teams studied created a global future scenario that envisioned the world as a dystopia. The high level of technical and visual executions of all the eCollages was surprising. The ECollages played an important role in every team presentation and enriched them considerably. The FEA model, on the other hand, both provided a supporting framework for the concepts and guided the students to direct their attention to apparel within their future scenarios, as well as to consider different dimensions of it. The concepts especially inspired students to create aesthetic elements to their design and to consider the expressiveness and functionality of the garments from the concept’s perspective. The students also challenged themselves to find technical solutions to design ideas they created through being inspired by the concepts. Furthermore, the students often described gaining inspiration from the story or atmosphere of the concept or other non-visual elements of it, and thereby it seems that our approach indeed succeeded in promoting multi-sensory inspiration.Peer reviewe

An investigation into technology and motivational influences on creativity and product output in apparel design students

The purpose of this study was to investigate the application of a social psychological theoretical framework to the study of creativity in apparel design, with a focus on technological engagement and motivational factors. A sample of 32 apparel design students from two major southeastern universities were selected to complete a self-report instruments regarding motivation and technological engagement. Students completed the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults (ATTA) as well as a design brief. Design illustrations were evaluated by a panel of expert judges in the field of apparel design using a consensual assessment technique (CAT). Results indicate levels of technology and internet usage and enjoyment do not relate to product output. Additionally, non-significant results indicate that previously theorized relationships between motivation and product output specific to apparel designers do not support earlier studies of literary and visual artists. Internet and technology engagement is largely based in information collection and redistribution as opposed to idea creation. This theory may explain the limited effect of internet and technology engagement on product output. While motivations across visual arts fields are key components of product output, apparel design is independent of visual arts due to its largely commercial-based enterprise. Our results support this idea and also highlight the need to create an apparel design specific theory of creativity

Industrial Design

A new breed of modern designers is on the way. These non-traditional industrial designers work across disciplines, understand human beings, as well as business and technology thus bridging the gap between customer needs and technological advancement of tomorrow. This book uncovers prospective designer techniques and methods of a new age of industrial design, whose practitioners strive to construct simple and yet complex products of the future. The novel frontiers of a new era of industrial design are exposed, in what concerns the design process, in illustrating the use of new technologies in design and in terms of the advancement of culturally inspired design. The diverse perspectives taken by the authors of this book ensure stimulating reading and will assist readers in leaping forward in their own practice of industrial design, and in preparing new research that is relevant and aligned with the current challenges of this fascinating field