Concept Blending and Dissimilarity: Factors for Creative Design Process: A Comparison between the Linguistic Interpretation Process and Design Process

This study investigated the design process in order to clarify the characteristics of the essence of the creative design process vis-à-vis the interpretation process, by carrying out design experiments. The authors analyzed the characteristics of the creative design process by comparing it with the linguistic interpretation process, from the viewpoints of thought types (analogy, blending, and thematic relation) and recognition types (commonalities and alignable and nonalignable differences). A new concept can be created by using the noun-noun phrase as the process of synthesizing two concepts—the simplest and most essential process in formulating a new concept from existing ones. Furthermore, the noun-noun phrase can be interpreted in a natural way. In our experiment, the subjects were required to interpret a novel noun-noun phrase, create a design concept from the same noun-noun phrase, and list the similarities and dissimilarities between the two nouns. The authors compare the results of the thought types and recognition types, focusing on the perspective of the manner in which things were viewed, i.e., in terms of similarities and dissimilarities. A comparison of the results reveals that blending and nonalignable differences characterize the creative design process. The findings of this research will contribute a framework of design practice, to enhance both students’ and designers’ creativity for concept formation in design, which relates to the development of innovative design. Keywords: Noun-Noun phrase; Design; Creativity; Blending; Nonalignable difference</p

Polysemy in Design Review Conversations

This paper examines the role of polysemy, defined as the quality of having multiple meanings, in design review conversations. It examines the polysemy, particularly of nouns, involved in a dataset of design review conversations with reference to design ideas. The purpose is to determine whether polysemy is related to successful development of design ideas and more creative design outcomes. The results show that the polysemy of nouns involved in the conversations of the finally developed, successful, design ideas exceeds in the most cases the average polysemy involved in the conversations pertaining to the unsuccessful design ideas. Furthermore, the polysemy of these nouns is linked to high overall creativity of the design idea. The paper concludes by discussing issues and directions for further investigation of polysem

A Solution to the Back and Forth Problem in the Design Space Forming Process: A Method to Convert Time Issue to Space Issue

Abstract This paper discusses a method for converting time issue into space issue in the design process. During the design process, we often determine something that can be evaluated only after the design process has proceeded for a while. However, in some cases, this kind of a problem (the back and forth problem) can be converted into a spatial problem. In this paper, the author approaches the design space forming process in which the function is decomposed, as an example of the back and forth problem, by extending our previous mathematical discussion and using computer simulation. The author shows that conserving the similarity between the space for the required function description and the space for the decomposed function description is a key to solve the back and forth problem. This result indicates that forming an appropriate space for the decomposed functions for searching the design solution in an efficient manner is replaced by the criterion of similarity conservation. In other words, it is possible to analyse the back and forth problem in the design process by converting it into a spatial problem

Principia designae: pre-design, design, and post-design : social motive for the highly advanced technological society

This book presents a broad design purview within the framework of “pre-design, design, and post-design” by focusing on the “motive of design,” which implies an underlying reason for the design of a product. The chapters are comprised of papers based on discussions at the “Design Research Leading Workshop” held in Nara, Japan, in 2013. This book encourages readers to enhance and expand their thinking within a widened design perspective

Concept Generation for Design Creativity: A Systematized Theory and Methodology

The concept generation process seems like an intuitional thought: difficult to capture and perform, although everyone is capable of it. It is not an analytical process but a synthetic process which has yet to be clarified. Furthermore, new research methods for investigating the concept generation process—a very difficult task since the concept generation process is driven by inner feelings deeply etched in the mind—are necessary to establish its theory and methodology.  Concept Generation for Design Creativity—A Systematized Theory and Methodology presents the concept generation process both theoretically and methodologically. Theoretically, the concept generation process is discussed by comparing metaphor, abduction, and General Design Theory from the perspective of similarities and dissimilarities. Property mapping, concept blending, and concept integration in thematic relation have been explained methodologically. So far, these theories and methods have been discussed independently, and the relations among them have not been clarified. Two newly developed research methods to investigate the concept generation process are clearly explained: extended protocol analysis and constructive simulation.  By reading Concept Generation for Design Creativity—A Systematized Theory and Methodology, students, researchers and lecturers in design disciplines (including engineering design, industrial design, software design, CHI, design education, and cognitive science) can obtain a clear picture of the advanced research findings and the outline of the theories and methods for concept generation. Furthermore, readers are expected to achieve the competence to generate new concepts

A Computational Model of Viewpoint-Forming Process in Searching Solutions - Theory and Methods using Hierarchical Classifier System -

In an adaptive machine learning system, it is inevitable that the production rule (if-then rule) has a long if-part when input information is highly complex and requires an abundance of properties. In such an adaptive system, without using some method to look only at specific positions and ignore others in the rule, adaption to external dynamical environment changes usually results in a very inefficient process. In order to avoid such a result and to systematize the method in terms of its knowledge structure, which is expressed as a rule, the authors present a computational model of what the authors call the Viewpoint-Forming Process. The key concept of this proposal, Viewpoint, contributes to focusing on adequate properties within input the information, by means of using an expressed knowledge, instead of the automatic focusing embedded in the adaptation process. A hierarchical classifier system is applied to facilitate the realization of the computational model called the Viewpoint-F..