This paper presents the concrete application of the INNOWIZ methodology in a design education context. This methodical philosophy is used as a structural backbone in teaching the product design process to students in industrial product design. Observations and teaching experience concluded that these students need a METHOD to manage their creative processes, INSPIRATION in the form of tools and techniques to reach to the breakthrough ideas and make them more tangible one step at a time, and a PERSONAL APPROACH to tackle any specific situation and to deal with many different design briefs

Michiels, Pieter

Saldien, Jelle

Versluys, Rino

Verthé, Becky

English

Ghent University Academic Bibliography

 EPDE2011/120  1 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGINEERING AND PRODUCT DESIGN EDUCATION  8 & 9 SEPTEMBER 2011, CITY UNIVERSITY, LONDON, UK INNOWIZ: A GUIDED FRAMEWORK FOR PROJECTS IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN EDUCATION Pieter Michiels, Becky Verthé, Jelle Saldien, Rino Versluys HOWEST University college, Kortrijk, Belgium ABSTRACT This paper presents the concrete application of the INNOWIZ methodology in a design education context. This methodical philosophy is used as a structural backbone in teaching the product design process to students in industrial product design. Observations and teaching experience concluded that these students need a METHOD to manage their creative processes, INSPIRATION in the form of tools and techniques to reach to the breakthrough ideas and make them more tangible one step at a time, and a PERSONAL APPROACH to tackle any specific situation and to deal with many different design briefs. Keywords: Design methodology, creativity, teaching method, project approach INTRODUCTION  Modeling product innovation and creative problem solving processes goes back to the design research movement in the UK in the sixties and seventies. Since then the aim was to help professionals to structure their work and to find better ways of teaching new design professionals. In 2003, Buijs clearly described [3] the search for convenient innovation models to be used by the Delft Design School. Based on this precedent, the statement was made, that all design institutions have to search for their own best way to deal with innovation models and the use of creativity tools. Since 2008 and after the completion of a 2-year lasting IWT applied research project, INNOWIZ (short for Innovation Wizard) has become a reference model for visualizing an innovation process among the design educators at the product engineering department of Howest University College. As product design processes have a specifically iterative and quite abstract character, communicating and discussing on this process in a concrete and clear way is not self-evident.  Students need practical guiding tools in how to execute these steps of the creative process. Concrete creativity techniques and tools granted to a specific stage in the INNOWIZ process provide the students with the necessary guidance when needed.  METHOD To set up innovation and manage creative processes from ideation to implementation, a dynamic working model rather than a descriptive model must be developed. This has led to a four-staged process of developing and implementing ideas. The four areas in INNOWIZ (Figure 1) are called ‘problem definition’, ‘idea generation’, ‘idea selection’ and ‘idea communication’. It is this last area that closes the loop towards a new cycle in the creative process, where each iteration makes the project less imaginary and more tangible. Each stage also requires its specific viewpoint and approach. By using this easily comprehensible and graphical presented model, students find it a lot easier to have a clear vision on what stage their process is in and what work is to be tackled in order to finish the design project. In the context of product design this four-step philosophy complies with the conviction that an iterative development process fortified with prototypes and other tools of visual communication representing the final stage, has a transparent and relatively easy structure to comprehend.   EPDE2011/120  2  Figure 1: INNOWIZ four step method  The INNOWIZ model can be compared with the model of Dan Couger [4] from 1995 (Figure 2). Couger came up with a five-step creativity model in which you can freely jump from one activity to another.  -  Opportunity delineation and problem definition  -  Compiling relevant information  -  Generating ideas -  Evaluating and prioritizing ideas  -  Developing implementation plan  INNOWIZ rather sees the compilation of relevant information as a part of the problem definition stage and therefore ends up with only 4 clear steps.    Figure 2: Couger’s Creative Problem Solving Model [4] (1995)  But besides this and other similar models, TRIZ (Theory for Inventive Problem Solving) [1] was by far the most inspiring base for the development of INNOWIZ. TRIZ states that ‘specific creativity’ is about finding general solutions that somebody in someplace has already applied on similar (abstract) problems (figure 3). Out of abstract solutions that already exist, it’s quite easy to distillate elements and apply them on your own specific challenge. INNOWIZ is thus a more dynamic re-interpretation of the descriptive TRIZ model [8].                                                                    Figure 3: Focus on phase transitions by INNOWIZ Figure 4. Basic model of TRIZ    EPDE2011/120  3 INSPIRATION Many creativity techniques, found in literature and on the internet, have been classified in the INNOWIZ database1. Classic tools and techniques found in literature as well as new digital and web 2.0 applications have been gathered in an easily searchable online tool but also in a physical format (INNOWIZ card deck and the creativity tool library at Howest University College). ‘Web 2.0 applications’ such as communities, databases, search robots … already carry a huge intelligence. They can be very powerful tools in one or more of the described design process stages. PERSONAL APPROACH Each innovation challenge is unique and requires a customized approach and thus a customized set of creativity tools and techniques (figure 5). To tackle this, INNOWIZ enables the user to compose a specific set of creativity techniques based on a combination of criteria. One of these criteria links techniques to four different thinking types, based on an advanced (Ned Herrmann) brain model [10], a user selects techniques, which suit his personal or the group’s general thinking preference. Available time, availability of an internet connection and the need for a group session are the other selection criteria. Also the phase of the creative process in which one considers oneself, has an impact on the choice of the tools.    Figure 5: Contextual creativity paths  EXAMPLES OF INNOWIZ METHOD IN EDUCATIONAL PROJECTS  The INNOWIZ methodology is implemented in the master education program and the bachelor program in industrial design offered by HOWEST University College. The examples described below show how this methodology is practically incorporated in the student design projects. STUDENT PROJECTS Each student project excecuted throughout the four years (including thesis’s) of the master industrial design program and the three years of the bachelor industrial product design program at HOWEST university college is set up and arranged according to the INNOWIZ method. Students are expected to structure their process to the given four INNOWIZ stages and prove their insight in the driving forces behind a methodological design process. For every project a set of supportive, inspirational tools and techniques and matching templates are handed to the students. The amount and complexity of these tools and techniques depend on the year the students are in and on the level of complexity of the assignment. The design process’ focus is on closing each INNOWIZ cycle by a realization of the current state of the project for clear communication (e.g. a user group enquiry results, a simple sketch, a mood board, a prototype …),  making conclusions and starting a new iteration. The more iterations are made in a development process, the bigger the chances for success after completion.                                                      1 Innowiz online method database [online] www.innowiz.be TOOLS & TECHNIQUES MATERIALISATION 1 Problem definition 2 Idea generation 3 Idea selection 4 Idea communication ASPECTS  EPDE2011/120  4 INTENSIVE PROGRAM2 “120 students of several disciplines - industrial (product) design engineering, electronic engineering and industrial management – and different nationalities are brought together for a two week Intensive Program. During morning sessions, international experts instruct the students in Innovation Management Techniques and relevant presentations will be given. The students apply these techniques to develop innovative product/process prototypes working intensively together in multidisciplinary and multinational groups during afternoon workshops. The products/processes to innovate are real-world cases defined by enterprises. The IP 2011 will train future engineers and designers skilled with innovation management techniques for a multidisciplinary approach to developing green products and wants to pull attention towards the importance of incorporating ‘innovation management’ in regular curricula for future engineers.”  The students involved in this two week Intensive Program (5th edition in 2011) built up their development process according the four INNOWIZ steps (figure 4). As each team is composed in an interdisciplinary way and thus each discipline contributes its own expertise, way of communicating and path through the development process, a common language for easy communication on the design process is of crucial importance for an efficient project result over this very short period of two weeks.  Within these four INNOWIZ steps the students can make use of sufficient tools, techniques and matching templates. These have proved to provide them with the necessary support and guidance in tackling the design process in a structured and iterative way.     Figure 7: Intensive Program 2011  A DESIGN PLATFORM FOR TANGIBLE INTUITIVE INTERACTIVE INTERFACES [TIII]:      CASE STUDIES To address the challenging problems of an ever-growing digital world, the initiative has been taken to start a design platform that focuses on Tangible Intuitive Interactive Interfaces (TIII). These interfaces should improve our way of communication via digital media. The design of TIII is an interdisciplinary process (Figure 8) with a strong focus on interaction design. By use of iterative prototyping, evaluation of intuitive interactions is made possible. The design process will be based on the INNOWIZ method. This method structures a creative process and ensures that people tackle their project in a highly efficient manner. By consistently and iteratively running through the design cycle, chances for success are maximized. The 4th stage in the TIII is defined as the construction of a prototype that allows user interaction as part of the idea communication. State-of-the-art tools such as Arduino and Phidgets allow for rapid prototyping using any kind of sensors and actuators. The development of this design platform is a joint venture between industry and research partners, addressing both scientific and commercial aspects of the TIII design.                                                       2 Intensive Program, [Online] http://ip2011.howest.be  EPDE2011/120  5  Figure 8: The interdisciplinary TIII design. CASE STUDIES The proposed platform is still in its infant stage. Nonetheless some proof-of-concepts are being developed based on the design processes that are used by students industrial design and mechanical engineering in their mechatronic projects. Examples of their explorations with Arduino can be viewed here: http://vimeo.com/19289102. CONCLUSION   INNOWIZ as an innovation and creativity method has its origin in the basics of TRIZ and it equally connects to a model of Dan Couger from 1995. Out of lots of developed innovation methods and creativity abstractions, it was INNOWIZ’ ambition to be used as a backbone for educational projects with students, as well as for innovation services towards companies and for research projects initiated by the Industrial Design Center at Howest University, Belgium.  INNOWIZ is unique in its kind because it combines an iterative creative problem solving method with the inventory and use of creativity tools and a personal, contextual approach. It is this combination that has been found very usefull in educational, projectbased context. Students claim to need a framework in order to structure their projects. On the other hand    INNOWIZ has proven its flexible application ways in education and the industry. One of the big differences between students and companies is that people in the industry preferably want one simple, easy-to-understand and easy-to-use model of the creative problem solving process, whereas students prefer a vast logical, linear and step-by-step plan [3]. INNOWIZ is positioned somewhere in the middle of this proposition. It is easy-to-understand because of the limitation of only four steps, but it is rich and endless in the combination of creativity tools (quartets) in order to solve varied problems in a logical way. The INNOWIZ model is thus continually enriched with creativity tools depending on the context: are you developing a product, a game or a business? Are you optimizing your communication or your consumer insights? Nowadays INNOWIZ is not only taught in the product design department of Howest University College, but also in its gaming department, its communication and business management department, its educational theory department,…. Looking into the future, INNOWIZ can still evolve in many different application fields.  Dependent on the concrete situation, problem or challenge, one has to choose for a specific quartet of creativity tools. Design educators or innovation trainers make the INNOWIZ model less or more complex and detailed by the choice of creativity tools they put in the quartet. From our own experience, we could say that some combinations of creativity techniques put together sequentially in a quartet guarantee more success than other quartets. The contents of the innovation challenge and the personal thinking preferences of the project managers and his/her colleagues are as essential as the choice of the techniques. For every creative process, it is our advice to have some tools to fall back on if the quartet selected doesn’t seem to meet the requirements.   EPDE2011/120  6 REFERENCES  [1]  Altshuller G. Creativity as an exact science, Gordon & Breach, New York, 1984   [2]  Bruton D. Learning creativity and design for innovation, International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 2010, Vol. 20, 13 p.   [3]  Buijs J. Modelling Product Innovation Processes, from Linear Logic to Circular Chaos. Creativity and innovation management, 2003, Vol. 12(2), 76-93.  [4] Couger, J.D.Creative problem solving and opportunity finding. Boyd & Fraser Publishing Company Ferncroft Village, 1995  [5]  Carayannis E. & Coleman J. Creative system design methodologies: the case of complex technical systems. Technovation: The International Journal of Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Technology Management, 2005, Vol. 25, 831-840.   [6] De Couvreur,L., Goossens, R.. (2010) Design for (every)one – co-creation as bridge between universal design and rehabilitation engineering. Proceedings design and emotion, 4-7 October Chicago 2010, Illinois Institute of Technology  [7]  Detand J. Attitudevorming bij het begeleid zelfstandig leren in het industrieel ontwerponderwijs. Begeleid zelfstandig leren, 2007 (Wolters Plantyn, Mechelen), pp.1-22.    [8]  D'hulster F., Vanneste C., Bastiaens R., Detand J., "Industrial Design Center integrated in education and research structure using 'INNOWIZ" methodology", Proceedings of International Conference on Designing Pleasurable Products and Interfaces DPPI09, UTC Compiègne, France, 13-16 October, 2009.  [9] Doppelt (Y.). Assessing creative thinking in design-based learning. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 2009, Vol 19, 55-65.    [10] Herrmann N. The creative brain. Training and Development Journal, 1981,  Vol. 35 (10), 10-16      [11]  Howard T.J., Culley S.J. & Dekoninck E. Describing the creative design process by the  integration of engineering design and cognitive psychology literature. Design Studies, 2008,  Vol. 29, 160-180.   [12]  Kieran Jeffries K. Skills for creativity in games design. Design Studies, 2011, Vol. 32, 60-85.   [13]  Mawson B. Beyond ‘The Design Process’: An Alternative Pedagogy for Technology  Education. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 2003, Vol. 13, 117-128.   [14]  Nagai Y. Communication Model of Design Education based on Research into the Creative Thinking Process. TCT Education of Disabilities, 2003, Vol. 2 (1), 35-42.  [15]  van der Lugt R. Developing a graphic tool for creative problem solving in design groups. Design Studies, 2000, Vol 21(5), 505-522.    [16]   Woodman R.W., Sawyer J.E. & Griffin R.W. Toward a Theory of Organizational   Creativity. The Academy of Management Review, 1993, Vol. 18 (2), 293-321. 

INNOWIZ: a guided framework for projects in industrial design education

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INNOWIZ: a guided framework for projects in industrial design education

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