Soundstorm: Collaborative Ideation for Sound-Driven Design

Product sounds are important in our interactions with them. The temporal and context-dependent nature of sound makes it difficult to design them. There is a semantic gap between how we talk about sound and how it is embodied. Sound-driven design aims to improve this in two ways. It proposes a human-centered design approach, focusing on designing...

Biomodd: The integration of art into transdisciplinary research practices

In this paper, we argue for the integration of collaborative art practice in transdisciplinary (TD) research to generate ideas and engage researchers and non-academic stakeholders. We draw on the virtual and in-person (hybrid) participation of members of the TD collective Space Ecologies Art and Design (SEADS) during Biomodd, an art installation...

Power of the Cubes

How can children become game designers instead of passive consumers in the era of digital democracy? <br/>Company Smart Lumies has offered an answer to this question through the development of electronic “smart” cubes. Users of the toy will have access to an intuitive programming interface that they can use to program and play their own games,...

Idea representation and elaboration in design inspiration and fixation experiments

Design fixation experiments often report that participants exposed to an example solution generate fewer ideas than those who were not. This reduced ‘idea fluency’ is generally explained as participants’ creativity being constrained by the example they have seen. However, the inclusion of an example also introduces other factors that might...

From teatime cookies to rain-pants: Resolving dilemmas through design using concerns at three abstraction levels

Users often have conflicting concerns (i.e., dilemmas), such as ‘embracing change vs. following tradition.’ Design can resolve these dilemmas through simultaneously fulfilling conflicting user concerns. This paper proposes three abstraction levels for framing user concerns when formulating dilemmas. In a large-scale industry project, we...

Idea Generation in University Cities: Reflection on the integration of research and design and its application in the urban context

New ideas and innovation are the fuel to the modern knowledge economy. The university has for centuries been part of the innovation system responsible for the development of new ideas. Today, the interdisciplinary character and complexity of societal issues makes that there is a need for new methods to support innovation development at...

With the Head in the Clouds: Daydreaming as a Mindset that facilitates Creative Incubation

This thesis proposes a new method to enhance designers’ creative performance. Applying the unconscious work theory of incubation effects, this thesis proposes that daydreaming during idea incubation could result in more novel and useful ideas by fostering unconscious associative processes. Building on previous findings by Baird et al (2012), who...

Teaching students to apply multiple physical modeling methods

Design students should be able to explore a variety of shapes before elaborating one particular shape. Current modelling courses don’t address this issue. We developed the course Rapid Modelling, which teaches students to explore multiple shape models in a short time, applying different methods and materials. The course contains four parts:...

ConceptS for KLM.nl

The study provides meaningful insights about the customers of KLM.nl, the difference with the international customers, the commercial viability of the segments, needs regarding online booking for two of the most commercial viable segments and concepts that create sales growth and shift for KLM.nl based on these needs. Firstly, the study provides...

Bringing the everyday life of people into design

Products play a role in our everyday lives. Insight into the experiences of people in their everyday lives is of great use for designing products. For example, the contexts in which products are used (physical, social, culture etc.) and the state (excited, tired, concentrated etc.) of the users influence how they experience using products....

Prevention of littering through packaging design: A support tool for concept generation

Littering is a social and environmental problem. Numerous studies have been performed trying to understand littering behavior and to find ways to influence it successfully. Various litter-reduction strategies have been applied with changing success. These have either focused on directly influencing the attitudes of the litterer or on...