DESIGN FIXATIONDiscussant: Jingning Zhang

Experiment Result

PROCEDURES

Design Problem

Flawed Example

Generate Designs

Control Fixation

“explicitly instructed that no straws …”

Control Fixation

Designs with straws 1% 17%

RESULTS

Why the designers disobey the instructions?

Control Fixation

Designs with straws 1% 17%

Why the fixation group contains obvious flaws?

Misunderstanding on instructions

Grading policy

What if they are told about the flaws in examples?

SIMILARITY METRICS

Flawed FeaturesFlexibilityOriginality

Number of designs

Only use 3 features?

No positive features?

Originality & flexibility only for Experiment 4?

So what do you think is the right metrics for similarity?

SIMILARITY METRICS

Flawed Features Flexibility OriginalityNumber of designs

Leverage Design Fixation in Crowd-sourcing

Under what task conditions is it approbate to supply examples?

Domain Familiarity Response Diversity

What is the right time to present examples?

Beginning?

Halfway through?

What examples should we presents?

Amount?

Positive or negative or both?

Design Fixation in Other Fields

What evidence can be provided for design fixation in other design fields?

Web Design UI Design Architecture Design

What method can be taken to overcome design fixation?

Talk to other people Refer to other designs

Your own tricks?

How Examples may (and may not) constrain creativity

Discussant : Baskar Rethina-saba-pathi

Benzene Ring Hypothesis

- Kekulé predicted the cyclic model 65 years before actual confirmation

Benzene Ring Hypothesis

- Inspiration from a dream of a snake biting its own tail

First commercial Television – Raster Scan

- Farnsworth worked out the principle of the image dissector when he was 15

First commercial Television – Raster Scan

- Inspired from the back-and-forth motion used to plow a field

Farming Electronics

Mythology Chemistry

Farming Electronics

Mythology Chemistry

Software

Flagship Product

Farming Electronics

Mythology Chemistry

Software Software

Flagship Product

Most criticized

Would reading of prior work be considered looking at examples? Would this suggest conformity?

Example: Reading technical papers, old versions of code

Why fresh works are perceived to be more creative than improvisations?

Marsh’s assessment - we fixate on some aspects while still innovating in other areas

http://youtu.be/zd-dqUuvLk4?t=7m18s

What do you need to think outside the box?

Step 0: Borrow a box ?

Plagiarism impacts designs. But the paper does not say when are they good to adopt

Can we say, there exists nothing called “Absolutely Novel”?

Is everything example driven?