How Digital Tools Impact Convergent and Divergent Thinking in Design Ideation
I think it's an over-abstraction to interpret the conclusions of this study as "digital versus analog."nishio.icon
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Digital tools that support creative activities are ubiquitous in the design industry, yet practitioners appear to prefer pen and paper for design ideation. To better understand this exception, we conducted a comparative study between analog and digital tools and their impact on the divergent and convergent thinking patterns of groups of designers. We analysed how 24 participants solved comparable design ideation tasks in two conditions using linkographic protocol analysis – a notation method that focuses on identifying and linking small steps in the design process called moves. Our findings suggest that digital ideation tools yield more convergent thinking compared to analog tools, with no discernible impact on general productivity or divergent thinking.
(DeepL) Despite the proliferation of digital tools in the design industry to support creative activities, designers seem to prefer to use paper and pen for design ideation. To better understand this exception, we conducted a comparative study of analog and digital tools and their impact on divergent and convergent thinking patterns of a group of designers. We analyzed how 24 participants solved equivalent design idea tasks in the two conditions using linked graphic protocol analysis, a notation focused on identifying and relating small steps in the design process, called embarks. The results suggest that digital idea tools lead to more convergent thinking than analog tools, with no clear impact on general productivity or divergent thinking.
The 2019 edition of the Annual Design Tools Survey
86% of respondents continue to use analog tools such as pen, paper, and whiteboards for brainstorming and ideation.
How do digital and analog tools affect divergent and convergent thinking in design ideation?
linkographic notation method
Using the linkographic representations of each group’s ideation process, we present and discuss how the two conditions impacted their divergent and convergent thinking, specifically on three measures of these cognitive styles:
backlinking critical moves, orphan moves, and the link index.
The distinction between divergent and convergent thinking was originally proposed by Guilford as two radically different modes of problem solving. Divergent thinking generates a diverse set of ideas as a response to a question or challenge, whereas convergent thinking concentrates on narrowing a set of ideas down to a single solution. Divergent Thinking is Divergent Thinking: "allows exploration in different directions from the initial problem state to discover many possible ideas or combinations of ideas that could be a solution," whereas Convergent Thinking. Convergent thinking: "goes through a series of prescribed operations from the initial problem state to converge on one correct solution" .
The general understanding of the unfolding design process is that the initial part of the process is divergent in nature, followed by a convergent period that leads to the final design. Slightly more sophisticated design process models show that the process alternates between phases of divergent and convergent nature, such as the common double diamond (see Figure 2) by The British Design Council. Similar patterns can be found in many phase models of design, such as Ideo's design thinking process, where divergence is described as "making choices" and convergent thinking as "making choices. These models often refer to a comprehensive flow of the entire design project. However, these processes are also deployed at the micro level of the design session, for example when designers introduce, elaborate, or discard ideas. Divergent thinking has been established as an important measure of creativity 35 and has been used, for example, by Warr and O'Neill 43 and Gallagher 15 to investigate the effects of group composition on creativity. Convergent thinking has received less attention, but many design and creativity researchers have demonstrated that both divergent and convergent thinking exist and require creativity. "The evaluative (convergent) component of the creative process has received little attention .... This is surprising, since it is an important component of the creative process and is necessary whenever an individual selects or expresses a preference for an idea or set of ideas" 34. Indeed, the creative process is Perkins' study of inventiveness demonstrated that inventive people are often "mode shifters. This mode shifter further emphasized the non-linearity of the design process.
For the purposes of this paper's research, the main point is that divergent and convergent thinking are separate and distinct modes of thought, but both are necessary in the creative problem-solving process. If we want to understand the role that analog and digital tools play in the design process, we should investigate whether and how they influence divergent and convergent thinking, not only at the macro level of the overall design project, but also at the micro level of individual design sessions. they are affecting divergent and convergent thinking, and how.
Each group was asked to complete two different but equivalent design tasks using either analog tools (sticky notes, paper and pen, whiteboard) or digital tools (Cards and Boards system). As shown in Table 2, to ensure that all possible combinations of groups were equal in number, groups of participants would complete the first task in either the digital or analog condition and the second task in the opposite condition. The order of these conditions was randomly assigned. The design tasks were based on those used in Jensen et al.'s experimental study on the use of digital and physical sticky notes 26: one design task asked participants to develop a new online service for milk and cookie delivery, and another asked participants to develop a smart wardrobe The other asked participants to develop a smart wardrobe. To reduce fatigue and potential order effects, the experiments were spaced approximately one week apart, with some variability due to several rescheduling attempts (M=7.5, SD=3.9 ). Participants were asked to work through learning materials about the tools in the form of video tutorials in the days prior to participating in the trial, which included digital tools. Designers were required to work through the materials and pass a multiple-choice test (10 out of 10 questions answered correctly) to ensure that they were familiar with the functions and features of the tools. Designers who failed this test were encouraged to return to the instructional materials or to consult with the experimenter. All participants passed the multiple-choice test on the first or second attempt without contacting the experimenter.
3.7 Linkographic analysis
Linkagraphy is a method for detailed evaluation of design processes and productivity, introduced by Goldschmidt in 1990. The method is based on protocol analysis and utilizes detailed descriptions of oral reports as an empirical basis. The method analyzes the transcribed and segmented protocols into smaller units, called design moves, and links them to each other to create a Linked Graph. In doing so, the relevance of individual design moves can be tracked and entire sessions can be probed for patterns and characteristics related to, for example, the proportion of links and new moves.
A design move is defined by Goldschmidt as "a step, act, or operation that transforms the design situation somewhat in comparison with the previous state" and is "... . similar to its meaning in chess" and has been defined as "a move that is performed in a single move. An average move is claimed to last approximately seven seconds; Goldschmidt emphasizes that this type of design move is very different from the use of "moves" by Shön, for example. When analyzing the protocol from teamwork to hand, turn-taking is proposed as a common principle, but it is also suggested that other decompositions such as statement. In addition, moves are not independent entities because they are not generated in isolation from the previous move. For this reason, a link is established between moves in order to proceed with the analysis; Goldschmidt states that the link between moves can be determined. "It can be determined from the content of the moves; the determination of whether two moves are related is made using common sense, under the condition of familiarity with the discipline and the design episode in question." The question of whether there is a link is systematically asked for all moves in the analyzed protocol, yielding n(n-1)2 links (where n is the total number of moves).
Links between moves can only be established retrospectively. In other words, the only links that can be looked for when performing analysis are what Goldschmidt calls backlinks. Once a move is examined, the previous moves can be examined to determine if a link exists. Once a link is established, however, it serves as both a forelink and a backlink, depending on where it links from and to. In other words, the link between the second and third moves is both a forelink for the second move and a backlink for the third move. The moves can, of course, be
Linkography opens the door to an array of potentially interesting factors and elements related to design cognition and the design process. In this paper, we focus on a handful of factors in particular and briefly introduce them. For a complete set of available variables and factors, see Goldschmidts' book dedicated to this method.
Orphan Moves
It is a hand that is not linked to other hands; Goldschmidt suggests that this may be observed frequently when dealing with inexperienced designers.
Critical Moves
It is the move that generates the most links to other moves and is therefore the most "influential" move in the link graph. This threshold varies from study to study, but should be set to generate approximately 10-12% of all moves as critical. An example from our dataset is from Group 6, Digital Conditions.
Critical moves with forelinks and backlinks are proposed to reflect divergent and convergent thinking in the context of Linkography.
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