An essential part of any space in which physical prototyping and prototype-driven product development is being conducted is the education of its users in the necessary skills to fully utilise the material resources of the space. This paper describes how two different skills were transferred between five projects in our research laboratory, TrollLABS. Based on the observed skill-transfers in the production of PCBs and use of RF-communication in mechatronics projects certain tendencies emerged: How the use of forced vocal experience sharing; And in-person transferring of skills has impacted the acquired skills of the learner. The observations further show that through the guidance of a more experienced user the learner is able to make “skill-jumps”: Intermediate skill steps, as well as underlying detailed knowledge, are skipped and the learner is able to reach a high skill level in a shorter time than the original acquirer of the skill. Furthermore, skills are retained in the space through cross-generational collaboration and communication. This article aims to share these insights and provide a starting point for answering some of the challenges of modern maker spaces.

Among the increasing number of researches about design thinking, several studies, empirically investigate the report between design process and different sources of inspiration. Visualization of Images represents one of the most current stimuli in the architectural design.

This work focuses on the link between the active part of design process and images of precedents when visualized by the designer at the beginning of his design activity. It aims to identify and measure the impact of such visualization on the cognitive process of ideation.

We use the protocol analysis method. Data are collected through design experiment and coded by the semio-morphic coding scheme. Results show that the visualization of images of precedents enhances the productivity of the ideation process. The process consistency is also improved by the apearence of homogeneous phases. Moreover the ideation process becomes more creative cognitively, by making the genesis of primitive chains of actions faster, easier and similar.

Accordingly, this paper communicate the effect of a common practice such images’ visualization on the architectural design process to get insight on the cognitive befits of this practice.

Information Technology (IT) and the process of new product development (NPD) have become completely intertwined. From computer-aided-design (CAD) to video conferencing to traditional tools like email, the act of design, iterating and communicating with team members is touched at every point in the process by IT. Over the last ten years, new, collaborative information technology (CIT) has entered into the NPD process to make the activity of communication and team information sharing easier, more frequent, and distributed. What is not known is how these tools are influencing the design process itself. This research uses a longitudinal multi-method, ethnographic approach to deep dive into actual use cases. Our results indicate that CIT can have a substantial impact on NPD, but does not automatically alleviate traditional problems during NPD. We also find that the propagation of tools via new firms startups has developed a single tool per task paradigm, which is counter to the development of complex platforms offered by established firms. These single use tools are easily adopted but also easily discarded by development teams.

A posteriori novelty metrics are often used in design research, in order to extract important information about creativity. However, different assessment approaches can be found in the literature, each of them with related pros and cons. In particular, weighted uncommonness, overall uncommonness and uncommonness across groups are the three main families of a-posteriori novelty metrics identified in this paper. Each of the considered literature metrics can provide specific types of information about the uncommonness of ideas, but in certain experimental circumstances, it could be difficult to rapidly identify the best-suited approach. This paper proposes an integrated procedure where the advantages offered by the three families of metrics can be applied concurrently. A generic case study is used for a first application of the proposal, and the obtained results show that a more comprehensive set of information about a-posteriori novelty can be extracted. In particular, novelty data from the three families of metrics are extracted in a single assessment process.

The aim of our research is to stimulate cross disciplinary design collaboration to improve innovation processes in product and service design domain. We focus on the intersection of biotechnology and design as this field poses great challenges and opportunities for innovation, and it has received little attention in light of technological advancements of digital goods over the past decades. Experimental studies in the area expose challenging interactions, rising from lack of common vocabulary and preconceptions. Organisational management studies suggest that creativity is a prerequisite for innovation in group processes. As such, we are interested in enhancing collective creativity. Numerous studies investigate external creativity triggers, however only on individual level. Our review suggests that external triggers can be effective when the task is problem solving or styling, but ambiguous goals like innovation require stimulation of intrinsic triggers, such as group incidental learning and tacit knowledge. To explain this, we propose a hypothetical innovation approach, that draws attention to cognitive stimulation methods leading to creativity in multidisciplinary teams.