Abstract
Searching for sources of inspiration is central to creative design; however, we have limited knowledge of individual inspiration search strategies in response to varying levels of task constraints. We studied 39 high-school students’ inspiration search strategies using Google Images. Low task constrainedness led to divergent search marked by quick iterations, limited design task usage, and a heterogeneous image set. Intermediate constrainedness prompted in-depth, on-task exploration characterized by slow and careful iterations with more search result examination, extensive design task usage, and homogenous images. High constrainedness led to flexible bracketing with quick, flexible design task use, ending with heterogeneous images. Images from the intermediately and highly constrained conditions generated more ideas and were perceived as more inspiring (relative to low) in a new group of students. We discuss the idea of a ‘sweet spot’ of constrainedness in an inspiration search process in design and consider implications for design research and future work.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
An, D., & Youn, N. (2018). The inspirational power of arts on creativity. Journal of Business Research,85, 467–475. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.10.025.
Bates, M. J. (1979). Information search tactics. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology,30(4), 205–214. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.4630300406.
Bates, M. J. (1990). Where should the person stop and the information search interface start? Information Processing and Management,26(5), 575–591. https://doi.org/10.1016/0306-4573(90)90103-9.
Beaudouin-Lafon, M., & Mackay, W. (2003). Prototyping tools and techniques. In J. A. Jacko & A. Sears (Eds.), The human–computer interaction handbook (2nd ed., pp. 1017–1040). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Biskjaer, M. M. (2013). Self-imposed creativity constraints. Ph.D. dissertation, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
Biskjaer, M. M., Dalsgaard, P., & Halskov, K. (2014). A constraint-based understanding of design spaces. In Proceedings of the ACM conference on designing interactive systems (DIS’14) (pp. 453–462). New York: ACM. http://doi.org/10.1145/2598510.2598533.
Biskjaer, M. M., & Halskov, K. (2014). Decisive constraints as a creative resource in interaction design. Digital Creativity,25(1), 27–61. https://doi.org/10.1080/14626268.2013.855239.
Boden, M. A. (2004). The creative mind: Myths and mechanisms (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. (Original work published 1990).
Bonnardel, N., & Marmèche, E. (2004). Evocation processes by novice and expert designers: Towards stimulating analogical thinking. Creativity and Innovation Management,13(3), 176–186. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0963-1690.2004.00307.x.
Bruton, D. (2011). Learning creativity and design for innovation. International Journal of Technology and Design Education,21(3), 321–333. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-010-9122-8.
Buchanan, R. (1992). Wicked problems in design thinking. Design Issues,8(2), 5–21. https://doi.org/10.2307/1511637.
Chan, J., Dow, S. P., & Schunn, C. D. (2015). Do the best design ideas (really) come from conceptually distant sources of inspiration? Design Studies,36, 31–58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2014.08.001.
Chen, W. (2016). Exploring the learning problems and resource usage of undergraduate industrial design students in design studio courses. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 26(3), 461–487. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-015-9315-2.
Christensen, B. T., & Ball, L. J. (2016). Creative analogy use in a heterogeneous design team: The pervasive role of background domain knowledge. Design Studies,46, 38–58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2016.07.004.
Churchman, C. W. (1967). Guest editorial: Wicked problems. Management Science,14(4), 141–142.
Crilly, N., & Cardoso, C. (2017). Where next for research on fixation, inspiration and creativity in design? Design Studies,50, 1–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2017.02.001.
Cross, N. (2006). Designerly ways of knowing. London: Springer.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2008). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York: Harper Perennial, Modern Classics.
Darke, J. (1979). The primary generator and the design process. Design Studies,1(1), 36–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/0142-694X(79)90027-9.
Debowski, S. (2001). Wrong way: Go back! An exploration of novice search behaviours while conducting an information search. The Electronic Library,19(6), 371–382. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470110411991.
Dorst, K. (1997). Describing design: A comparison of paradigms. Ph.D. dissertation, Delft University of Technology Press, Delft, Belgium.
Dove, G., Hansen, N. B., & Halskov, K. (2016). An argument for design space reflection. In Proceedings of the 9th Nordic conference on human–computer interaction (NordiCHI ‘16). New York: ACM, article. no. 17. https://doi.org/10.1145/2971485.2971528.
Eastman, C. M. (1969). Cognitive processes and ill-defined problems: A case study from design. In Proceedings of the first international joint conference on artificial intelligence (IJCAI’69) (pp. 669–690). New York: ACM.
Eckert, C., & Stacey, M. (2000). Sources of inspiration: A language of design. Design Studies,21(5), 523–538. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0142-694X(00)00022-3.
Eckert, C., & Stacey, M. (2002). Fortune favours only the prepared mind: Why sources of inspiration are essential for continuing creativity. Creativity and Innovation Management,7(1), 9–16. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8691.00080.
Elster, J. (2000). Ulysses unbound: Studies in rationality, precommitment, and constraints. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Fodness, D., & Murray, B. (1998). A typology of tourist information search strategies. Journal of Travel Research,37(2), 108–119. https://doi.org/10.1177/004728759803700202.
Goel, V. (1992). Comparison of well-structured and ill-structured task environments and problem spaces. In Proceedings of the 14th annual conference of the cognitive science society (pp. 844–849). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Gonçalves, M. (2016). Decoding designers’ inspiration process. Ph.D. dissertation, Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands.
Gonçalves, M., Cardoso, C., & Badke-Schaub, P. (2014). What inspires designers? Preferences on inspirational approaches during idea generation. Design Studies,35(1), 29–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2013.09.001.
Halskov, K. (2010). Kinds of inspiration in interaction design. Digital Creativity,21(3), 186–196. https://doi.org/10.1080/14626268.2010.502236.
Halskov, K., & Dalsgaard, P. (2007). The emergence of ideas: The interplay between sources of inspiration and emerging design concepts. CoDesign,3(4), 185–211. https://doi.org/10.1080/15710880701607404.
Harlan, M. A., Bruce, C., & Lupton, M. (2012). Teen content creators: Experiences of using information to learn. Library Trends,60(3), 569–587. https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2012.0001.
Harms, M., Reiter-Palmon, R., & Derrick, D. C. (2018). The role of information search in creative problem solving. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000212.
Helms, M., Vattam, S. S., & Goel, A. K. (2009). Biologically inspired design: Process and products. Design Studies,30(5), 606–622. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2009.04.003.
Herring, S. R., Chang, C.-C., Krantzler, J., & Bailey, B. P. (2009). Getting inspired! Understanding how and why examples are used in creative design practice. In Proceedings of the ACM conference on human factors in computing systems (CHI’09) (pp. 87–96). New York: ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/1518701.1518717.
Hsiao, S. W., Wang, M. F., & Chen, C. W. (2017). Time pressure and creativity in industrial design. International Journal of Technology and Design Education,27(2), 271–289. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-015-9343-y.
Illies, J. J., & Reiter-Palmon, R. (2004). The effects of type and level of personal involvement on information search and problem solving. Journal of Applied Social Psychology,34(8), 1709–1729. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2004.tb02794.x.
Jansson, D. G., & Smith, S. M. (1991). Design fixation. Design Studies,12(1), 3–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/0142-694X(91)90003-F.
Jarmusch, J. (2013). Things I’ve learned. Movie Maker Magazine [online edition], June 5, 2013. https://www.moviemaker.com/archives/series/things_learned/jim-jarmusch-5-golden-rules-of-moviemaking/. Accessed November 21, 2017.
Jörgensen, C., & Jörgensen, P. (2005). Image querying by image professionals. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology,56(12), 1346–1359. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.20229.
Joyce, C. K. (2009). The blank page: Effects of constraint on creativity. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, CA.
Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (Eds.). (2000). Choices, values, and frames. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kelley, T., & Littman, J. (2001). The art of innovation: Lessons in creativity from IDEO, America’s leading design firm. New York: Currency/Doubleday.
Koch, J., László, M., Lucero, A., & Oulasvirta, A. (2018). Surfing for inspiration: Digital inspirational material in design practice. In Proceedings of the 2018 design research society conference (DRS’18). University of Limerick, Ireland, June 25–28, 2018. https://doi.org/10.21606/dma.2017.352.
Kuzminykh, A., & Lank, E. (2016). People searched by people: Context-based selectiveness in online search. In Proceedings of the ACM conference on designing interactive systems (DIS’16) (pp. 749–760). New York: ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/2901790.2901853.
Linder, R., Snodgrass, C., & Kerne, A. (2014). Everyday ideation: All of my ideas are on Pinterest. In Proceedings of the ACM conference on human factors in computing systems (CHI’14) (pp. 2411–2420). New York: ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/2556288.2557273.
Lomas, J. D., Koedinger, K., Patel, N., Shodhan, S., Poonwala, N., & Forlizzi, J. L. (2017). Is difficulty overrated? The effects of choice, novelty and suspense on intrinsic motivation in educational games. In Proceedings of the ACM conference on human factors in computing systems (CHI’17) (pp. 1028–1039). New York: ACM. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3025453.3025638.
Lucero, A. (2012). Framing, aligning, paradoxing, abstracting, and directing: How design mood boards work. In Proceedings of the ACM conference on designing interactive systems (DIS’12) (pp. 438–447). New York: ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/2317956.2318021.
Luo, S. J., & Dong, Y. N. (2017). Role of cultural inspiration with different types in cultural product design activities. International Journal of Technology and Design Education,27(3), 499–515. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-016-9359-y.
MacLean, A., Young, R. M., Belotti, V. M. E., & Moran, T. P. (1991). Questions, options, and criteria: Elements of design space analysis. Human–Computer Interaction,6(3–4), 201–250. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327051hci0603&4_2.
Maher, M., & Tang, H.-H. (2003). Co-evolution as a computational and cognitive model of design. Research in Engineering Design,14(1), 47–64. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00163-002-0016-y.
Makri, S., & Warwick, C. (2010). Information for inspiration: Understanding architects’ information seeking and use behaviors to inform design. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology,61(9), 1745–1770. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.21338.
Marsh, R. L., Ward, T. B., & Landau, J. D. (1999). The inadvertent use of prior knowledge in a generative cognitive task. Memory & Cognition,27(1), 94–105. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03201216.
McDonnell, J. (2011). Impositions of order: A comparison between design and fine art practices. Design Studies,32(6), 557–572. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2011.07.003.
Mete, F. (2006). The creative role of sources of inspiration in clothing design. International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology,18(4), 278–293. https://doi.org/10.1108/09556220610668509.
Mougenot, C., Bouchard, C., Aoussat, A., & Westerman, S. (2008). Inspiration, images and design: An investigation of designers’ information gathering strategies. Journal of Design Research,7(4), 331–351. https://doi.org/10.1504/JDR.2008.026987.
Moxley, J. H., Ericsson, K. A., Charness, N., & Krampe, R. T. (2012). The role of intuition and deliberative thinking in experts’ superior tactical decision-making. Cognition,124(1), 72–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2012.03.005.
Mumford, M. D., Blair, C., Dailey, L., Leritz, L. E., & Osburn, H. K. (2006). Errors in creative thought? Cognitive biases in a complex processing activity. Journal of Creative Behavior,40(2), 75–109. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2162-6057.2006.tb01267.x.
Oleynick, V. C., Thrash, T. M., LeFew, M. C., Moldovan, E. G., & Kieffaber, P. D. (2014). The scientific study of inspiration in the creative process: Challenges and opportunities. Frontiers in human neuroscience,8(article 436), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00436.
Onarheim, B. (2012a). Creativity from constraints in engineering design: Lessons learned at Coloplast. Journal of Engineering Design,23(4), 323–336. https://doi.org/10.1080/09544828.2011.631904.
Onarheim, B. (2012b). Creativity under constraints: Creativity as balancing ‘constrainedness. Ph.D. dissertation, The Ph.D. School of Economics and Management, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark.
Onarheim, B., & Wiltschnig, S. (2010). Opening and constraining: Constraints and their role in creative processes. In Proceedings of the first conference on creativity and innovation in design (DESIRE’10) (pp. 83–89). New York: ACM.
Paraskevopoulos, F., Taramigkou, M., Bothos, E., Apostolou, D., & Mentzas, G. (2014). Creative user centric inspirational search. In Proceedings of the 19th international conference on intelligent user interfaces (IUI’14) (pp. 25–28). New York: ACM. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2559184.2559201.
Payne, J. W. (1976). Task complexity and contingent processing in decision making: An information search and protocol analysis. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance,16(2), 366–387. https://doi.org/10.1016/0030-5073(76)90022-2.
Perkins, D. N. (1994). Creativity: Beyond the Darwinian paradigm. In M. A. Boden (Ed.), Dimensions of creativity (pp. 119–142). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Petre, M., Sharp, H., & Johnson, J. (2006). Complexity through combination: An account of knitwear design. Design Studies,27(2), 183–222. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2005.07.003.
Purcell, A. T., & Gero, J. S. (1992). Effects of examples on the results of a design activity. Knowledge-Based Systems,5(1), 82–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/0950-7051(92)90026-C.
Quintana, M. G. B., Pujol, M. C., & Romaní, J. R. (2012). Internet navigation and information search strategies: How children are influenced by their participation in an intensive ICT project. International Journal of Technology and Design Education,22(4), 513–529. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-011-9158-4.
Reiter-Palmon, R., Mumford, M. D., O’Connor Boes, J., & Runco, M. A. (1997). Problem construction and creativity: The role of ability, cue consistency, and active processing. Creativity Research Journal,10(1), 9–23. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326934crj1001_2.
Reitman, W. R. (1964). Heuristic decision procedures, open constraints, and the structure of ill-defined problems. In M. W. Shelley & G. L. Bryan (Eds.), Human judgments and optimality (pp. 282–315). New York: Wiley.
Rittel, H. W. J., & Webber, M. M. (1973). Dilemmas in a general theory of planning. Policy Sciences,4(2), 155–169. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01405730.
Sanders, E. B.-N. (2005). Information, inspiration and co-creation. In Proceedings of the 6th international conference of the european academy of design, University of the Arts, Bremen, Germany.
Santulli, C., & Langella, C. (2011). Introducing students to bio-inspiration and biomimetic design: A workshop experience. International Journal of Technology and Design Education,21(4), 471–485. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-010-9132-6.
Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner. New York: Basic Books.
Schön, D. A. (1992). Designing as reflective conversation with the materials of a design situation. Knowledge-Based Systems,5(1), 3–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/0950-7051(92)90020-G.
Schraw, G., Dunkle, M. E., & Bendixen, L. D. (1995). Cognitive processes in well-defined and ill-defined problem solving. Applied Cognitive Psychology,9(6), 523–538. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.2350090605.
Schwartz, B. (2005). The paradox of choice: Why more is less. New York: Ecco.
Setchi, R., & Bouchard, C. (2010). In search of design inspiration: A semantic-based approach. Journal of Computing and Information Science in Engineering,10(3), 031006. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.3482061.
Simon, H. A. (1973). The structure of ill structured problems. Artificial Intelligence,4(3–4), 181–201. https://doi.org/10.1016/0004-3702(73)90011-8.
Simon, H. A. (1996). The sciences of the artificial (3rd ed.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. (Original work published 1969).
Simpson, J. A., & Weiner, E. S. C. (Eds.). (1989). Oxford English dictionary (2nd ed., Vol. 7). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Sio, U. N., Kotovsky, K., & Cagan, J. (2015). Fixation or inspiration? A meta-analytic review of the role of examples on design processes. Design Studies,39, 70–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2015.04.004.
Sosa, R., Vasconcelos, L. A., & Cardoso, C. C. (2018). Design briefs in creativity studies. In DS 89: Proceedings of The fifth international conference on design creativity (ICDC 2018) (pp. 403–410). University of Bath, Bath, UK. The Design Society. https://www.designsociety.org/publication/40713/design+briefs+in+creativity+studies.
Stacey, M., & Eckert, C. (2010). Reshaping the box: Creative designing as constraint management. International Journal of Product Development,11(3), 241–255. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJPD.2010.03396.
Stronge, A. J., Rogers, W. A., & Fisk, A. D. (2006). Web-based information search and retrieval: Effects of strategy use and age on search success. Human Factors,48(3), 434–446. https://doi.org/10.1518/001872006778606804.
Taghavi, M., Patel, A., Schmidt, N., Wills, C., & Tew, Y. (2012). An analysis of web proxy logs with query distribution pattern approach for search engines. Computer Standards & Interfaces,34(1), 162–170. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csi.2011.07.001.
Teigen, K. H. (1994). Yerkes–Dodson: A law for all seasons. Theory & Psychology,4(4), 525–547. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959354394044004.
Thrash, T. M., & Elliot, A. J. (2003). Inspiration as a psychological construct. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,84(4), 871–889. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.84.4.871.
Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1981). The framing of decisions and the psychology of choice. Science,211(4481), 453–458. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.7455683.
Vandenbosch, B., & Gallagher, K. (2004). The role of constraints. In R. J. Boland Jr. & F. Collopy (Eds.), Managing as designing (pp. 198–202). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Verplanken, B. (1993). Need for cognition and external information search: Responses to time pressure during decision-making. Journal of Research in Personality,27(3), 238–252. https://doi.org/10.1006/jrpe.1993.1017.
Wiltschnig, S., Christensen, B. T., & Ball, L. J. (2013). Collaborative problem–solution co-evolution in creative design. Design Studies,34(5), 515–542. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2013.01.002.
Wu, Q., & Wang, Y. (2015). To explore the effect of sub consciousness on Sudden Moments of Inspiration (SMI) in the sketching process of industrial design. International Journal of Technology and Design Education,25(4), 563–584. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-015-9326-z.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the teachers and students from Ørestad High School, Copenhagen. This research was funded by the Innovation Fund Denmark (Grant 1311-00001B, CIBIS) and the Velux Foundations Grant: Digital Tools in Collaborative Creativity.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Biskjaer, M.M., Christensen, B.T., Friis-Olivarius, M. et al. How task constraints affect inspiration search strategies. Int J Technol Des Educ 30, 101–125 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-019-09496-7
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-019-09496-7