Research On The Product Innovative Design Process And Idea Generation

It is a challenge to China’s manufacturing industry to achieve the leapfrog and sustainable development from “made in China” to “created in China”.And the key to achieving the leap is to strengthen the nation’s capacity for independent innovation.Product design is the foundation of manufacturing,and product innovation is the core competitiveness of modern enterprises.Therefore,to strengthen the enterprise’s capacity for independent innovation,it is essential to study the conceptual design processes and strategies,to propose solving methods and procedures for idea generation in conceptual design,and to establish systematical theory and tools for innovative design.Based on the analysis of the research status and existing problems of product conceptual design,an integrated research strategy of cognitive science,design theory and information technology is adopted in this dissertation.By using this strategy,the basics of product innovative design and their relationships are analyzed,so as to build a triple-triple-helix co-evolutionary model,which describes the product innovative design as a human-centered and co-evolutionary process,supporting by multidisciplinary knowledge.Under the guidance of this model,the mechanism of design problems,design knowledge and design solutions in the process of product innovative design is studied,and a triple-helix structured model for innovative design strategy is proposed from the perspective of problem-knowledge-solution co-evolution.Besides,from the view of cognitive science,the results that different stimuli(e.g.knowledge with different stimulating distances and problem constraints)affect the creative thinking of product designers and the idea generation process are discussed in a think-aloud experiment.And the results provide certain theoretical supports for the co-evolution of the problem,knowledge and solution.Then,based on the triple-helix structured model for innovative design strategy and with the working principle of the designer’s cognitive stimuli and the multi-strategy innovative design solving method,a process model of idea generation for product innovative design is built,which is in line with design thinking,integrated with innovative design methods,and supported by multidisciplinary knowledge transferring.Finally,the results of these studies are organically integrated,so as to develop a computer-aided innovative design system to support the product’s innovative design process.The system provides the enterprise designers with the methods and tools to implement the product’s innovative design process.The main research results and characteristics of this dissertation are concluded as follows:(1)The basic elements of the product innovative design and their relationships are explored.Product innovative design is defined as a human-centered process,including design elements such as the design participators(i.e.,the customers and designers)and the objects(i.e.,the product,system,and process).Through mutual mappings and interplay,they co-evolve to lead a way to satisfy customers’ requirements.To show this process clearly,a triple-triple helix structured model of co-evolution for product’s innovative design is proposed.The theory consists of three co-evolution,namely the designer-customer-artifact co-evolution,the co-evolution of cognitive science,humanistic and social science,and natural science knowledge,and the problem-knowledge-solution co-evolution.This theory opens up a new perspective for the researches on product innovative design,and provides the theoretical foundation for the product’s innovative design process model established in this dissertation.(2)A triple-helix structured model of evolutionary strategy for innovative design is proposed.Based on the proposed triple-triple-helix structured model of co-evolution,the solving of the uncertain problems is described as a reciprocating iterative process involving the interactions of the design problems,knowledge,and solutions.The problem,knowledge and solution spaces containing corresponding design elements and cognitive activities are established and explored.The relationships,evolution and motivation mechanism among the three spaces are studied,and a triple-helix structured model for product innovative design strategy is proposed.The mapping relationships,processes and strategies of the elements involved in the model are established,laying a foundation for the systematic construction of the product’s innovative design methods and processes.(3)The relationships between the elements of the problem and knowledge spaces and the construction of the solution space are built.To quantitatively analyze the influences of different stimuli(e.g.problem constraints,and knowledge with different stimulating distances)on idea generation,an integrated method of verbal protocol analysis and linkography is adopted.The rules of how stimuli from the problem and knowledge spaces affect idea generation and designer’s thinking are identified through the analysis of the encoding results of verbal data,the sketching data and the linkography data.The results of the influences of different stimuli on the number of generated ideas,divergent and convergent thinking patterns,idea-building productivity are compared.And two types of associations,namely shape association and structure association,between different stimuli and generated sketches are identified.The findings of this research provide certain supports for not only the establishment of standardized and operable innovative design process but also the development of computer-aided innovative design system in line with design thinking.(4)A process model of idea generation for the product innovative design is established based on stimulating situations.The cognitive mechanism and stimulating styles of the designer during the idea generation process in innovative design are studied first.And according to the roles of different cognitive stimuli played in idea generation,two types of their working principles(i.e.extended and mutated)and are organized so as to build corresponding idea generation processes for innovative design.On account of the triple-helix structured model for innovative design strategy,and the working principles of different stimuli,a model for idea generation based on stimuli is built.This model is set up based on cognitive mechanism and stimulating styles,integrating various requirements and methods of innovative design.And it builds a systematic procedure for innovative design processes.(5)A computer-aided tool system for product innovative design is established.Based on the results of the researches above,the innovative design process is established involving four stages,from problem analysis,cognitive stimuli channel expansion,idea generation to solution evaluation,and the system is developed to support the innovative design with four functional modules,including problem analysis,knowledge retrieval,innovation strategy and solution evaluation.This system can provide designers with corresponding cognitive mechanism and stimulating modes of the knowledge according to different design requirements.Therefore,the system pushes integrated innovative design methods and multidisciplinary knowledge to designers,assisting them to carry out innovative design activities through thinking,reasoning and decision-making,so as to generate solutions to innovative design problems.