Collaboration and Framing as Dimensions of Design Innovation

摘要

This study of student teams learning to design in an engineering course reveals that interaction and framing are important dimensions for understanding innovative design. By employing social network analysis to incorporate interaction within statistical models, it is apparent that teams viewed early as having innovative ideas, who score higher on perspective-taking and who have higher team cohesion, tend to produce more innovative final designs. Case studies suggest that for iteration to lead to productive design innovation it should be framed as practical, design activity rather than as scientific or theoretical activity.