39. Role of Random Analogy as Catalyst to Creative Idea Generation in the Early Stage of New Product Design

In the creative field of design, expert designers often use analogy for strategic problem solving and new idea generation, based on prior experiences Dunbar and Blanchette in Trends in Cognitive Sci 5:334--339 (2001). In the case of novice designers, inculcating this way of thinking can be a way to surmount linear patterned thinking and expand the boundaries of creative exploration. This stems from the tendency to search for solutions that have previously shown results or search for results within area of expertise to override the fear of failure, thus making it important for designers to have the ability to use ambiguity to generate opportunity, build tangibility from the intangible, trigger cross-domain idea collaboration, and drive radical thoughts to creative ideas. Great amount of research in the field of cognition has been carried out to understand the mental processes in the acts of creation with analogy. Synectics theory propounds that triggers responsible for producing creative thinking comes from analogies that create bridges between rational and non-rational views of the problem situation. This study focuses unlike previous studies on demonstrating the primary attribute of using analogy in design ideation, steering clear from the course of analogy identification. It explores the role of random analogy triggered ideation to set a constructive enabler of creative production, soliciting Synectics stance, that exploration through avenues of illogical choice and building feasible solution actions into them to catalyse creative ideas. The findings from the observation and documentation bring out the degree of variance of idea response between two groups. Random analogy helped as idea starters that further catalysed multiple points of association and analogies, thus giving insights into the types of advantages that can be gained through random analogy triggered ideation and its influence on the idea response due to abduction of logical reasoning in generating radical associations.