Design Brainstorming: How Process Structures Discourse and Conceptual Development

• In Event: Group and Work Team Interactions: Antecedents, Processes, and Outcomes

Abstract

In this paper we show that there are qualitative differences in how members of design teams talk depending on the idea generation process they used. We show this through a study in which unstructured idea generation processes were compared with an alternating divergent-convergent idea generation process, or two passes through Laseau’s (1980) funnel, in the context of an undergraduate engineering course. We performed a content analysis on text collected in the form of transcribed team conversations, sketch annotations, and student reports to extract prominent concepts from the text. Using text visualization techniques to examine the concepts that emerged in the teams, our analysis shows that the two idea generation processes shape conceptual development differently as reflected in the talk of the groups. This has implications for when certain idea generation methods may be more useful as well as offering an alternative way to measure group idea generation efficacy.

Authors

• Lorraine G. Kisselburgh, Purdue U

• Senthil Chandrasegaran, Purdue U

• Elizabeth D. Wilhoit, Purdue U

• Karthik Ramani, Purdue U