Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Creative Process in Design

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Creative Process

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Creativity and Culture ((PASCC))

Abstract

Society’s need for innovation is constantly growing, driven by a demand for new products. To help designers meet this need , we have to fully understand the creative process in design . In this chapter, Bonnardel, Wojtczuk, Gilles, and Mazon characterize creative design activities and provide descriptive models of creativity and design thinking . They then describe two complementary studies. In the first one, professional designers had to identify key stages and factors for their process of creative design thinking , via interviews and questionnaires. In the second one, design students were exposed to specific teaching methods, which allow an analysis of aspects of the design process related to divergent /convergent thinking . Bonnardel et al. use these results to highlight components of the creative design process that could be enhanced by particular teaching methods and/or computational systems .

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Amabile, T. M. (1996). Creativity in context. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Asimov, M. (1962). Introduction to design. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonnardel, N. (1999). L’évaluation reflexive dans la dynamique de l’activité du concepteur. In J. Perrin (Ed.), Pilotage et évaluation des activités de conception (pp. 87–105). Paris: L’Harmattan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonnardel, N. (2000). Towards understanding and supporting creativity in design: Analogies in a constrained cognitive environment. Knowledge-Based Systems, 13, 505–513.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonnardel, N. (2006). Créativité et conception: Approches cognitives et ergonomiques [Creativity and design: Cognitive and ergonomic approaches]. Brussels: De Boeck.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonnardel, N. (2009). Activités de conception et créativité: De l’analyse des facteurs cognitifs à l’assistance aux activités de conception créatives. Le Travail Humain, 72, 5–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonnardel, N. (2012). Designing future products: What difficulties do designers encounter and how can their creative process be supported? Work, A Journal of Prevention, Assessment & Rehabilitation, 41, 5296–5303.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonnardel, N. (2016). Propositions de méthodes d’analyse et de modalités d’assistances pédagogique et informatique aux activités créatives. Illustrations dans le domaine du design. In I. Capron-Puozzo (Ed.), La créativité en éducation et en formation. Perspectives théoriques et pratiques (pp. 167–180). Paris: Albin Michel.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonnardel, N., & Bouchard, C. (2014). Design, ergonomie et IHM: Etudes complémentaires pour favoriser les activités de conception créatives. In N. Couture, C. Bastien, & T. Dorta (Eds.), Quelle articulation pour la co-conception de l’interaction? Proceedings of the international conference 2014 Ergonomie et Informatique Avancée Conference - ErgoIA’2014 (pp. 33–40). Toulouse and New York: ACM Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonnardel, N., & Didier, J. (2016). Enhancing creativity in the educational design context: An exploration of the effects of design project-oriented methods on students’ evocation processes and creative output. Journal of Cognitive Education and Psychology, 15(1), 80–101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonnardel, N., Didierjean, A., & Marmèche, E. (2003). Analogie et résolution de problèmes. In C. Tijus (Ed.), Métaphores et analogies (pp. 115–149). Paris: Hermès.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonnardel, N., Forens, M., & Lefevre, M. (2016). Enhancing collective creative design: An exploratory study on the influence of static and dynamic personas in a virtual environment. Design Journal, 19(2), 189–203.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonnardel, N., & Marmèche, E. (2004). Evocation processes by novice and expert designers: Towards stimulating analogical thinking. Creativity and Innovation Management, 13(3), 176–186.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonnardel, N., & Marmèche, E. (2005). Towards supporting evocation process in creative design: A cognitive approach. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 63, 442–435.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonnardel, N., Mazon, S., & Wojtczuk, A. (2013). Impact of project-oriented educational methods on creative design. In Proceedings of the 31st European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics—ECCE 2013, Toulouse, France, article no. 6. New York: ACM Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonnardel, N., & Zenasni, F. (2010). The impact of technology on creativity in design: An enhancement? Creativity and Innovation Management, 19(2), 180–191.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Botella, M., Nelson, J., & Zenasni, F. (2016). Les macro et microprocessus créatifs. In I. Capron-Puozzo (Ed.), La créativité en éducation et en formation. Perspectives théoriques et pratiques (pp. 31–44). Paris: Albin Michel.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burkhardt, J.-M., & Lubart, T. (2010). Creativity in the age of emerging technology. Creativity and Innovation Management, 19, 160–166.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chrysikou, E. G., & Weisberg, R. W. (2005). Following the wrong footsteps: Fixation effects of pictorial examples in a design problem-solving task. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 31, 1134–1148.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Csíkszentmihályi, M. (1996). Creativity: Flow and the psychology of discovery and invention. New York: HarperCollins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dewey, J. (1934). Art as experience. New York: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dorst, K., & Cross, N. (2001). Creativity in the design process: Co-evolution of problem-solution. Design Studies, 22, 425–437.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eastman, C. M. (1969). Cognitive processes and ill-defined problems: A case study from design. In Proceedings of the 1st International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (pp. 669–690). Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finke, R. A., Ward, T. B., & Smith, S. M. (1992). Creative cognition: Theory, research, and applications. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gero, J. S. (1998). Towards a model of designing which includes its situatedness. In H. Grabowski, S. Rude, & G. Grein (Eds.), Universal design theory (pp. 47–56). Aachen: Shaker Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glăveanu, V. P. (2012). Creativity and folk art: A study of creative action in traditional craft. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 7(2), 140–154.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glăveanu, V. P., Lubart, T., Bonnardel, N., Botella, M., de Biaisi, P.-M., Desainte-Catherine, M., … & Zenasni, F. (2013). Creativity as action: Findings from five creative domains. Frontiers in Educational Psychology, 4, 176.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hayes-Roth, B., & Hayes-Roth, F. (1979). A cognitive model of planning. Cognitive Science, 3, 275–310.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hewett, T. T. (2005). Informing the design of computer-based environments to support creativity. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 63, 383–405.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jansson, D. G., & Smith, S. M. (1991). Design fixation. Design Studies, 12, 3–11.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kelsey, E., Medeiros, P., Partlow, J. P., & Mumford, M. D. (2014). Not too much, not too little: The influence of constraints on creative problem solving. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 8, 198–210.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lubart, T., Mouchiroud, C., Tordjman, S., & Zenasni, F. (2003). Psychologie de la créativité. Paris: Armand Colin.

    Google Scholar 

  • McNeill, T., Gero, J. S., & Warren, J. (1998). Understanding conceptual electronic design using protocol analysis. Research in Engineering Design, 10, 129–140.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mumford, M. D. (2003). Where have we been, when are we going? Taking stock in creativity research. Creativity Research Journal, 15(2–3), 107–120.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mumford, M. D., Mobley, M. I., Reiter-Palmon, R., Uhlman, C. E., & Doares, L. M. (1991). Process analytic models of creative capacities. Creativity Research Journal, 4, 91–122.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Osborn, A. F. (1963). Applied imagination: Principles and procedures of creativity thinking. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rittel, H., & Webber, M. M. (1984). Planning problems are wicked problems. In N. Cross (Ed.), Developments in design methodology (pp. 135–144). New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simon, H. A. (1973). The structure of ill-structured problems. Artificial Intelligence, 4, 181–201.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simon, H. A. (1995). Problem forming, problem finding and problem solving in design. In A. Collen & W. Gasparski (Eds.), Design & systems (pp. 245–257). New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stokes, D. (2007). Incubated cognition and creativity. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 14, 83–100.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sternberg, R. J., & Lubart, T. (1999). The concept of creativity: Prospects and paradigms. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Handbook of creativity (pp. 3–15). New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tan, S., & Melles, G. (2010). An activity theory focused case study of graphic designers’ tool-mediated activities during the conceptual design phase. Design Studies, 31, 461–478.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Treffinger, D. J. (1995). Creative problem solving: Overview and educational implications. Educational Psychology Review, 7, 301–311.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Visser, W. (1994). Organisation of design activities: Opportunistic, with hierarchical episodes. Interacting with Computers, 6, 235–238.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wallas, G. (1926). The art of thought. New York: Harcourt-Brace.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ward, T. B. (1994). Structured imagination: The role of category structure in exemplar generation. Cognitive Psychology, 27, 1–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ward, T. B., Smith, S. M., & Vaid, J. (1997). Conceptual structures and processes in creative thought. In T. B. Ward, S. M. Smith, & J. Vaid (Eds.), Creative thought: An investigation of conceptual structures and processes (pp. 1–27). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Ward, T. B., Smith, S. M., & Finke, R. A. (1999). Cognition. In R. Sternberg (Ed.), Handbook of creativity (pp. 189–212). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zeisel, J. (1981). Inquiry by design: Tools for environmental behavior research. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all the professional designers who took part in the first study, as well as the design students at the Perrin and Diderot high schools in Marseilles, and their teachers René Ragueb, Cathy Bourgoin and Véronique Billaud, for their contribution to the second study described in this chapter. This research was performed under the CREAPRO French National Research Agency contract (grant no. ANR-08-CREA-038).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. PSYCLE, Aix Marseille University, Aix-en-Provence, France

    Nathalie Bonnardel, Alicja Wojtczuk, Pierre-Yves Gilles & Sylvain Mazon

Authors
  1. Nathalie Bonnardel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Alicja Wojtczuk
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Pierre-Yves Gilles
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Sylvain Mazon
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nathalie Bonnardel .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Paris Descartes University, Paris, France

    Todd Lubart

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Bonnardel, N., Wojtczuk, A., Gilles, PY., Mazon, S. (2018). The Creative Process in Design. In: Lubart, T. (eds) The Creative Process. Palgrave Studies in Creativity and Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-50563-7_9

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation