Evaluating Ideation Using the Publications Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, and Make in Coordination with a New Patent Search Tool and the 6-3-5 Method

摘要

Abstract Evaluating Ideation using the Publications Popular Science, Popular Mechanics and Make in Coordination with a New Patent Search Tool and the 6-3-5 Method AbstractThe ideation or concept generation stage in the design process is ripe with possibility for infusion ofcreativity that can lead to the development of innovative products and systems. Along with the desiredcreativity or novelty, concepts must be feasible in order to have promise as fielded products. Thiscombination of desired novelty and required feasibility can be difficult to attain. Various ideationtechniques have been developed which aid the designer in their quest for an innovative new product orsystem. In the current work, we evaluate four ideation techniques: use of the publications PopularScience and Popular Mechanics, use of the publication Make, use of a new patent search tool and use ofthe 6-3-5 “brain writing – rotational drawing” technique. The four techniques are described in detailwith particular emphasis placed on a description of the patent search tool as this ideation technique,based on recently developed software, has not been previously disseminated. The techniques are thenassessed to determine their utility in terms of quantity of ideas generated, novelty of the ideas andfeasibility of the ideas. This assessment was done in the context of a capstone design team working on arobotics oriented project. Specifically, the design team is developing small robots with the ability tomaneuver through rough terrain in caves or tunnels for surveillance purposes. Representativeassessment results include the fact that the design team was able to produce over 20 new conceptsusing the new patent search tool; validating that this new technique shows great promise. Also, thefeasibility of the concepts created using the Make publication was significantly higher (p-value of 0.06)than the concepts from the Popular Science and Popular Mechanics publications while the noveltyratings showed no statistically significant difference. Overall the team generated over 130 concepts withthe largest contributors to this quantity coming from the Make publication and the 6-3-5 technique.The paper concludes by noting the unique characteristics and resulting contributions from each of thefour ideations techniques along with suggestions regarding which technique(s) might be most beneficialdepending on the nature of a specific design challenge.