A fix for fixation? Rerepresenting and abstracting as creative processes in the design of information systems

Doris Zahner, Jeffrey V. Nickerson, Barbara Tversky, James E. Corter, Jing Ma

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

68 Scopus citations

Abstract

Fixation prevents the associations that are bridges to new designs. The inability to see alternative solutions, or even to see how to map known solutions onto current problems, is a particularly acute problem in the design of software-intensive systems. Here, we explored two related ways of liberating fixated thinking: abstracting and rerepresenting. Although both techniques helped designers generate original ideas, not all the added ideas fit the problem constraints. We discuss ways the results might be used to generate reflective design aids that help designers to first generate original ideas and later prune them.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)231-244
Number of pages14
JournalArtificial Intelligence for Engineering Design, Analysis and Manufacturing: AIEDAM
Volume24
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2010

Keywords

  • Abstraction
  • Design of information systems
  • Fluency: originality
  • Rerepresentation

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