Design for surprise and idea generation methods

Abstract

This thesis explores the meaning of surprise in product design and how surprise can be created in the early phase of the design process, specifically during ideation. In product and service markets with multiple competitors and where product differentiation is difficult, surprise, if used correctly, can be an indispensable differentiator-creating emotional attachment and fostering brand loyalty. A two-part experiment tests three different idea generation methods-brainstorming, multiple perspectives, and counter attributes (a new method proposed in this thesis)-and how ideation sketches from these methods are rated by workers on Amazon's Mechanical Turk. Findings reveal that counter attributes may be less effective at generating surprising ideas. Brainstorming and multiple perspectives perform similarly to each other, but small differences in the structure of an idea generation method may either inhibit or encourage creativity and surprise. The findings also reveal that how clearly an idea is expressed in a sketch greatly influences the variance for how it will be rated upon review.