Analogical creative thinking and its application to engineering design and enterprise

Abstract

Analogical thinking is valuable to creative design as it assists generation of new knowledge by mapping analogically from source domain to target domain. This study endeavours to enhance the value of analogical thinking in creative design by the development of Analogical Creative Process (ACP), and evaluation of its application in projects of engineering design and enterprise design. ACP is a systematic step-by-step tool to enable analogical thinking in design, and is derived from the fundamental cognitive process of key theories for analogy establishment. It analyses the given design problem as a complex of sub-systems and identifies their functions, before analogically mapping over the relations among the sub-systems between different domains. With these features, ACP is capable of providing tangible guidance on analogical thinking for designers without requirement of their existing experience in use of analogy. The effectiveness of ACP in creative ideation is examined with positive outcome observed in a real-life engineering design project compared to non-analogical approaches. The interrelations between creativity, analogy and design are identified featuring ACP and analogical thinking through a prescriptive study. As a result, a novel analogy-empowered creative design process is proposed and applied in an enterprise design project as a new field of application for analogical thinking in design. Initial evaluation supports the application success of the creative design process and analogical thinking is proven valuable in assisting enterprise design practices. The outcomes of this study include development of ACP based on the cognitive model of analogy, establishment of a new connection between creativity, analogy and design by the analogy-embedded creative design process, and a new design application of analogical thinking in enterprise. The identification of the value of analogical thinking in the context of enterprise design provides the researchers and entrepreneurs with a new tool to enhance enterprise design and business progress.