THE WRONG THEORY PROTOCOL: A DESIGN THINKING TOOL TO ENHANCE CREATIVE IDEATION
Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Design Creativity (ICDC 2020)
Year: 2020
Editor: Boujut, Jean-François ; Cascini, Gaetano ; Ahmed-Kristensen, Saeema ; Georgiev, Georgi V. ; Iivari, Netta
Author: Svihla, Vanessa (1); Kachelmeier, Luke (2)
Series: ICDC
Institution: 1: Organization, Information & Learning Sciences, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, USA; 2: US Air Force, King George, USA
Page(s): 223-230
DOI number: https://doi.org/10.35199/ICDC.2020.28
Abstract
Supporting designers to empathize with stakeholder points of view while still developing creative solutions is challenging, particularly when stakeholders’ lives and experiences are quite different from their own. In this study, we characterize a new ideation technique, wrong theory protocol (WTP), that has supported student designers to come up with empathetic and creative ideas. Participants included students enrolled in undergraduate and graduate courses at a Hispanic-serving, research university in the southwestern US. In WTP, participants first frame a problem and are then prompted to come up with solutions that would harm and humiliate the intended users before coming up with beneficial ideas. Using artefacts from WTP sessions, we analysed the diversity of both harmful/humiliating and beneficial ideas. WTP participants produced divergent, empathetic ideas, suggesting WTP supports creative ideation.
Keywords: Design thinking, fixation, ideation, creativity