Fostering thinking skills : transitioning from routine to creative design spaces

Abstract

Many empirical studies on creativity focus on designers’ cognitive design processes. However, the existing research on design creativity outcomes does not provide sufficient information. This study addresses this gap by investigating the characteristics of award-winning student designs, which represent a recognized standard of creative excellence. Employing an inductive methodology, this research analyzed expert evaluations of student design work. A rigorous inductive thematic analysis, using a dual-coder protocol, was performed on 353 creative characteristics identified by experts across 100 assessments. This analysis yielded three primary variables for defining creative design outcomes: Aesthetic, Usability, and Impact. These variables were integrated into a visual pedagogical model adapted from Gero’s creative design space model. In a practical application of this framework, student participants subsequently secured 23 international design awards (e.g., Red Dot Award, European Product Design Award) between 2021 and 2024. The results indicate that the proposed model is an effective tool for enhancing student design creativity, team communication, and confidence. This research contributes a validated, outcome-oriented framework for design education, offering a structured approach for cultivating and assessing high-level design innovation.