On the effective use of design-by-analogy: The influences of analogical distance and commonness of analogous designs on ideation performance

Abstract

Design-by-analogy is a powerful method for innovation, particularly during conceptual ideation, but also carries the risk of negative design outcomes (e.g., design fixation, risk aversion), depending on key properties of analogies used. This paper examines how variations in analogical distance, commonness, and representation modality influence the effects of analogies on conceptual ideation. Participants in this study generated ideas for an engineering design problem with or without analogous example designs drawn from the U.S. Patent database. Examples were crossed by analogical distance (near-field vs. far-field), commonness (more vs. less-common), and modality (picture vs. text). For comparison, a control group generated ideas without examples. Effects were examined on a mixture of ideation process and product variables. The results show positive effects of far-field and less-common examples for novelty and quality of ideas; also, the combination of far-field, less-common examples increased novelty relative to control. These findings suggest guidelines for the effective use of designby-analogy, particularly a focus on far-field, less-common examples during conceptual ideation. Copyright © 2002-2012 The Design Society. All rights reserved.