Shifting the focus: An objective look at design fixation

Abstract

Design fixation is a robust phenomenon that has been shown to affect amateurs, experts, and groups of designers across a variety of design domains. An area of confusion concerning the concept of design fixation is whether it is a conscious decision made by a designer or an unconscious action that occurs without awareness. The current research addresses this issue by utilizing eye tracking as an objective measure, in conjunction with subjective feedback, and design performance data to gain insight into the underlying processes of design fixation. It was found that there are major discrepancies in what people remember looking at, what people actually looked at, and what features designers fixated on. These findings inspire a fount of new research questions, as well as a possible rethinking of current design processes. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.