How Do Design Changes and the Perception of Product Creativity Affect Value?

Abstract

A considerable part of the design literature focuses on creativity and puts forward means to enhance creativity. It is assumed that boosting creativity results in product improvements and benefits for many stakeholders, starting from the recipients of design deliverables. However, the actual outcomes of creative endeavors and, especially, creative products have never been assessed systematically. Within this overall goal, the present paper compares the results of two experiments in which the same participants were involved. Both experiments were meant to evaluate according to multiple dimensions couples of products, where an element of the pair was subjected to some variations. The experiments foresaw the use of eye-trackers to achieve additional behavioral information. As creativity or variations thereof (novelty, unusualness) were assessed, it is possible to infer dimensions of value that are affected by creativity in multiple settings. The outcomes show that creative products significantly give rise to increased exploration time and efforts to make sense out of objects, but this process leads nevertheless to difficulties in understanding the products and to the identification of some disadvantages. According to these preliminary results, the relationship between creativity and perceived value, as well as their measurement, is overall dubious and highly depending on circumstances. While the authors support the relevance of design creativity, the paper urges to consider value at the same time.