Affordance based design: The affordance digital stimuli tool to stimulate creativity during product design

Abstract

Decisions made in the early stages of product development influence considerably on the product life-cycle costs. Thus, it is necessary to search for creative solutions in the conceptual phase, subject to creativity barriers during the ideation process, such as the functional fixedness. In this regard, the present research proposes the Affordance Digital Stimuli (ADS) to assist designers in finding creative solutions for natural and easy-to-use products. Were conducted brainstorming sessions supported by the ADS with twenty engineers to evaluate the proposed stimuli. The application of the ADS was assessed using eye-tracking equipment, which measured the flow and focal points of the user. The evaluation of the stimuli was also performed through a questionnaire considering issues related to the stimuli configuration and its’ contribution to the ideation of solutions. The results evidenced that the proposed ADS were effective to inspire the ideation of solutions with affordance characteristics related to aesthetics, safety, and usability attributes and, therefore, is effective in mitigating the functional fixedness and stimulating creativity during ideation sessions.