Card-type tool to support divergent thinking for embodying benefits of inconvenience

Abstract

This paper proposes a card-type divergent thinking support tool to design systems that make use of FUrther BENEfit of a Kind of Inconvenience (fuben-eki). Even though the benefits of inconvenience are known as the essence of spiritually affluent lives, there are few artifacts for providing them. Our proposed tool borrows a leaf from TRIZ, which is the theory of inventive problem solving, based on the results of analyzing inconvenient tools and methods. Our experimental results show that principle cards, which are a part of the tool, increase the number of ideas when they are used according to guidelines that compel users to concentrate on creating ideas from each card.