Toshiharu Taura – författare

Creative Design Engineering: Introduction to an Interdisciplinary Approach presents the latest information on a field that has traditionally been primarily concerned with how to make things. However, as technology has advanced, and we have no shortage of things, a new challenge for today's engineers is what to make. In tackling this, our approaches to engineering design have come under the spotlight.

This book presents solutions to this topic in different sections that highlight the basic concerns associated with innovation. First, design is considered a kind of universal human act. Second, it is an interdisciplinary approach that brings together perspectives from fields such as cognitive science and science of knowledge is adopted. Third, the scope of the discussion also includes the process of creating an initial idea for a new product (called the pre-design phase), as well as the use of the product in society (the post-design phase).

Design engineers and researchers in engineering design will find this a user-friendly route to understanding the importance of creativity to engineering and how to implement new techniques to improve design outcomes. The book has been translated from the original Japanese book titled Sozo Dezain Kogaku [Creative Design Engineering] (published by the University of Tokyo Press 2014).

What is ‘design creativity’? It is impossible to answer this question without considering why human beings can – and do – ‘design’. Design creativity is instrumental in not only addressing social problems faced across the world,  but also evoking an innate appreciation for beauty and a sense of personal contentment.

Design Creativity 2010 comprises advanced research findings on design creativity and perspectives on future directions of design creativity research. The papers included were presented and discussed at the first ICDC (International Conference on Design Creativity), which was held at Kobe, Japan, in 2010. Design Creativity 2010 encourages readers to enhance and expand their activities in the field of design creativity.

The concept generation process seems like an intuitional thought: difficult to capture and perform, although everyone is capable of it. It is not an analytical process but a synthetic process which has yet to be clarified. Furthermore, new research methods for investigating the concept generation process—a very difficult task since the concept generation process is driven by inner feelings deeply etched in the mind—are necessary to establish its theory and methodology.

Concept Generation for Design Creativity – A Systematized Theory and Methodology presents the concept generation process both theoretically and methodologically. Theoretically, the concept generation process is discussed by comparing metaphor, abduction, and General Design Theory from the notions of similarities and dissimilarities. Analogy, blending, and integration by thematic relation have been explained methodologically. So far, these theories and methods have been discussed independently, and the relations among them have not been clarified. Two newly developed research methods to investigate the concept generation process are clearly explained: the explanation-based protocol analysis and constructive simulation.

By reading Concept Generation for Design Creativity – A Systematized Theory and Methodology, students, researchers and lecturers in design disciplines (including engineering design, industrial design, software design, CHI, design education, and cognitive science ) can obtain a clear picture of the advanced research findings and the outline of the theories and methods for concept generation. Furthermore, readers are expected to achieve the competence to generate new concepts.

This book presents a broad design purview within the framework of “pre-design, design, and post-design” by focusing on the “motive of design,” which implies an underlying reason for the design of a product. The chapters are comprised of papers based on discussions at the “Design Research Leading Workshop” held in Nara, Japan, in 2013. This book encourages readers to enhance and expand their thinking within a widened design perspective.