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Makerspaces are gaining popularity in the educational activities of all age groups, from primary schools to higher education institutions, particularly in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Due to makerspaces’ hands-on learning approach, it is generally believed that learning in makerspaces influences students’ creative and thinking skills. Experiments have been performed to explore this relationship; however, they are limited to a particular type of makerspace and address only some aspects of creativity. Therefore, using a systematic literature review (SLR) approach, we attempted to understand the relationship between makerspaces and creativity in the context of STEM education. The SLR offers a holistic view of makerspaces fostering four aspects of creativity from primary to higher education. This SLR used three primary categories of terms in its search string: (i) makerspace and associated terms, (ii) creativity and innovation, and (iii) variants of the term “STEM.” Using the Summon meta-database, we searched 103 digital databases (including Scopus, IEEE, and ASEE). The initial search considered peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles and conference proceedings focusing on STEM disciplines published from 2000 to August 2021. After following the PRISMA guidelines for reporting systematic reviews, 34 relevant papers remained eligible for inclusion. The selected papers were analyzed using thematic analysis. Various types of makerspaces show empirical evidence of fostering creativity. This review additionally identifies seven factors that foster creativity in a makerspace environment. These findings will be beneficial for applying makerspace tools and interventions to enhance creativity in the context of STEM disciplines.

Extensive research has focused on the relationship between culture and creativity. However, related studies typically adopt national cultural values, set countries as independent variables to explore the relationship between culture and individuals’ creativity, or have inconsistent conclusions. Therefore, this study attempted to explore this relationship at the individual level in design processes from a phenomenological perspective, based on two design tasks carried out by 27 students at a university in China. The results showed a positive association between pleasure and long-term versus short-term orientation of individual cultural values in the two creative methods – 6-3-5 and collaborative sketching (C-sketch) – which were statistically significant. However, the correlation between enlightenment and long-term versus short-term orientation only existed in the 6-3-5 method. Based on the analysis, we found that an individual’s educational level affected their self-evaluation in the experience of creativity, and the 6-3-5 method was more favorable than the C-sketch method for the participants. Moreover, we developed a visualization framework and explained the relationship between culture and creativity based on the componential theory of creativity and Hofstede’s culture theory. Furthermore, the study might serve as a groundwork for further examination of the relationship between individuals’ culture and their experience of creativity.

How to enhance creativity, especially by applying new technologies to creativity methods, is a question posed continuously by researchers. One reason for this is that creativity is an important part of people's daily lives and an essential component of society. Therefore, many methods to enhance creativity have been created, especially brainstorming, which is one of the most popular and effective tools that inspire individuals to generate ideas, hence enhancing creativity. Moreover, technologies, such as virtual reality (VR), provide an opportunity for individuals and groups to be creative. In response, recent studies have adopted VR in brainstorming to enhance creativity. However, there is a lack of systematic analysis of experimental approaches and creativity measures employed in this context. Addressing this question, this study categorized existing articles on the topic related to categories of avatars, environments, interfaces, or applications. The findings elaborate on trends, measures employed to evaluate creativity and idea generation, identified categories, and results of these studies.

Virtual Reality (VR) is progressively adopted at different stages of design and product development. Consequently, evolving interaction requirements in engineering design and development for VR are essential for technology adoption. One of these requirements is real-time positional tracking. This paper aims to present an experimental design of a new real-time positional tracking device (tracker), that is more compact than the existing solution, while addressing factors such as wearability and connectivity. We compare the simulation of the proposed device and the existing solution, discuss the results, and the limitations. The new experimental shape of the device is tailored towards research, allowing the engineering designer to take advantage of a new tracker alternative in new ways, and opens the door to new VR applications in research and product development.

Prototyping is an essential activity in the early stages of product development. This activity can provide insight into the learning process that takes place during the implementation of an idea. It can also help to improve the design of a product. This information and the process are useful in design education as they can be used to enhance students' ability to prototype their ideas and develop creative solutions. To observe the activity of prototype development, we conducted a study on students participating in a 7-week course: Principles of Digital Fabrication. During the course, eight teams made prototypes and shared their weekly developments via internet blog posts. The posts contained prototype pictures, descriptions of their ideas, and reflections on activities. The blog documentation of the prototypes developed by the students was done without the researchers' intervention, providing essential data or research. Based on a review of other methods of capturing the prototype development process, we compare existing documentation tools with the method used in the case study and outline the practices and tools related to the effective documentation of prototyping activity.

English: This study proposed a fundamental technique for evaluating the preferences of interior space users by capturing their verbally expressed preferences and then determining word associations. To accomplish this, the Pajek visualization software for large network analysis was employed in conjunction with the USF Word Association dictionary to visualize the structures and network depths of the derived associative meanings. The generated associative words were then qualitatively categorized into taxonomic word groups to reveal 13 dimensions of perceived interior-environmental quality, as follows: House-related, Territorial, Impression, Activity, Active Element of Nature, Nature, Building Materials, Companion, Household Basics, Color, Location, Composition, and Time Period. A factor analysis was then conducted to sort the generated associative words according to Out-Degree Centrality/ODC score. These were validated into five factors that appeared to influence the comfort levels of interior space users. These five factors and 13 dimensions are useful as objective bases for determining the composition of adjectival pairs through the Semantic Differential (SD) method, which helps designers and architects evaluate interior space preferences.\ud \ud Indonesian: Penelitian ini menggunakan teknik fundamental untuk melakukan evaluasi terhadap preferensi ekspresi verbal pengguna ruang interior dengan cara menghimpun kata-kata asosiatif kesan mendalam pengguna (user's in-depth impression). Peneliti menggunakan perangkat lunak visualisasi Pajek untuk analisis data jaringan yang sangat besar yang dibantu dengan penggunaan kamus USF Word Association; perangkat lunak dan kamus ini digunakan untuk memvisualisasikan struktur dan kedalaman jaringan makna asosiatif yang terbentuk. Hasil pengumpulan kata-kata asosiatif kemudian dikelompokkan secara kualitatif berdasarkan pengelompokan taksonomi kata menjadi 13 dimensi kualitas lingkungan-interior berdasarkan persepsi: Terkait rumah (Housedengan menggunakan analisis faktor, sejumlah kata terpilih yang memiliki nilai sebaran kata asosiatif yang tinggi (Out-Degree Centrality/ODC score) divalidasi menjadi 5 faktor yang berpengaruh terhadap kenyamanan pengguna ruang interior. Hasilnya, 5 Faktor dan 13 Dimensi ini menjadi dasar yang objektif dalam menentukan komposisi pasangan kata adjektif pada Semantic Differential method (SD) yang dapat membantu desainer/arsitek mengevaluasi preferensi pengguna ruang interior. Kata Kunci: dimensi spasial interior, kenyamanan pengguna, konsep asosiatif, analisis jaringan.

The analysis of conversations during design activity can facilitate deeper insights into design thinking and its relation to creativity. A semantic analysis approach was employed to explore the sem...

Design education utilising digital fabrication is characterised by a dynamic project-based learning environment in which ideas are embodied in prototypes. This environment affects the way design and fabrication activities are taught, including sustainability considerations in the process and the outcomes. With the objectives of refining the sustainability indicators in the context of digital fabrication design education and identifying educational interventions for improving sustainability, we analyse the processes and outcomes of a digital fabrication course. We further develop a conceptual framework for sustainable prototyping based on the prototyping and testing stages in the design thinking model. The sustainability considerations in the prototyping process and outcomes in the design education context in FabLab are exemplified. The findings will help enhance sustainability and develop interventions in the context of design education.

In less than a quarter, the time between two consecutive issues of IJDCI, the COVID-19 outbreak has suddenly revolutionized the life of almost every human being. The daily reports by the World Heal...

To objectively and quantitatively study transcribed protocols of design problem solving conversations, we propose a semantic analysis approach based on dynamic semantic networks of nouns constructed with WordNet 3.1 lexical database. We examined the applicability of the semantic approach focused on a dynamic evaluation of the design problem solving process in educational settings. Using a case of real- world design problem-solving conversations, we show that the approach is able to determine the time dynamics of semantic factors such as level of abstraction, polysemy or information content, and quantify convergence/divergence of semantic similarity in design conversations between students, instructors and real clients. The approach can also be used to evaluate the aforementioned semantic factors for successful and unsuccessful ideas generated in the process of design problem solving, or to assess the effect of external feedback on the developed design solution. The proposed semantic analysis approach allows fast computation of the semantic factors in real time thereby demavonstrating a potential for both monitoring and support of the design problem solving process.

Analysing verbal data produced during the design activity is helpful to gain a better understanding of design creativity. To understand exchange of information in terms of creative outcomes, a semantic analysis approach was used to measure the semantic content of communications between students and teachers. The goal was to use this tool to analyse design conversations, and to investigate their relation to design creativity, assessed in terms of originality, usability, feasibility, aesthetics, elaboration, overall value and overall creativity. Abstraction, Polysemy, Information Content and Semantic Similarity were employed to explore 35 design conversations from the DTRS10 dataset. Main findings suggest that a significant relationship exists between Information Content and Originality, and between Information Content and Overall creativity of the produced design outcomes. Significant relations were also found between Abstraction, Polysemy, Information Content, and Feasibility, as well as between Semantic Similarity and Overall Value of the outcomes. Implications for the use of semantic measures for encouraging creativity in the design studio are discussed.

The early (pre-requirement) stages of product development can provide relevant insights into the creative design process. At these stages, the communication of ideas during the prototyping process can serve as a rich source for information. In this paper, we attempt to document physical prototypes generated during the design process. We describe the design and preliminary testing of Protobooth Oulu: a system that can be used for documenting the process of prototyping products through capturing process output 'snapshots' in time at the early stages of product development. Our primary motivation is to facilitate documentation and reflection from an educational perspective. We tested the system during a course on digital fabrication in a FabLab environment, where ten teams documented their coursework over the course of six weeks. Managing to capture prototypes over time, analysis of the captured data showed evolution and major changes in the prototypes. Such data can be used for understanding the process of prototyping and consequently provide means to improve prototype and overall creative performance. We outline a future Protobooth system in terms of functionality.

Maker and DIY communities are constantly sharing tutorials, projects documentation, as well as design sketches and model files. Producing documentation of good quality has its challenges, one of them being the amount of time needed to generate it. In this paper, we present a software tool that assists makers and hobbyists in creating reports and tutorials of their projects on-the-go, that is, at the same time they are working on them. A mobile phone application allows taking pictures, grouping them and annotating them with text and audio. All the material collected during the making activity is automatically stored online and presented in a website created for the project. The maker can later modify this site by means of adding additional text, reordering the pictures, or including extra multimedia content or design files. This tool is specially tailored to the documentation needs of the Fab Lab network.

The extent to which designers can understand users often determines the quality of design outcomes. A deep understanding of users allows the designers to focus on the right problem and make optimal design decisions, which encouraged designers to empathize with users. However, the current imagination-based empathizing strategy appears to be too susceptible to their previous experience and knowledge, which has been questioned concerning effectiveness and accuracy. On the other hand, Virtual Reality (VR) technology provides an opportunity for designers to gain experience-driven empathy by immersing them in a virtual environment that mimics the users' surroundings as if they are seeing the world from users' eyes. While abundant studies covered empathy VR and empathy for design, limited attention has been paid to the chance of bringing VR, empathy, and design research together. Addressing this gap, this study explored literature across domains, identified major concerns about this approach, synthesized the evidence, and discussed the feasibility and validity of the VR-based empathic design research approach.

Energy efficient personal transportation requires fuel-efficient and route aware driving. Driving coaching systems can provide to drivers all the information and guidance that is needed to learn these skills. However, persuading drivers to change their driving behaviour is a challenging task. The authors identify functional, design, safety, and persuasive features for systems supporting fuel-efficiency. Moreover, they analyse how these features are supported by state-of-the-art systems targeting reduced fuel consumption. Finally, based on their analysis, they discuss open issues and opportunities for future development of fuel-efficiency support systems. The literature and the reviewed research in this study illustrate the needs for overall situation assessment and benefits of careful and multifaceted approach for systems design when it comes to eco-driving: an effective system will make use of a versatile design toolkit in order to obtain enduring behavioural results.

Virtual reality (VR) technology has introduced a range of equipment, contexts, and stimuli with possible applications in the context of design creativity. In response, recent studies have investigated VR as a tool that can be applied to enhance creativity. As a part of such research, this paper reviews existing studies and provides a state-of-the-art literature review based on the componential theory of creativity. Based on studies that investigate the use VR to enhance creativity, we found that VR can be used to improve specific factors to enhance creativity, and a natural environment can be considered a positive factor for enhancing creativity. Therefore, we propose a hypothesis that VR technology could be a useful method to simulate nature for enhancing creativity; experimentation based on the hypothesis is expected to be conducted in the future.

Adopting immersive Virtual Reality (VR) technology in the early stages of design appeals to designers, as research has shown that immersing people in a virtual environment can efficiently elicit empathy and facilitate deeper understanding of out-group members. However, after exploring and synthesis literature across the fields of design, psychology, and neuroscience, the present study found the opportunities VR opens to be accompanied by uncertainties. In this study, we (1) identified the benefits of adopting immersive VR in the early design stage, such as enhancing empathy and promoting design equity, (2) discovered previously unrealised problems that VR may bring to the design process, especially potential biases owing to emotional connections, and (3) determined a future direction for relevant research: gaining deeper knowledge about operators’ mental activities to mitigate biases and uncertainties.

The paper presents the application of non-specialized lexical database and semantic metrics on transcripts of co-design protocols. Three different and previously analyzed design protocols of co-creative sessions in the field of packaging design, carried out with different supporting tools, are used as test-bench to highlight the potential of this approach. The results show that metrics about the Information Content and the Similarity maps with sufficient precision the differences between ICT- and non-ICT-supported sessions so that it is possible to envision future refinement of the approach.

Design fixation refers to the designers’ inability to avoid becoming stuck with preexisting ideas in order to generate new ones. With the recent fast advancements and developments, XR has emerged as a powerful promising technology that can shed new light on this issue. Consequently, this paper aims at: (1) investigating the underlying mechanisms of design fixation as reported in literature; (2) exploring the state-of-art in the use of XR technology in design; and (3) identifying ways to mitigate design fixation by employing XR technology.