Effectiveness of the PAnDA ideation tool

Abstract

Since few experiments prove the effectiveness of idea generation methods and tools, designers often base their choice on anecdotal evidence or personal experience. However, recently developed metrics enable a more fine-grained analysis of an ideation method's effectiveness. This research presents the results of applying such metrics on the ideation tool PAnDA and discusses how to effectively use PAnDA together with its benefits and limitations. The results indicate that PAnDA increases the variety and novelty of the produced ideas especially for a variant or adaptive design task, and increases the effectiveness for designers with self-indicated preference to think logical and analytical. © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.