INFORMATION AS AN INPUT INTO THE CREATIVE PROCESS

Abstract

Creativity is an integral and essential part of the engineering design process. One of the under researched areas associated with creativity is the role that information plays in enhancing or even inhibiting creative design activities. This paper gives an overview of the literature on creativity as it relates to information and knowledge use in design and innovation processes. The overall aim of the research associated with this paper is to better understand the effects of the inputs into a creative process rather than more common research that focuses solely on the outputs from creative processes. The paper presents: a definition of creative ideas; a model of the creative process from psychology; and two new cognitive models of idea generation. These are part of a longer term study to decipher and identify both stimulating and suppressive information in design processes. 1.1 Defining Creativity