The Combinator: A computer-based tool for idea generation

Design tends to benefit from the generation of alternative ideas. However, coming up with new ideas is often challenging. Design engineering suggests a process in which engineering approaches are applied in the activities that began with a design concept or proposal [Childs 2014]. Ideation is where a design concept begins, and it fundamentally determines the type of design produced and the value of business performed. Ideation or idea generation is the process of generating ideas in design activities. It is considered as a vital role to novel design concept development and the key to success in business competition [Jaruzelski et al. 2014]. Enterprises like Dyson and Apple have achieved great success due to their creative products, whereas firms like Nokia and Motorola have been acquired as they could not sustain their creative and business edge. The UK's most innovative companies historically generate over 75% of their profits from products that did not exist 5 years before [Cox 2005]. This indicates that generating creative ideas is necessary to novel concept development and ultimately innovation [Howard et al. 2011]. Therefore, more robust creative ideas are required to be developed for the needs of producing creative products, and thereby promoting commerce. However, generating creative ideas is difficult, due to problems such as lack of creative people, time pressure, numerous existing ideas, and limited core information. According to [Childs 2014], an enormous amount of information, the willingness and endeavour of producing ideas, and the capability of discarding irrelevant ideas are the essential elements of generating creative ideas. Nevertheless, creativity is a notoriously elusive phenomenon, often associated with human genius or serendipitous discovery. As a result, there has been increasing interest in recent years in understanding the factors that encourage creativity and exploring how it can be fostered. A number of creativity tools have been developed to help designers invent new ideas. These tools do not actually produce ideas [Childs 2014], but stimulate the user's creative mind by removing mental blocks and expanding searching space [Cross 2001]. Some, like brainstorming and mind mapping, are fairly easy to grasp but rely heavily on the user's experience and knowledge. Others, like TRIZ and SCAMPER, are rather complex and difficult to master. Some, like lateral thinking, are even inconsistent with normal human thought processes. Besides, different creativity tools possess diverse characteristics and are suitable for different personality attributes and different applications [Yan and Childs 2015]. This research project aims at developing a simple-to-learn and easy-to-use computer-based tool named the Combinator, which is based on combinational creativity theory, through a novel approach. The new tool is intended to assist designers to generate new ideas through combining familiar ideas. It is suitable for a variety of people as it matches with normal human thought mode and can provide users with relevant knowledge databases. The new tool is expected to help both novice designers as well as experienced designers come up with high valuable ideas easily and effectively, thereby tackling the challenges of nowadays fast-moving business market.