Convergent and Divergent Thinking.

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Divergent and Convergent Thinking

• MEC

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Contents

• Engineering Design.
• Express Test - Cycle.
• Divergence Convergence Model.
• Divergent Thinking.
• Convergent Thinking.
• Approaches to Finalize a Concept.
• Reasons for Non-creativity.

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Engineering Design

• Engineering design is the systematic,
  intelligent generation and evaluation of
  specifications for artifacts whose form and
  function achieve stated objectives and satisfy
  specified constraint".

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Engineering Design

• An amalgamation of knowledge, process and
  enabling skills.
• Highly non-linear process with designers going
  back and forth, switching between different
  aspects of design.
• Combines elements to form a whole or decomposes
  an element to sub-elements.
• A continuous improvement process.

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Express-Test-Cycle

• A rapid simple design approach put forward by
  Brian.
• Doing the minimum you can to create a testable
  prototype fast.
• Express stage corresponds to concept generation.
• Test stage corresponds to concept evaluation.
• Cycle symbolizes the iterative nature of the
  process.

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What Designers Should Do?

• Engineering designers are expected to be
  adept at translating innovative ideas into
  products or artifacts that have exceptional and
  at the same time useful functionality while
  adhering to given constraints.

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What Designers Should Do?

• Design a highly complex cognitive process.
• Designer to perform multiple tasks in staggered
  as well as iterative process.
• Designer to ask a number of questions to
  understand a given problem.
• Designer to explore the problem space and the
  possible solution space in depth as well as
  breadth.

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What Designers Should Do?

• Designer to restructure the problem or solution
  specifications when necessary.
• Designer to evaluate promising solution options
  in a detailed manner.
• Variety of thinking skills required to perform
  the series of design activities.
• Divergent thinking and convergent thinking
  required.

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Engineering Design Thinking

• Complex process, use of cognitive skills.
• Includes wide range of activities ranging from
  analytical reasoning to being creative and
  inquisitive.
• Designer to perform multiple tasks in staggered
  as well as iterative process.
• Systematic questioning that includes low level
  (existential) and deep reasoning (phenomenon)
  questions, help shape the design process.

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Design Thinking Abilities

• Design thinking as divergent convergent
  questioning.
• Thinking about system dynamics.
• Reasoning about uncertainty.
• Making estimates.
• Conducting experiments.
• Making design decisions.

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Activities in Design Thinking
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Skills in Engineering Design Thinking.

• Important skills in engineering design proposed
  by Mavinkurve.
• Need effective use of competencies and
  sub-competencies, include
• Structure open problem.
• Information gathering.
• Multiple representations.
• Divergent thinking.
• Convergent thinking.

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Divergence - Convergence Model

• Proposed in 1996 by Hungarian-American linguist
  Béla H. Bánáthy.
• British Design Council in 2005 adapted and
  popularized it as the Double Diamond Model, a
  design process model.
• A simple graphical way of describing the design
  process.
• Two diamonds represent the processes of exploring
  an issue more widely and deeply and then taking
  focused action.

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Double Diamond Model

Four distinct phases - Discover, Define, Develop
and Deliver.
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Divergent and Convergent Thinking Phases

• Information acquisition phase - activities
  include perceiving, learning and remembering,
  demands convergent thinking.
• Preparation phase - identifying problem and
  setting goals, includes understanding constraints
  and defining functional requirements of the
  problem, demands convergent thinking.

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Divergent and Convergent Thinking Phases

• Incubation phase - associations are made,
  networks are built, activities predominantly
  divergent.
• Illumination phase - a promising new
  configuration made, demands divergent thinking.

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Divergent and Convergent Thinking Phases

• Verification phase - relevance and effectiveness
  of the new configuration in illumination stage
  checked, includes the evaluation and decision
  making aspect, competing options analyzed,
  requires a combination of convergent and
  divergent thinking.

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Divergent and Convergent Thinking Phases

• Communication phase - idea presented and feedback
  obtained, reflected and acted upon, requires both
  convergent and divergent thinking.
• Validation phase - effectiveness and relevance
  judged, requires convergent thinking.

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Divergent Thinking

• Characterized by the action of ideation and
  creation of multiple choices.
• Supports pushing past the obvious so as to
  explore uncharted territory (also called
  exploratory enquiry).
• More concept domain based rather than knowledge
  domain based.
• Predominant in the early design stage when
  concept generation process in progress.

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Divergent Thinking

• Seen at almost all stages of design, especially
  when the designer is at cross-roads and needs
  multiple options to make right decisions.
• Early stage divergent thinking focuses on
  generating diverse ideas.
• Later stage divergent thinking looks at ways to
  achieve specific characteristics of the selected
  concept.
• Generates novelty.

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Divergent Thinking
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Activities in Divergent Thinking

• Shifting perspectives.
• Seeing new possibilities.
• Being unconventional.
• Combining the disparate (conceptual bridging).
• Taking risks.
• Producing multiple answers.

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Bridging Concepts

• Address the challenge of facilitating exchange
  between theory and practice.
• Three defining constituents
• - a theoretical foundation.
• - a set of design articulations.
• - a range of exemplars that demonstrate
• the scope and potential of their
• application.

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Conceptual Bridging

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Activities in Divergent Thinking

• Transforming the known.
• Reframing and contextual shifting.
• Branching out.
• Crossing boundaries.
• Reinterpreting.

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Characteristics of Divergent Thinking
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Indirect Characteristics of Divergent Thinking

• Afixability (avoid getting fixated on an idea).
• Abstractability (make connections and analogies).
• Detailability (ability to think at a detailed
  level).
• Cognitive restructuring ability (when the
  existing cognitive knowledge structures applied
  to the design are either insufficient or
  inappropriate)

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Convergent Thinking

• Responsible for sifting and sorting through the
  choices and narrowing down the design pathway.
• A directive process that uses logical reasoning
  to converge to correct answer that is also
  unambiguous.
• Relies on existing understanding of a given topic.

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Convergent Thinking

• Operates in the knowledge domain.
• Explores novelty.
• Characterizes the ability to dig deeper into the
  ideas.

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Convergent Thinking

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Characteristics of Convergent Thinking
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Activities in Convergent Thinking

• Seeking single best solution.
• Testing and evaluation.
• Validating.
• Synthesizing existing information.
• Being logical.
• Recognizing the familiar.
• Combining what belongs together.

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Activities in Convergent Thinking

• Reapplying set techniques.
• Preserving the already known.
• Achieving accuracy and correctness.
• Abiding by obviously relevant information.
• Making only the nearest neighbour associations.

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Approaches to Finalize on a Concept

• Intuition.
• Feasibility judgement.
• Multi-voting.
• Numeric and nonnumeric selection charts.
• Pairwise comparisons.
• Decision matrices.
• Prototype testing.

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Reasons for Non-creativity in Design

• Fear of the unknown.
• Fear of failure.
• Frustration avoidance.
• Failing to see one's strengths.
• Over emphasis on traditional approaches.
• Reluctance to experiment.
• Reluctance to let go.

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Empathy Without Sympathy
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Thank You