Practitioners design artifacts of different kinds. Researchers and practitioners both create methods for designing such artifacts. The question arises whether those methods are actually valid and useful. In this conceptual paper, we argue that there is a need for “method corroboration”-the deliberate and reflected use and possible validation of a design method. We present a literature review of method corroboration in the IS and more specifically in the DSR literature. The findings are summarized as a conceptual model outlining eight strategies of method use, which are then condensed into a 2-by-2 framework of method corroboration. The results of this paper present insight into the current state of method corroboration in the DSR field and provide guidance for working with design methods in research and practice.

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The theoretical understanding of design knowledge is a crucial concern for research in the design discipline. This article extends the rich existing research on design knowledge by providing a unifying model of design knowledge. The insights are derived from a rigorous review of existing literature. The resulting model presents an original framework of design knowledge that can help practitioners, scholars, and educators from the design discipline to better understand the characteristics of design knowledge and the possibilities for transferring it.

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The question of how the physical work environment can affect creativity is gaining interest among companies and educational institutions. This paper introduces ten propositions outlining possible relationships between spatial characteristics and creative work. The propositions were developed following a grounded-theory approach based on nine expert interviews that provide insight on the topic from the perspective of different creative fields—namely, urban planning, architecture, interior design, office planning, furniture design, industrialdesign, design thinking, innovation, and fine arts. We focused on both educational and practice environments within the creative sector. For each proposition, we provide links to supporting literature. We present a summary of the main insights and visualize the developed propositions as a set of causal graphs. The propositions have implications for both research and practice: on the one hand, they can be regarded as the first step toward a theory of creativity-supporting work environments; on the other hand, they can serve as a reference when designing or adjusting creative workspaces.@en

This paper compares two pioneering design educational approaches: the historic Bauhaus school founded in 1919 in Germany, and contemporary design thinking education, based on the example of the HPI School of Design Thinking. We compare both approaches according to six emerging categories: (1) curriculum, (2) multi-disciplinarity, (3) mind-set and culture, (4) study environment, (5) conditions for innovation, and (6) socio-economic context. We outline differences and similarities and discuss the possible impact for future design education.

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The design of the workspace can be an indicator for an organization's innovation culture. This paper introduces a canvas-based collaboration tool that facilitates both, team-based analysis of existing workspaces regarding the expressed culture, and co-creating spatial design ideas with the goal to instigate a cultural change. This two-way approach is also reflected in the canvas design. We describe the development process of the canvas and its evaluation through a workshop. As a result, the contribution of this paper is twofold: (1) It informs practitioners about the relevance of spatial workspace design for cultural change, and (2) it provides insights on an atypical canvas design.

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The term “creative space” describes a relatively recent phenomenon of innovative workplace design. Such creative workspaces are becoming popular in industry and academia. However, the impact of specific spatial design decisions on creativity and innovation is not yet fully understood. This paper provides an overview of state-of-the-art research on creative work and learning environments. We conducted a systematic literature search within the Scopus database and identified a total of 73 relevant sources discussing creative spaces within academic, practice, and other innovation environments. Among the included sources are 51 academic publications and 22 sources from company research and illustrative coffee-table books. We analyzed the sources using three lenses of interest: (1) the types of theoretical and practical contributions that are provided, (2) the spatial characteristics that are suggested to be beneficial for creativity and innovation, and (3) the discussed potential of new technologies for designing or researching creative spaces. The results provide in-depth insight into the current state of research on the topic of creative spaces. Practitioners, educators, and researchers can use the presented overview to investigate the possible impact of creative workspace design and identify research gaps that can be filled by conducting further research in the field.@en

Workshops are often used in the information systems (IS) and design fields to evaluate artifacts or to co-create business innovations. However, the evaluation of workshops is often conducted in a rather unsystematic and heterogenous way. This paper introduces a set of guidelines for designing or evaluating artifacts through workshops. These guidelines include five evaluation principles and a framework that outlines appropriate evaluation methods for different research goals. The relevant constructs and principles were identified based on related literature. The derived evaluation matrix was then revised based on ratings of five experts who independently assigned appropriate research methods for different evaluation foci. The framework's applicability was evaluated by comparing it with ten papers from the IS and design fields. The proposed guidelines can support researchers with conducting workshop evaluations in a comparable and replicable way, which will help to improve research rigor in the future.

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At the fuzzy front end of innovation emerging ideas are often fuzzy as well. This may lead to premature rejection of those early ideas and hence result in missed business opportunities. This paper introduces the Idea Arc-a canvas-based innovation tool that facilitates team-based discussions, elaboration and refinement of an idea, identification of missing parts, detection and correction of inconsistencies, finding fit between elements, and preparation for prototyping. We developed the canvas based on expert interviews and tested it in two workshops. As a result, this paper contributes to the existing research on the fuzzy front end of innovation and also informs the emerging research on visual innovation tools.

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Creative workspaces are becoming popular in many organizations. They are believed to support innovation efforts and creativity among employees. This paper presents spatial evidences of creative work environments from real-life organizations, based on an exploratory multi-case study in 18 institutions. The found workspaces were mapped and categorized according to the qualities they might provide for affecting creativity. The resulting inventory of creative spaces contributes to the emerging interest on creative workspace design by presenting inspiring best-practice examples. The shown examples provide the readers with a better understanding how a creative space could be designed in order to provide an environment for an innovative organisation. Related literature was added to explain the possible impact of specific spatial configurations.

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Work and study environments that facilitate creative design processes - so called creative spaces - have gained an increased interest in the past years. This paper contributes to this emerging field by providing a set of guidelines for creating such environments. We developed a set of 49 abstracted design principles (patterns) that are empirically developed, embedded in the broader system of creative spaces, and supplemented by examples. The suggested principles provide concrete, yet adaptable, guidelines for designers, educators, and spatial planners who want to redesign their creative environments.

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This article presents a longitudinal case study of the development process of an idea lab—from initial planning to final implementation and usage. The research approach comprised various methods, including a user study with cultural probes and a visual canvas, a focus group co-creation workshop, and a follow-up evaluation, two years after the space’s implementation. We identified 15
relevant themes and 39 spatial characteristics that constitute the individual users’ preferences, as well as several insights from a corporate point of view. Our gained insights on the role of the physical workspace extend the current research on idea labs. Furthermore, our findings corroborate the suggestions from related literature in terms of an idea lab’s capability to facilitate external
input, experimentation, and employees’ autonomy. The presented co-creation approach and the developed spatial recommendations can be adapted for other contexts and act as guidelines for others who want to develop creative spaces.@en

The physical environment in design education can have a significant impact on students' creativity, learning performance, and wellbeing. However, little attention is given to the question, how to design such spaces in a scientifically sound manner and how to involve the relevant stakeholders. Specifically, the future users of the space - students and teachers - might have important insights about the spatial requirements. To support spatial planners, teachers, and students, who want to improve their existing learning spaces or to design them from scratch, we developed a toolkit, consisting of several checklists, card sets, floor plans, and canvases to frame spatial requirements and ideas. The toolkit was tested and evaluated in a workshop at a design school in the UK that was in the process of moving departments to a new building. Hence, this paper presents an action research cycle including the four steps of 1) designing the toolkit, 2) conducting the workshop, 3) observing the workshop and obtaining feedback, and 4) reflecting on and iterating of the creative learning space development toolkit.@en

Building on the assumption that the physical environment can have an influence on the creativity of designers and design students in particular, the aim of this paper is to provide theoretical propositions and evidences for this relationship. We develop various propositions about the influence of physical environments on creativity, based on eight expert interviews and supported by literature. A particular focus was given to the environments of design educational institutions. We present a summary of the main insights and visualize the developed propositions as a causal graph addressing how space influences creativity. These propositions can be regarded as a first step towards a theory of creativity-supporting learning environments and they can serve as a reference when designing or adjusting creative learning spaces.@en

Design education involves various teaching, learning, and designing activities, such as idea generation, writing, sketching, computer-work, planning, lecturing and listening to presentations, team work, discussions, model making, and prototyping. All these activities require particular environments. The question how these activities could be facilitated through the physical environment of the design educational institutions gained a lot of interest, recently. Designing such creative learning spaces in a way that triggers the best possible creative performance of the students, is relevant for both design educators and students who want to improve their individual classrooms, and architects or interior architects who are planning entire design schools. This paper presents a toolkit that can be used to facilitate design decisions in spatial design processes of creative learning environments. It consists of three card-sets: 1) a card-set with inspirational examples from other institutions, 2) a card-set to phrase the problem space, and 3) a card-set to sketch design solutions. The underlying principles of this toolkit were developed based on a) a qualitative research approach using cultural probes among design students of two different institutions, and b) expert interviews with design educators and architects.@en

Emotion measurement is a vital aspect for new product development and product improvements (see e.g. P. Desmet & Schifferstein, 2012). Nowadays, new technological devices, data mining, and social media offer many opportunities to invigorate design research. This paper tries to combine both aspects by exploring the question, how new technologies can be utilized for emotion-focused design research. The range of applicable technologies spans from eye-tracking, to EEG measuring, to semiautomated facial expression recognition in photographs or texts based on data mining technologies or crowdsourcing, etc. Furthermore, many traditional technologies for emotion tracking are becoming smaller and mobile, which allows also in-field research (e.g. mobile EEG headsets). Triangulating different data sources might result in new insights and improve user research significantly. This paper provides an overview of related literature indicating the current state of emotion measurement in the design field, and presents a framework that outlines possible new approaches utilizing new technologies. Thus, this work might contribute as a source of inspiration for other researchers to develop new research approaches for technology-supported emotion measurement.@en