New Engineering Design Processes through Constructs of Humour

该项目旨在通过构建幽默来开发新的创造性工程设计过程，以重振早期概念设计。幽默是人类的一种能力，在大多数人身上都能感受到幽默的产生和欣赏能力。因此，幽默在组织文化、团队活力、管理和创造力中扮演着内在的、往往是积极的和不自觉的战略角色。在幽默和组织研究中，有很大的支持有意识地利用积极的幽默认知机制来进一步加强创造性和社交过程。创造性过程对于通过工程设计进行创新至关重要，尤其是在概念过程的早期阶段。当工程设计师和团队从事创意产生和其他创造性任务时，缺乏对他人的开放、对问题的参与和冒险的意愿可能会抑制产生的概念的质量和数量。“头脑风暴”是一种小组问题解决技术，几乎可以应用于任何开放式任务。它已经成为任何专注于解决方案的小组讨论的速记，在许多情况下，它并不是在开放、创造性和流动性的氛围中进行的，而这是它有效所必需的。虽然存在其他技术，如形态图表、TRIZ和图片法，但由于缺乏参与者参与，它们同样受到影响。幽默的一个主要理论是，它是一个建立和解决“不和谐”的过程；接受者会感到惊讶和满足的情绪，从而引发笑声。对于工程设计来说，不协调的幽默是创造性设计过程的有力类比，解释了如何识别新颖、意想不到但适当的解决方案。一项研究表明，一群经验丰富的喜剧演员在产品设计创意的产生方面比训练有素的设计师更有效。然而，造成这一现象的确切原因还没有完全理解，没有在实际的情景设计过程中寻求相应的结果，无论是技术上的还是其他方面的，也没有正式尝试将基于幽默的过程打包用于设计实践中。利用文献中关于幽默感的不协调、舒缓和优越的观点，我们进行了一项初步研究，在此基础上确定了基于幽默方面的三个探索性主题，这些主题有可能进一步与创造性的设计方法相结合：1.幽默促进合作。笑可以帮助我们从日常分析思维的枷锁中解放出来。这一主题将探讨如何使用幽默材料和喜剧来产生团队凝聚力和组织会议，以实现对手头任务的积极、非批判性态度。2.幽默，以鼓励沉浸。创造性思维得益于和其他人讨论的某种程度的吸收或“流动”，以实现深度的同理心和洞察力。本主题将探讨即兴套路的使用(‘是的，并且……’)以及喜剧练习，以提高团队的参与度。3.幽默，使解决空间多样化。不协调，或者说不同想法的并列，是许多诙谐结构的基础。本主题将探讨如何利用不协调的特性，通过幽默的叙述和意想不到的视角，鼓励团队努力寻找不同寻常的想法。该项目将进一步整合幽默的各个方面，以加强创意产生过程中的参与度、结构和新颖性；通过一系列讲习班评估成效；并提出经改进的准则，作为加强创新工作做法的新方法和工具的基础。这将标志着在创意、创新和设计方法的学术领域向前迈出了重要的一步。

This project aims to reinvigorate early phase concept design by developing new creative engineering design processes through constructs of humour. Humour is a human faculty and a capacity for its generation and appreciation is detectable in most people. Humour therefore plays an inherent, often positive and unconsciously strategic, role in organisational culture, team dynamics, management and creativity. In humour and organisational studies there is significant support for the deliberate leveraging of positive humour cognitive mechanisms to further enhance creative and social processes. Creative processes are critical to innovation through engineering design, particularly during early conceptual process phases. When engineering designers and teams engage in idea generation and other creative tasks, a lack of openness to others, engagement with the problem and willingness to take risks can inhibit the quality and volume of concepts produced. 'Brainstorming' is a group problem solving technique that can be applied to nearly any open-ended task. It has become a shorthand for any solution focused group discussion and in many cases does not take place in the open-minded, inventive, fluid atmosphere that is necessary for it to be effective. While other techniques such as morphological charts, TRIZ and the gallery method exist, they are similarly impaired by a lack of participant engagement. A dominant theory of humour is that it is a process involving the set-up and resolution of 'incongruities'; the recipient feels emotions of surprise and satisfaction resulting in laughter. For engineering design, incongruous humour is a powerful analogy for creative design process explaining how novel, unexpected but appropriate solutions are recognised. One study suggests that a group of experienced comedians were more effective in product design idea generation than trained designers. However, the precise reasons for this are not fully understood, corresponding results have not been sought within real situated design processes, technical or otherwise, and there has been no formal attempt to package humour based processes for effective use in design practice. Using prominent arguments in the literature in relation to incongruity, relief and superiority in humour, we have conducted a preliminary study that established the feasibility of incorporating stimuli to enhance concept design sessions Based on this, we have identified three exploratory themes based on aspects of humour with potential for further integration with creative design methods: 1. Humour to facilitate collaboration. Laughter can help free us from the shackles of day-to-day analytic thinking. This theme will explore the use of humorous material and comedy to generate group cohesion and structure sessions to achieve a positive, non-critical attitude towards the task in hand. 2. Humour to encourage immersion. Creative thinking benefits from a level of absorption or 'flow' discussed by and others to achieve depths of empathy and insight. This theme will explore the use of improvisational routines ('Yes, and...') and comedic exercises to increase the level of engagement by the group. 3. Humour to diversify the solution space. Incongruity, or the juxtaposition of dissimilar ideas, is fundamental to many jocular structures. This theme will explore the use of the properties of incongruity to encourage the group to strive for unusual ideas through the use of humorous narratives and unexpected perspectives. This project will allow further integration of aspects of humour to enhance engagement, structure and novelty in idea generation; to assess effectiveness through a series of workshops; and to present enhanced guidelines as a basis for new methods and tools to enhance innovative working practices. This would represent a significant step forward in the academic fields of creativity, innovation and design methods.