The use of design techniques in the creative process of new designers

Abstract

Creative thinking is capable of making connections between stored memories and stimuli acquired throughout life, generating ideas for problem solutions. As a way of stimulating creative thinking, designers use techniques and tools to help them in their process. The more experienced they are, the greater their mastery of the repertoire of design solutions and techniques, but expert designers were once beginners. The aim of this article was therefore to understand how specific design techniques help novice designers in their creative process. The techniques were: visual brain dumping, forced connections and semantic differential matrix. They were applied in individual and pair dynamics, in a three-hour class, in a postgraduate class of eight students, including master's and doctoral students in design. The work demonstrates the potential of the techniques used to direct the creative process, as well as helping to build the repertoire of beginner designers.