Extended linkography and distance graph in design evaluation: an empirical study of the dual effects of inspiration sources in creative design

All design is influenced by previous exposure to ideas in different formats and in different levels of abstraction. This paper introduces refined methods to represent and analyze the creativity and fixation effects of inspiration sources on designs. Based on a critical review of existing design research methods, we develop an extension of linkography and a distance graph to investigate design patterns among designers of different expertise levels and exposure to different inspiration sources prior to design. In our explorative experiment, novices and experts were given five types of external stimuli—keyword, diagram, plan, sketch rendering, and precedent photo—as inspiration sources for the same design task. Our extended linkography represents and measures the creativity and fixation propensities of different inspiration sources at the micro-level of design processes.