On contradiction clouds

Our proposal, through this article, addresses the issue of obtaining, representing and selecting the appropriate subset of contradictions among a complete set of contradictions resulting from an initial situation framing within a specific domain. This contribution has to be understood within the Inventive Design context since most of its grounding relies on the fact that any problem can be formulated as a contradiction (in the sense of TRIZ). By proposing the concept of “contradiction cloud” as three value graphical representation of a set of elementary contradictions, we claim that designers considerably reduce the fuzziness of a contradiction choice prior entering in a solving phase in Inventive Design processes. The modes of interpretation of this cloud will be also presented. The impact of this new element in the teaching of TRIZ was tested both in educational situations within the framework of our engineering curriculum and in several industrial partnerships. A discussion section will then highlight the assets, the limits and the perspectives of our contribution.