Fictionation: development and evaluation of an idea generation tool grounded on design fiction

Abstract Idea generation requires the generation of many, various and novel ideas, and has the greatest impact on the quality of the final design solution within the design process. The literature offers numerous design methods and tools available for the use of designers in idea generation, though criticisms include the shortcomings of methods in supporting illogical thinking, as well as the lack of studies that test the effects of these methods on idea generation. This paper presents Fictionation, a card-based idea generation tool that seeks to increase novelty and variety by fostering an environment of creative invention based on design fiction and illogical thinking. The effects of the tool on the novelty and explored variety scores of the design outputs are investigated with an experimental study among undergraduate industrial design students. The results indicate that the Fictionation tool increases the novelty and variety of the ideas, and also has effects on improving academic performance and creating a more homogeneous student group.