PI: Prof. Dr. Christoph Meinel

Abstract

The project team e.valuate wants to further pursue its investigation into the processes and factors hindering or propelling design thinking. After having focussed on interdisciplinarity, tool usage and motivation in 2009, the project team now wants to investigate the underlying cognitive and affective variables that influence or even determine interactions in design teams and thus may be important predictors for team performance.

The investigation setup envisages the following three levels:

• The individual as part of the team
• The guidance of the team
• The creative space

From there, we want to develop and substantiate a guiding framework that enables teams to function successfully throughout a project by sharing a particular set of design-values to be defined.

This shall lead to a better understanding of the specific nature of design thinking and its demands while also helping to improve team performance and, hopefully, lead to better educational experiences for both students and teachers.

Finally, our efforts to collect and process data internationally will yield a scheme serving both analytical and practical purposes. This will help to establish design thinking as a widely deployable methodology.