Lo-Fi prototyping and the creative process of engineering students

Semester: M.1.1

Course: Research Methods

Students in this course selected a design research paper as inspiration to conduct their own design research in small groups. We chose Andersen’s Magic Machines workshops [5][6] as a basis to explore how lo-fi prototyping methods influence the creative process of engineering students.

The results showed no clear relationship between the outcomes of the workshop and the individual creativity of the participants, but they do suggest that the rapid ideation and unconstrained nature of the Magic Machines workshop have a positive influence on the students’ creative process.

Some of the Magic Machines designed by engineering students in response to the prompt: “Create a magic machine to escape a traffic jam.”.

Participants creativity score according to the Biographical Inventory of Creative Behaviours (BICB) in relation to the creativity score of the magic machine outcomes according to the metrics for measuring ideation effectiveness [25][26].

My development

During this course, I developed in the expertise areas of Creativity & Aesthetics (C&A) and Technology & Realisation (T&R). I had been looking for design methods and tools to help people uncover, share, and grow an understanding of their subjective lived experiences. When my groupmate introduced me to the Magic Machines workshops, it changed my perspective on engineering. I realized that not only does our interaction with the physical world shape our inner world (and vice versa), but that the act of creating in the physical world can also influence our inner experiences. I now better understand that lo-fi prototyping can create conditions for people to express and understand themselves, especially when it is messy and whimsical. Additionally, I improved my design research skills and knowledge, as this course introduced me to a variety of strategies from existing work.