Abstract
Surprise is integral to driving creativity and innovation in design. While design research has mainly adopted a product-centered perspective to explore surprise as an emotional user response, the intricate involvement of surprise in the design process itself remains underexplored. Studies in cognitive psychology show that a comprehensive understanding of surprise must also encompass its detection, management, potential for errors, and influence on the behavior of individuals and groups. On this basis, this paper contributes a state-of-the-art literature review of two decades of design research to explore the complex functions of surprise in design processes. The paper discusses key emergent themes, including the continued relevance of Schön’s work, surprise-related error, the entwinement of process and product, and surprise in creativity support tools (CSTs). The paper ends by suggesting future research to enhance our limited understanding of the functions of surprise in design processes.
Keywords
cognition; design process; literature review; surprise
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.333
Citation
de Rooij, A., and Mose Biskjaer, M. (2024) Expecting the unexpected: A review of surprise in design processes, in Gray, C., Ciliotta Chehade, E., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.333
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Conference Track
Research Paper
Included in
Expecting the unexpected: A review of surprise in design processes
Surprise is integral to driving creativity and innovation in design. While design research has mainly adopted a product-centered perspective to explore surprise as an emotional user response, the intricate involvement of surprise in the design process itself remains underexplored. Studies in cognitive psychology show that a comprehensive understanding of surprise must also encompass its detection, management, potential for errors, and influence on the behavior of individuals and groups. On this basis, this paper contributes a state-of-the-art literature review of two decades of design research to explore the complex functions of surprise in design processes. The paper discusses key emergent themes, including the continued relevance of Schön’s work, surprise-related error, the entwinement of process and product, and surprise in creativity support tools (CSTs). The paper ends by suggesting future research to enhance our limited understanding of the functions of surprise in design processes.