Abstract
Creativity is a critical competency in design education; however, effective methods to enhance creativity within design tasks remain insufficiently explored. This study investigated the effects of a brief 10-minute mindfulness intervention on the creative performance of designers with different experience levels—novice and advanced students. Using pre- and post-tests of the Alternative Uses Test (AUT) alongside expert evaluations of design sketches, the study examined whether mindfulness impacts creativity differently depending on prior design experience. Results indicated that advanced designers who underwent the mindfulness training showed significant improvements in flexibility, originality, and elaboration on the AUT, with effect sizes ranging from medium to large, suggesting enhanced depth and cognitive flexibility in their ideation. Novices exhibited limited benefits, with significant gains only in elaboration, implying that less experienced designers may require more extensive or prolonged training to fully harness mindfulness effects. Although statistical significance was limited in the expert evaluations of design sketches—likely due to sample size and intervention duration—effect size analyses revealed mindfulnesss potential to improve idea quality, especially among advanced students. Notably, short-term mindfulness may enhance divergent thinking while compromising convergent feasibility assessments. These findings underscore the moderating role of design experience in the creative benefits of mindfulness and highlight the necessity for longer, phased interventions to optimize cognitive balance throughout the design process.
Keywords
Mindfulness; Design experience; Creativity
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.879
Citation
Wu, F.,and Ho, C.(2025) The Effects of Short-Term Mindfulness Intervention on Creativity in Novice and Advanced Design Students, in Chang, C.-Y., and Hsu, Y. (eds.), IASDR 2025: Design Next, 02-05 December, Taiwan. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.879
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Track 12 - Design Education
The Effects of Short-Term Mindfulness Intervention on Creativity in Novice and Advanced Design Students
Creativity is a critical competency in design education; however, effective methods to enhance creativity within design tasks remain insufficiently explored. This study investigated the effects of a brief 10-minute mindfulness intervention on the creative performance of designers with different experience levels—novice and advanced students. Using pre- and post-tests of the Alternative Uses Test (AUT) alongside expert evaluations of design sketches, the study examined whether mindfulness impacts creativity differently depending on prior design experience. Results indicated that advanced designers who underwent the mindfulness training showed significant improvements in flexibility, originality, and elaboration on the AUT, with effect sizes ranging from medium to large, suggesting enhanced depth and cognitive flexibility in their ideation. Novices exhibited limited benefits, with significant gains only in elaboration, implying that less experienced designers may require more extensive or prolonged training to fully harness mindfulness effects. Although statistical significance was limited in the expert evaluations of design sketches—likely due to sample size and intervention duration—effect size analyses revealed mindfulnesss potential to improve idea quality, especially among advanced students. Notably, short-term mindfulness may enhance divergent thinking while compromising convergent feasibility assessments. These findings underscore the moderating role of design experience in the creative benefits of mindfulness and highlight the necessity for longer, phased interventions to optimize cognitive balance throughout the design process.