Abstract
This paper aims to understand whether walking without digital distractions can enhance creativity during the ideation process in design education. The study involved ninety-seven third-year undergraduate design students in an experiment examining the relationship between solitude, walking, and ideation. Students were divided into two groups: an experimental group of forty-four students instructed to take walks without mobile phones during the ideation phase of their design process and a control group of fifty-three students who remained in the design studio. Both groups were tasked with generating design solutions for the same brief. Results showed that the experimental group produced ideas with greater variety and originality than the control group. These findings suggest that walking—combined with solitude and free from digital distractions—can counteract the cognitive fragmentation caused by hyperdistraction and stimulate divergent thinking. The paper argues for incorporating walking or other solitude-inducing methods as a structured activity within design studios, highlighting its potential to help students develop a deeper ideation process. Practical implications for design educators are discussed, emphasising the increasing value of attention management in the digital age.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drslxd.2025.062
Citation
Ferreira, J.(2025) The impact of walking without digital distractions on design creativity, in Clemente, V., Gomes, G., Reis, M., Félix, S., Ala, S., Jones, D. (eds.), Learn X Design 2025, 22-24 September 2025, Aveiro, Portugal. https://doi.org/10.21606/drslxd.2025.062
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Full Paper
The impact of walking without digital distractions on design creativity
This paper aims to understand whether walking without digital distractions can enhance creativity during the ideation process in design education. The study involved ninety-seven third-year undergraduate design students in an experiment examining the relationship between solitude, walking, and ideation. Students were divided into two groups: an experimental group of forty-four students instructed to take walks without mobile phones during the ideation phase of their design process and a control group of fifty-three students who remained in the design studio. Both groups were tasked with generating design solutions for the same brief. Results showed that the experimental group produced ideas with greater variety and originality than the control group. These findings suggest that walking—combined with solitude and free from digital distractions—can counteract the cognitive fragmentation caused by hyperdistraction and stimulate divergent thinking. The paper argues for incorporating walking or other solitude-inducing methods as a structured activity within design studios, highlighting its potential to help students develop a deeper ideation process. Practical implications for design educators are discussed, emphasising the increasing value of attention management in the digital age.