A study of the influence of visual imagery on graphic design ideation

doi:10.1016/j.destud.2016.04.002

Design Studies

Volume 45, Part B, July 2016, Pages 187-209

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2016.04.002 Get rights and content

Highlights

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Seeing client and market images during ideation has minimal effect on creativity.
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Such images shown to positively effect participants' experience of the process.
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Designer seeing client aesthetic images may increase client acceptance of outputs.

Although existing literature shows that graphic designers collect and access visual imagery as part of their design process, the influence of such material on the process of ideation and the creative output of design is generally unclear. Therefore, we carried out a study with 18 graphic design students to better understand the effects of supplying specific types of images during the ideation phase on the creative outputs of the graphic design process. The findings demonstrate that exposure to the images had minimal measurable effect on the creativity of the design outputs, as rated by experts judges and study clients. The participants, however, reported positive benefits from the availability of visual images to their experience during the ideation phase of the design process.

Section snippets

Background

Existing literature has argued the importance of the use of visual imagery and examples during the design process. Haug (2015) reported a study of industrial design students, documenting their need for information about a client, as well as the client's preferences and requirements. Herring, Chang, Krantzler, and Bailey (2009) conducted an interview study of eleven professional designers (including four graphic and three web designers) where participants reported usage of, and the benefits

Study of the role of imagery

Noting the lack of empirical evidence regarding the exact nature of the influence of visual images on graphic design practice, we conducted a study to measure the influence of images on the creative behaviour of graphic designers and their output when exposed to images associated with a client (AC), as well as the market competitors of the client (AM). Two study conditions were setup to compare the effects on the creativity of individuals exposed to, or denied, visual images while attempting

Results

Statistical analysis of the ratings provided by the study participants, expert judges, and the two clients was carried out to identify any perceived differences between the test and control conditions. The results of these analyses are given below. This is followed by the findings from the thematic analysis of the interviews and commentary provided by the study participants, judges, and clients.

Conclusions

In this paper we have described a study we conducted to better understand the influence of images related to the aesthetic tastes of clients (AC) and their market competitors (AM) during the ideation phase of the graphic design process on the creative design outputs of the participants or their experience of the process. Although there are some limitations with our study, such as the small sample size (n = 18), and the fact that our participants were graphic design students rather than

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to the clients, participants, and review judges for their contributions to the study reported here. We would also like to thank Dr. Ray Littler for his advice regarding the statistical analysis of our study data.

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