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Two Heads Are Better Than One: Principles for Collaborative Design Practice

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Collaboration in Creative Design

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Abstract

Design is an inherently complicated activity, reliant on the input of many other disciplines, stakeholders, and users. Over recent years, product designers, clients, suppliers and customers have become even more close and connected, and working together has become paramount in the design process. This chapter looks at the notion of collaboration in design, and suggests that being connected to others can enhance the overall creative effort. As the prevalence of interdisciplinary teams and global work practices grows, this is relevant across all design disciplines. An interdisciplinary team approach provides benefits that can bring about innovation. However, teams are also idiosyncratic and serendipitous. Since design itself is equally unpredictable, there is a need to structure collaborative working. This chapter aims to provide creative practitioners and students with a set of methods by which a collaborative approach can be fostered and maintained in contemporary design practice.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For further information on Lego’s methodologies for creativity, see: http://www.lego.com/en-gb/seriousplay/.

  2. 2.

    See ‘The Power of Time’ by Stefan Sagmeister available at: http://www.ted.com/talks/stefan_sagmeister_the_power_of_time_off#t-945073.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Norwich University of the Arts, Francis House, 3-7 Redwell Street, NR2 4SN, Norwich, UK

    Fiona Maciver & Julian Malins

Authors
  1. Fiona Maciver
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  2. Julian Malins
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Correspondence to Fiona Maciver .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Eindhoven University of Technology, Department of Industrial Design, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Panos Markopoulos

  2. Eindhoven University of Technology, Department of Industrial Design, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Jean-Bernard Martens

  3. Norwich University of the Arts, Norwich, United Kingdom

    Julian Malins

  4. Expertise Centre for DigitalMedia, Hasselt University - tUL - iMinds, Diepenbeek, Belgium

    Karin Coninx

  5. Markopoulou-Peania Avenue, Intrasoft International, Athens, Greece

    Aggelos Liapis

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Maciver, F., Malins, J. (2016). Two Heads Are Better Than One: Principles for Collaborative Design Practice. In: Markopoulos, P., Martens, JB., Malins, J., Coninx, K., Liapis, A. (eds) Collaboration in Creative Design. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29155-0_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29155-0_2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-29153-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-29155-0

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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