The paper “Increasing Team Ideation by Sequencing the Task Type and Content” (Meslec, Graff, & Clark) was nominated for the Design Studies Best Paper 2020. “The Design Studies best paper award is made annually, jointly by Elsevier and the Design Research Society (DRS) and is based on contribution to the development of the field of design research, originality of research or scholarship, breadth of relevance, and clarity and style of presentation.”

In the nominated article, the authors “propose and test the usefulness of sequencing variations in task type and content to facilitate team ideation in a team creativity task. In a repeated measures design they assessed team ideation before and after exposure to one of three randomized variations in sequences of task type and content. After this intervention, teams exposed to tasks that were dissimilar in content or type experienced the highest increase in variety of ideas produced. These results are relevant for design practice as they suggest that structuring team tasks to alternate content may help to improve team creativity.”

This article was published in 2020 in Design Studies, a leading international academic journal aimed on enhancing our understanding of design processes. The official announcement of the nomination and all articles nominated are freely accessible until March 31, 2022 on the journal homepage. 

Daniel Graff is an Assistant Professor in Tongji University College of Design and Innovation and is an expert in design and innovation processes, designing in the Eat vs West, new product and service development, and design teams. His work has been published in top academic journals in design, design education and group studies, and has been presented at conferences and workshops around the world. More information can be found on his faculty page.