Ideation Metrics: Interdependency between Average Novelty and Variety

Paper in proceeding, 2012

The importance of ideation in the conceptual design phase has been widely accepted. Shah et al. (2003) developed four key metrics for evaluating a designer’s exploration and expansion of design space. The four metrics are: novelty, variety, quality, and quantity of designs. The mean of novelty scores of ideas in a set (i.e. Average Novelty - AN) has also been used in some ideation studies. However, many of the studies that have computed AN and variety, have not examined the interdependency between them. This research aims at examining the interdependency between AN and variety.