THE POTENTIAL OF DESIGN-BY-ANALOGY METHODS TO SUPPORT PRODUCT, SERVICE AND PRODUCT SERVICE SYSTEMS IDEA GENERATION

Design-by-Analogy (DbA) is the process of developing solutions for design problems through the mapping of attributes, relations and purposes that a source problem or situation may share (or at least partially share) with an existing target solution or situation. There is a range of available DbA methods that have been developed to assist designers during the ideation stage to identify potentially useful analogies to solve design problems. However, generally these methods have been developed and applied in the product domain rather than in the service and product service systems domains. The purpose of this article is to identify the characteristics and nature of products, services and product service systems; to provide an overview of existing DbA methods and their drivers to evaluate the potential transferability of DbA across domains.