**6.2 Cognitive tasks for design phase**

The abstract idea needs to be transformed into tangible, visual representations so that rough sketches of the objects in their finished form can be visualized by people, its building or construction feasibility can be examined, and alternative designs can be compared so that the better one can be chosen. The cognitive tasks involve moving from the pure abstract idea to sketches of the possible appearances of the object and then to 3-D prototypes, to envision how the new functional requirements can be materially realized. For example, how can a current 10-inch wafer manufacturing line be extended into a 12-inch wafer manufacturing line? General design knowledge and engineering knowledge about how to realize an abstract functional requirement into a concrete physical product must work together. In the case of designing a book of Chanel No 5, the design problem is how to make a book that is invisible but readable. Boom's solution to creating a book that was without ink but readable was by *embossing*. The cognitive tasks to generate the answer "embossing" include:

A. *Preparation stage.* Knowledge of and experience with the current technology in product making is not sufficient to solve the problem; new knowledge and experience must be imported from other domains. The design is guided by the new

## *A Model of Technological Imagination and Creativity: Cognitive Task Analysis DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.110020*

functional requirements of the end product and existing engineering knowledge of the to-be-made product. In the example of designing the Book of Chanel No 5, knowledge and experience in bookmaking with printing or without printing must be retrieved and compared. With a goal to create something original, previous cases of books without print must be analyzed, retained, or ruled out in the process of finding something unique. Irma Boom is an expert in bookmaking. She has created over 300 books and holds an excellent reputation for her artistic autonomy within her field. Creating a sensory tactile experience when designing and making books is very important to Boom, and she aims to inspire discovery and interaction. She analyzes every little detail in bookmaking to maximize a book's engagement potential in contrast to its digital counterparts [45].


#### **6.3 Cognitive tasks in implementation stage**

A prototype of the product is still conceptual in nature. Can the prototype design work in reality? A real, physical object must be built by RD engineers. Technological constraints are the major challenge at this phase. The nature of engineering work is constraint satisfaction or contextualization [46]. For example, to create an electrical bike, adding a power system with a power control system and user interface mechanism to a bike body is the major challenge. Moreover, the final product must be contextualized to the persons and conditions under which the bike is to function. Every detail must be specified before the product can be made. Engineering knowledge, industrial knowledge, and knowledge of the potential markets and users must be searched and available for consultation. The goal of the implementation stage is to make a real object work as designed and that can operate properly in a prescribed context. The making and manufacturing of the first technological product is not only a very tedious and time-consuming process, but it is also very expensive. Other than materials and machinery for making the object, a variety of engineering knowledge, equipment, and procedures must be recruited. In the case of building the first electrical bike, technological problems involve making of the bike body, battery, power control device, man-machine interface device, and other auxiliary parts. Most important of all is putting these elements together and making sure that the bike can ride for a reasonable distance with reasonable labor and speed. RD workers and experts in the related domains must be recruited and work together to solve the new problems involved in making the first instance of the new electrical bike.

A. *Preparation stage.* In engineering, the product is first broken down into components and parts, each of which is manufactured separately. Different lines of engineers work at about the same time, and their outputs are then integrated to form the newly innovated product. New designs invariably create new technical problems for making the product. For example, embossing is commonly done with materials that are hard enough to endure the press. How can embossing be done with a sheet of thin and fragile paper? How to bind the book without damaging the content? New materials and/or new embossing techniques must be found to solve the problems. The size, weight, and content of the book may also affect how many pages of embossed content can be bound. New solutions must be found. In Boom's case, making an embossed book involved combining both printing and embossing techniques. Using embossing as the only source of printing was a unique challenge for the printing industry.

Typically, books are bound and cut, but the pressing process would render the embossing flat, so it was necessary to figure out a different way to ensure the subtlety of Boom's designs would keep their form. The publisher ended up using an old letterpress machine, with the ink removed. Each page was first designed on an aluminum plate and turned into a mold that the pages would then press against. Numerous technical details like this one needed to be surmounted in making the first book. The solutions needed to be found before a first copy of the Book of Chanel No 5 could be produced in its final completed form. These cognitive tasks cannot be performed by any individual alone. It requires the combined efforts of many experts from different domains. Some problems may need to be fed back to the conceptualization and design phases for reworking.

Knowledge about the making of a product is thus distributed among different experts. Therefore, collaborations among individuals are essential. For example, more than one thousand steps are involved in wafer fabrication. It is not possible for one person to have the complete knowledge needed to create a new wafer manufacturing line. In the case of bookmaking, other than how to print the content of the book onto pages, the content of the book must be written, and the size, weight, thickness, and anticipated demands of the targeted readers and so on must be specified before the book can materially exist.

B. *Incubation stage.* A period of breaking away from the problem and the opportunity to exchange ideas among different experts are critical for breakthroughs in solution finding. Problems and a failure to find the proper solution may occur for

### *A Model of Technological Imagination and Creativity: Cognitive Task Analysis DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.110020*

each subproblem. The individuals who work on the problem may have to wait for some period before another's problems are solved. Communication among RD teams and their scientific and technological communities becomes vital. Various solutions are searched and activated and shared in the brains for random variations. Conceptual combination can thus occur within one's brain or between multiple brains via communication.

