Applying Level and Style to Contemporary Products

Applying Level and Style to Products

General Instructions:

Remember: in composing your responses to this task, pay careful attention to spelling, grammar, punctuation, and clarity of expression. Both the content of your work and its presentation are important and will be evaluated as follows: 80% on quality of content (e.g., completeness, correctness, degree of advanced thinking, etc.); 20% on quality of communication and presentation.

Task:

In this task, I would like you to explore the “creative style” and “creative level” of a contemporary product of your own choosing that has an impact on society today. In doing so, you will be extending the concepts of creative style and creative level from “people” to the “products” they create in order to gain further insight into the type of change a product represents in relation to the prevailing paradigm in which it is found.

For this assessment, I would like you to apply the criteria detailed in the article, “Sorting Out Creativity in Design Assessment” by Jablokow and DeCristoforo (2008). The article is located in the Library Reserves for this course. Your task is as follows:

1. First, select a contemporary product that has had a notable impact on society (e.g., iPod; tablet PCs; smartphones; digital cameras; batteries; etc.). You will also need to identify some of this product’s predecessor(s), which you will use as benchmarks to evaluate the type of change your product represents. Provide an overview of the prevailing paradigm in which the predecessor and current product(s) are found.
2. Next, assess the creative level of your chosen product using the criteria shown in Table 1 of Jablokow and Decristoforo’s (2008) article. Please explain your reasoning in depth and justify your evaluation of the product’s level.
3. Next, assess the creative style of your chosen product using the six factors proposed by Jablokow and DeCristoforo, namely: the type of technological change, acceptability, feasibility, efficiency, method, and knowledge content. Please include an explanation to justify your rating of creative style for each of the six factors, and also provide and discuss a summary rating as shown in the article.
4. Based on your assessment of this product, discuss whether the style of change represented by your product might be characterized as an evolutionary/incremental (and therefore, more adaptive) change to the current technical/scientific/business paradigm, or is it more of a revolutionary/tangential (and therefore, more innovative) change? Provide a persuasive argument that justifies your view.
5. Finally, describe how the Paradox of Structure applies to your product. Whatever style of change it represents, how is the product both enabling and limiting in terms of itsdesign and its use?