Abstract Book of the 9th World Conference on Research in Education
Year: 2025
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Expanded Payoff Matrices and Drawing: Design Methods for Creating Value through Positive Sum Design
Ian Gonsher, Racheal Arewa, Zoey Zhang (Zhiyu), Charlene Chen
ABSTRACT:
Creativity can be characterized as a process that produces novel and useful outcomes. Positive Sum Design seeks to harness this kind of creativity in order to generate the greatest aggregate value for all stakeholders, eschewing scarcity in favor of abundance, and overcoming zero sum bias. Collaborating with undergraduate design engineering students, these design principles were workshopped into a set of design methods. These design methods enhanced the creative process by supporting divergent thinking – the ability to generate many different outcomes. Participants were able to generate an impressive range of possibilities through iterative sketching, as they mapped those possibilities in relation to each other through the use of an expanded payoff matrix (based on the traditional payoff matrices taken from Game Theory). Participants were given a scenario involving a limited resource (an umbrella). When first encountered, the conditions seemed unable to support the needs of all stakeholders. However, through the implementation of these Positive Sum Design methods, participants were able to create positive sum value and generate diverse solutions to the given problem.
Keywords: Positive Sum Design, Design Process, Divergent Thinking, Design Education, Game Theory