Thinking inside the box

New research into the phenomenon of design fixation - allowing prior experience to blind us to new possibilities - may help in the development of new tools and strategies that help to stimulate the creative process without inadvertently limiting it. Fixation can stop the creative process cold: severely limiting the way in which we see a problem and the variety of solutions we explore - Nathan Crilly It's a common occurrence: when faced with a problem which is similar to one which has been faced before, most people will default to what worked in the past. As the saying goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. But while this approach often works, it can also limit thinking and prevent alternate, and possibly better, solutions from being considered. In psychology, this phenomenon of being 'stuck in a rut' or failing to 'think outside the box' is known as fixation, or the 'Einstellung' effect. Fixation occurs in all sorts of settings, such as with the interpretations that scientists make of their data, the decisions that managers make in organisations, and in the diagnoses that physicians make. It's is also an issue in design and engineering, where knowledge of earlier solutions can inadvertently narrow the range of answers that designers explore when responding to new problems.