Using Entropy to Measure Design Creativity

Jeff W.T. Kan and John S. Gero Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study, USA [email protected]; [email protected] This paper presents a case study examining Shannon’s entropy as a tool for measuring design creativity from protocols. Two design sessions were analyzed. One of the sessions was judged to be more creative based on their outcomes and qualitative analyses. We calculated the text entropy of the two protocols with the hypothesis that the creative session will have a higher text entropy. However their relative text entropies were the same. A further analysis of the two sessions was carried out by accounting for the semantics of the protocols. The protocols were segmented and segments containing words of similar meaning were linked. These links formed a linkograph. The entropy of the linkographs of the two sessions were than measured. The creative session has a higher linkograph entropy. This result indicates the potential of using entropy as a measure of design creativity.