Supporting Exploration of Far-Domain Analogical Inspirations with Bridging Analogies.

Far domain analogies — relational comparisons between topics that seem very different on the surface, such as the solar system and an atom — can be a powerful source of new ideas. However, people struggle to benefit from them. We explore how bridging analogies, analogies that bridge between a knowledge anchor that is familiar to the problem solver, and a target analogy, can help innovators to benefit from far domain analogies. Utilizing a breadth first search for shortest paths between concepts on Wikipedia, we identified potential bridging analogies that connect a participant’s knowledge anchor to a far domain analogy. In a think aloud study, participants brainstormed on three design challenges, with only far analogies, or far analogies and bridging analogies tailored to their knowledge anchors. We observed that bridging analogies aided participants in producing more abstract solutions vs. more direct translation of the analogies in their solution.