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New
New
Year 10

Bisociation

I can use bisociation to create innovative designs.

icon-background-square
New
New
Year 10

Bisociation

I can use bisociation to create innovative designs.

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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Bisociation can be used to combine two different designs to generate a new and innovative design.
  2. Bisociation can be used to avoid design fixation when generating new designs.

Keywords

  • Design opportunities - a gap, or a need where a new or improved product would be beneficial

  • Design fixation - considering only one or existing possibilities

  • Innovative - introducing new ideas

  • Bisociation - the technique of connecting two unrelated concepts to produce a new idea

Common misconception

Fixating on one idea or existing ideas will lead to innovative designing.

Design fixation is the opposite of being innovative and is focussing or fixating on one idea or existing ideas. This can limit creativity and innovation.


To help you plan your year 10 design and technology lesson on: Bisociation, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

Make the bisociation technique more interactive by writing lists of products, cutting them out and folding them up individually into a container. Allow the students to select two products each without knowing what they are then continue with the process.
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Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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6 Questions

Q1.
All design and technological practice takes place within that inform outcomes.
Correct Answer: contexts, context
Q2.
An approach to investigate a context is to use the 4 W's. The 4 W's are __________, what, where and why
watch
weak
want
when
Correct answer: who
Q3.
Another approach to investigate a context is to create a context mind map. This is so designers can ...
Correct answer: plan research in more detail
plan the project
produce a colourful picture
proceed to the designing phase
produce a design solution
Q4.
The person you are designing for is called the
Correct Answer: user, users, primary users, primary user
Q5.
A target market is ...
a person, group or organisation with an interest in a project
a person, group or organisation that seeks expertise or solutions
who you are designing for and who directly interacts with a product
the individual who purchases or pays
Correct answer: a specific group of consumers identified as the most likely audience
Q6.
Select the ways to start investigating a context.
Correct answer: mind mapping
Correct answer: the 4 W's
Correct answer: user journey mapping
Correct answer: the 3 P's
sketching design ideas

6 Questions

Q1.
A design opportunity is a gap or __________ where a new or improved product would be beneficial.
new
Correct answer: need
space
necessity
request
Q2.
What is it called when new innovations or advancements in technology drive the creation of new products or services?
Correct Answer: A technology push, Technology push, Tech push
Q3.
The Ford Model T is an example product of a ...
An image in a quiz
Correct Answer: market pull, target market pull
Q4.
__________ designing is creating new and original ideas.
Reliable
Inspirational
Creative
Futuristic
Correct answer: Innovative
Q5.
Innovative designing can be restricted and limited if designers practice design ...
facilitating
focusing
Correct answer: fixiation
fixing
features
Q6.
A way of avoiding design fixation is to practice the technique of ...
iteration
ideation
replication
Correct answer: bisociation
simplification