Fresh in My Mind! Investigating the effects of the order of presenting opportunistic and restrictive design for additive manufacturing content on students’ creativity

To capitalise the design freedoms enabled by additive manufacturing (AM), designers must employ opportunistic and restrictive design for AM (O- and R-DfAM respectively). The order of information presentation influences the retrieval of said information; however, there is a need to explore this effect within DfAM. We compared four variations in DfAM education: (1) O-DfAM followed by R-DfAM, (2) R-DfAM followed by O-DfAM, (3) only O-DfAM, and (4) only R-DfAM by evaluating: (1) students’ DfAM self-efficacy, (2) their self-reported DfAM use, and (3) design creativity. All students trained in DfAM demonstrated an increase in R-DfAM self-efficacy; however, only students trained in O-DfAM, with or without R-DfAM, reported an increase in O-DfAM self-efficacy. Furthermore, students trained in R-DfAM first followed by O-DfAM generated more creative ideas.