Research on Messaging Applications as Mediators to Enhance Design Creativity in Industrial Design Students in China
Authors: Zhao Qian , Lu LeeHsing 
Published: January 2025

Background and Aim: In globalization, creativity emerges as a pivotal factor in bolstering the competitiveness of nations and individuals. Therefore, fostering students' creativity becomes a crucial goal of education and a key driver for societal development and innovation. This study, with its potential to determine the factors that affect the design creativity of industrial design students through messaging applications, holds significant promise. The research framework includes variables such as design creativity (DC), knowledge sharing (KS), cooperative learning (CL), inspiration (IN), creative self-efficacy (CS), and the use of messaging applications (UMA). By exploring the influence of educational methods on creativity development through the analysis of students' creative generation process in messaging applications, we aim to provide new perspectives and tools that could profoundly impact creativity and educational research.
Materials and Methods: In this research, we meticulously collected 467 valid questionnaires from colleges and universities in Sichuan Province, China, employing rigorous quantitative methods and questionnaire surveys. To ensure the utmost accuracy of the questionnaire data, we conducted a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to test the relationship between the observed variables and the potential variables. Subsequently, we employed the structural equation model (SEM) to test the research hypothesis comprehensively. Applying these two analytical techniques underscores the scientific rigor of our research methods and the robustness of our results.
Result: The results of data analysis show that the use of message application, knowledge sharing, cooperative learning, inspiration, and creative self-efficacy significantly affect design creativity. Using message application as an intermediary variable improves industrial design students' knowledge-sharing and creative self-efficacy, thus enhancing their design creativity. However, the intermediary role of message application between inspiration, collaborative learning, and design creativity is not significant. This finding contrasts with the results of pilot tests, reflecting the differences in educational strategies implemented by different educators in influencing students' interaction and inspiration in collaborative learning.
Conclusion: Studying the use of message applications to enhance creativity can promote educational equity and social interaction and stimulate interdisciplinary learning and collective wisdom. At the same time, cultivate students' innovative skills and lifelong learning and innovation ability. The research results provide educators with insights into how industrial design students can use new applications more effectively to improve their design creativity and confirm the effectiveness of students' creativity self-assessment. Therefore, in educational practice, the design creativity self-assessment scale can be used to evaluate students' design works. In addition, this study can be used as a reference for teaching and creativity research in other art disciplines.