The Klondike Space

Creative Process In Product Design

Form a team of 5 to 6 members

The Klondike Game

Here’s is Klondike* and you know that the mother lode is somewhere around

*Klondike is located on the outskirts of Dawson City, Yukon Territory, Canada

Game Rules

The board is Klondike and you are looking for the mother lode (the main vein of gold ore)

The mother lode is denoted by By overturning a piece, you dig up and sieve a

small patch of land The pieces may be empty or may have one of

these dot patterns: Dot patterns denote the amount of gold trace

found in that piece, more dots, more gold Increase in gold trace may imply higher probability

of the mother lode being around, but not necessarily reflects the actual distance from it

How to Win

You have $150 to begin with Overturning a piece adjacent

to your last move costs you $1

Overturning a piece NOT next to your current location costs you $6

The team who has found the mother lode with the least amount of time and money is the winner If this is your last move

6 6

6

6 6

6 6

6

6

6

6

6

6

6

6 6

1 1 1

1 11 1 1

Resources Record Sheet

Cross out the resources used for mining each piece of land: 1 unit for adjacent piece and 6 units for the others

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 6 6

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 6 6

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 6 6

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 6 6

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 6 6

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 6 6

Before You Begin

Each team elects a leaderThe leader choose 1 assistantsThe duty of leader and assistants

Make sure that the players do not overturn the board

Record the spending Observe how the players search for gold

You have 15 minutes

Discussion

What had happenedWhat strategies employed

Winning Strategies

Strategies previous groups employed

Digging randomly Blanket search (spiral, zigzag, etc.) ‘Minesweeper’ style boundary expanding

searchResource cost equivalent sampling

Klondike and Homing Search

Before any gold was found, the search was random (and thus a ‘Klondike search’)

As soon as promising clues are found - e.g. finding traces of gold - the method of searching shifts to that of Homing.

The presence of gold traces in a riverbed is an example of how the local terrain provides homing clues (local gradient) to help point the prospector to the mother lode

“The process of innovation is, virtually by definition, filled with

uncertainty; it is a journey of exploration into a strange land.”

Ken ArrowNobel Prize–winning economist

The Terrain

Klondike Space is an analogy used by David Perkins to describe the creative activities

A person searching for solution to a problem believes that an optimal solution is ‘out there’, but has no idea where the solution lays

The gradient of the local terrain is a measure of how close the current solution to the optimal solution is in terms of performance

Rarity Problem

Flatland, no guidance provided by local contours, i.e. no solution at sight

Plateau Problem

Terrain flats out after a series of optimisation, progress stalled

Isolation Problem

Immense difficulties that cannot be circumvented

Oasis Problem Terrain points to a

sub-optimal solution

Discussion

Can you think of a situation similar to each of the 4 scenarios?

Creative Obstacles

Problems Rarity problem Plateau problem Isolation problem Oasis problem

The system that can search a Klondike Space and overcome the above 4 problems is said to be CREATIVE

"If you don't know where you are going,then any path will take you there."

- Lewis Carroll

Further references

There are some interesting books written or edited by David Perkins on creativity in our library:

T49.5.I6 1992 Inventive minds* BF441 .P46 2000 Archimedes' bathtub LB1590.3 .P47 1986 Knowledge as design

Discussions on Klondike and homing in the context of TRIZ http://www.triz-journal.com/archives/2002/02/b/index.htm

* A full description on Klondike space can be found in the “The Topography of Invention” chapter of the book “Inventive Minds”