The relationship between individual characteristics and ideation behavior: an empirical study of storyboards

The development of digital technology tool and the progress of animation design activities have led to great progress in the animation field. The storyboard is a type of media used to present animator ideas. Therefore, it is commonly viewed as fundamental to the animation industry. This study aims to discuss cognitive style- and gender-based differences in word and image idea associations and how to create a story using word and image stimuli. Using a cognitive style index instrument, 104 university freshmen (48 males and 56 females) were classified into the four type groups of male analytic, male intuitive, female analytic, and female intuitive. Each participant was then asked to execute two design tasks: associate word and image ideas (ideational process) and develop a storyboard (ideational outcome). Four experts evaluated outcomes in terms of creativity, structure, and drawing skill. Results show that larger numbers of words and images correlate with good word and image ideas and that analytic females exhibited the greatest level of ideation and intuitive males exhibited the least.