Background Problem exploration includes identifying, framing, and defining design problems and bounding problem spaces. Intentional and unintentional changes in problem understanding naturally occur as designers explore design problems to create solutions. Through problem exploration, new perspectives on the problem can emerge along with new and diverse ideas for solutions. By considering multiple problem perspectives varying in scope and focus, designers position themselves to increase their understandings of the “real” problem and engage in more diverse idea generation processes leading to an increasing variety of potential solutions. Purpose/Hypothesis The purpose of this study was to investigate systematic patterns in problem exploration in the early design phases of mechanical engineers. Design/Method Thirty‐five senior undergraduate students and experienced designers with mechanical engineering backgrounds worked individually following a think‐aloud protocol. They explored problems and generated solutions for two of four randomly assigned design problems. After generating solutions, participants framed and rewrote problem statements to reflect their perspectives on the design problem their solutions addressed. Thematic analysis and a priori codes guided the identification of problem exploration patterns within and across problems. Results The set of patterns in engineers' problem exploration that emerged from the analysis documents alternative strategies in exploring problems to arrive at solutions. The results provide evidence that engineering designers, working individually, apply both problem‐specific and more general strategies to explore design problems. Conclusions Our study identified common patterns in the explorations of presented problems by individual engineering designers. The observed patterns, described as Problem Exploration Perspectives, capture alternative approaches to discovering problems and taking multiple problem perspectives during design. Learning about Problem Exploration Perspectives may be helpful in creating alternative perspectives on a design problem, potentially leading to more varied and innovative solutions. This paper concludes with an extended example illustrating the process of applying Problem Exploration Perspectives to move between problem perspectives to generate varied design outcomes.

‘Design cognition’ refers to the mental processes and representations involved in designing, and has been a significant area of interest since the emergence of design research in the 1960s. The field now faces significant challenges moving into the future, with major change required to overcome stagnation in research topics and methodologies. Tackling these challenges requires us to understand the past and present of design cognition research, and open fresh discussions on its future. This thematic collection aims to address this need by taking stock of current approaches, exploring emerging topics and methodologies, and identifying future directions for enquiry. In this editorial, we examine key issues regarding both what we investigate and how we conduct this research. We present a vision formed from a structured literature review, the work of authors in the collection, and the views of a broad cross-section of the design cognition community. This vision is formalized in a roadmap from the present to the near and far future, highlighting key topics and research questions for the field. Ultimately, ecological measurement, new applications of artificial intelligence, and a move towards theory construction and research maturation constitute key long term challenges for the design cognition community.

Design problems are often presented as structured briefs with detailed constraints and requirements, suggesting a fixed definition. However, past studies have identified the importance of exploring design problems for creative design outcomes. Previous protocol studies of designers has shown that problems can "co-evolve" with the development of solutions during the design process. But to date, little evidence has been provided about how designers systematically explore presented problems to create better solutions. In this study, we conducted a qualitative analysis of 252 design problems collected from publically available sources, including awardwinning product designs and open-source design competitions. This database offers an independent sample of presented problems, designers' alternative problem descriptions, and innovative solutions. We report the results of this large-scale qualitative analysis aimed at characterizing changes to problems during the design process. Inductive coding was used to identify content patterns in "discovered" problem descriptions, with qualitative codes reliably scored by two independent coders. A total of 32 distinct patterns of problem exploration were identified across designers and presented problems. Each pattern is described in the form of a generalized strategy to guide designers as they explore problem spaces. The exploration patterns identified in this study are the first empirical evidence of problem exploration in independent design problems. Further, the presence of exploration patterns in discovered problems is associated with the selection of the corresponding solution as a challenge finalist. These empirically identified strategies for problem exploration may be useful for computational tools supporting designers.

No abstract

Assessment of elaboration in concept generation is critical, as it functions as a communication tool for the designer to iterate on solutions and to convey the generated ideas to other stakeholders involved in the early stages of the design process. Further, design educators may offer feedback to students about the elaborateness of their sketches, so they may fine-tune their techniques and optimize their sketch “literacy.” Although metrics exist for sketch complexity, product elaboration, and sketch quality, a gap remains in assessing elaboration. In this paper, we report on the development of an elaboration metric to evaluate concept representations as a means to facilitate greater understanding of designers’ ideas and their iterative improvement.

No abstract

No abstract

Jansson and Smith (1991, "Design Fixation," Des. Stud., 12(1), pp. 3-11) demonstrated that design fixation occurs when an example solution is provided along with a design problem. After seeing an example concept-even with its flaws pointed out-new designs often share its features. In Jansson and Smith's studies, a control group saw no example and showed less fixation to the example provided only in the other group. However, another source of fixation from an initial example may arise in the control group from the designer's own first-generated concept. We conducted a large-scale experiment with beginning engineers to investigate whether design fixation occurs even without seeing a provided example. Half of the participants saw an example solution and half were given no example; instead, they generated their own initial design. Next, all students were individually brainstormed ideas for 30 min. We analyzed both groups' concepts for fixation on the first solution they saw-either the example provided or their own initial concept. The results showed that the students provided with an example concept experienced less fixation on the initial example than those in the control group, whose concepts were evaluated for similarity to their own initial concept. To consider whether fixation on initial examples (provided or self-generated) might be mitigated, we asked these students to complete a second (30 min) idea generation phase using Design Heuristics for idea inspiration. The results showed that both groups experienced less fixation during the second-generation phase. These findings suggest that fixation on first solutions occurs in individual idea generation arising from both provided examples and self-generated concepts. However, more divergent idea generation can be facilitated through the use of design tools, such as Design Heuristics, to mitigate the consequences of design fixation.