Design discipline and the significance of visuo-spatial thinking

Muller, Wim

doi:10.1016/0142-694x(89)90021-5

Cited by 25 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 3 publications

(1 reference statement)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In alignment with previous findings (e.g., Muller 1989;Henderson 1999;Gonçalves et al 2014), the participants expressed a preference for using visual stimuli for inspirational purposes, despite textual stimuli also being used during the experiment. These novice designers seemed to be aware of how potentially useful distantly related stimuli might be for ideation, as shown also by Ozkan and Dogan's findings (2013).…”

Section: Most Selected Stimuli From the Search Toolsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…From the myriad of stimuli available to designers, there is a striking preference for visual representations (e.g., Muller 1989;Henderson 1999;Gonçalves et al 2014). This comes as no surprise, as designers are considered to be visualizers (Mednick 1962), and they are considered to be skillful in making and using visual representations.…”

Section: Visual Versus Textual Stimulimentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Inspiration choices that matter: the selection of external stimuli during ideation

2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Inspiration is a widely recognized phenomenon in everyday life. However, researchers still know very little about what the process of inspiration entails. This paper investigates designers' approaches when selecting inspirational stimuli during the initial phases of a design process. We conducted a think-aloud protocol study and interviews with 31 design Masters students while generating ideas for a design problem. The results indicate that searching for and selecting stimuli require different levels of cognitive effort, depending on whether there is unlimited or limited access to stimuli. Furthermore, three important stages of the inspiration process were identified: keyword definition, stimuli search and stimuli selection. For each of these stages, we elaborate on how designers define keywords, which search approaches they use and what drives their selection of stimuli. This paper contributes to an understanding of how designers can be supported in their inspiration process in a more detailed manner.

show abstract

Section: Most Selected Stimuli From the Search Toolsupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Visual Versus Textual Stimulimentioning

confidence: 99%

Inspiration choices that matter: the selection of external stimuli during ideation

2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…When searching for information, it is generally known from many studies that designers have a preference for visual ways of information processing and communicating (Gonc alves, Hanington, 2003;Henderson, 1999;Muller, 1989). This preference for visual stimuli is also the reason why designers are considered to be visualizers (Mednick, 1962) and see themselves as highly competent in the use of images.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Inspiration peak: exploring the semantic distance between design problem and textual inspirational stimuli

Gonçalves

Cardoso

Badke-Schaub

2013

International Journal of Design Creativity and Innovation

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The selection of sources of inspiration is a crucial moment while designing, as it can enhance design creativity. Designers seem to prefer using pictorial representation modalities despite empirical investigations indicating possible disadvantages of such unimodal approaches. Therefore, it is valid to ask whether designers are disregarding other available stimuli, such as textual representations. In order to answer this question and to find out about the usefulness of different textual stimuli during ideation phases, we exposed novice designers to three types of written stimuli, with different semantic levels. The results indicate that between close and very distant related types of stimuli, there is an intermediate type that is likely to stimulate participants to generate a larger number of more flexible and original ideas. This intermediate type of stimulus seems to prompt designers to generate ideas that are more creative in terms of fluency, flexibility, and originality. Conversely, the too close and the too distant stimuli reveal being less useful for creative problem solving. Looking into alternative types of stimuli, as well as stimuli entailing varying levels of distance with the problem at hand, can possibly help designers in increasing their creative potential.

show abstract

“…Tovey [153] who followed a transportation design project found that sketching would often reveal the combination of analytical and holistic processes that the designer employed. Muller [154] also followed students who designed hand-driven go-karts and espresso machines. Martin and Homer [155] collaborated with a resident student in a company that designed glass cutting machines and saw that the disciplined departure from the apparent problem and the application of creative design techniques generated worthwhile results.…”

Section: Other Empirical Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Empirical Studies of Designer Thinking: Past, Present, and Future

Dinar

Shah

Cagan

et al. 2015

Journal of Mechanical Design

100

121

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Understanding how designers think is core to advancing design methods, tools, and outcomes. Engineering researchers have effectively turned to cognitive science approaches to studying the engineering design process. Empirical methods used for studying designer thinking have included verbal protocols, case studies, and controlled experiments. Studies have looked at the role of design methods, strategies, tools, environment, experience, and group dynamics. Early empirical studies were casual and exploratory with loosely defined objectives and informal analysis methods. Current studies have become more formal, factor controlled, aiming at hypothesis testing, using statistical design of experiments (DOE) and analysis methods such as analysis of variations (ANOVA). Popular pursuits include comparison of experts and novices, identifying and overcoming fixation, role of analogies, effectiveness of ideation methods, and other various tools. This paper first reviews a snapshot of the different approaches to study designers and their processes. Once the current basis is established, the paper explores directions for future or expanded research in this rich and critical area of designer thinking. A variety of data may be collected, and related to both the process and the outcome (designs). But there are still no standards for designing, collecting and analyzing data, partly due to the lack of cognitive models and theories of designer thinking. Data analysis is tedious and the rate of discoveries has been slow. Future studies may need to develop computer based data collection and automated analyses, which may facilitate collection of massive amounts of data with the potential of rapid advancement of the rate of discoveries and development of designer thinking cognitive models. The purpose of this paper is to provide a roadmap to the vast literature for the benefit of new researchers, and also a retrospective for the community.

show abstract

Design discipline and the significance of visuo-spatial thinking

Cited by 25 publications

References 3 publications

Inspiration choices that matter: the selection of external stimuli during ideation

Inspiration choices that matter: the selection of external stimuli during ideation

Inspiration peak: exploring the semantic distance between design problem and textual inspirational stimuli

Empirical Studies of Designer Thinking: Past, Present, and Future

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About