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Design cognition: Results from protocol and other empirical studies of…
Design cognition: Results from protocol and other empirical studies of design activity (Nigel, 2001)
Study on design cognition (formulation of problem, generation of solutions, utilisation of design process strategies)
History of field
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Performance tests - under laboratory conditions, given a task and results recorded then analysed
What is design
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Working with ill-defined problems (loosely defined, could be re-defined later)
Problem formulation
Goal analysis
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Designers are solution-led, not problem-led
Designers change goals and constraints of problems; as understanding of problem develops, definition of solution proceeds
Studies found students designers spending lots of time on info gathering did not produce good quality designs; but good quality teams still seemed to set up problem, just with less info, so they can move on to next stage
Solution focusing
Move quickly on to solutions eg. scientists try to understand problem first, architects generated a series of solutions till one fit
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Problem framing
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Need a way of seeing the design situation; structure of the situation that the problem presents; like a 'guiding theme'; sets boundaries of problems and goals of solutions
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Solution generation
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Attachment to concepts
Attachment to early solutions; holds onto them as long as possible even if difficulties and shortcomings found; effort made to make them work rather than starting again
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Creativity
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Sudden Mental Insight (SMI) where you realise the 'frame of reference' (FR) you've been stuck in and break out of it while creating a new FR so that creative process is enhanced (Akin and Akin, 1996 - could be useful for glmi). They conclude creative leap is more like finding a bridge between the problem and solution
Role of sketching
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Studies in different contexts eg. Skilled sketchers of industrial design students benefitted from sketching as "externalisation of mental imagery"
Process strategy
Structured process
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Studies show some effectiveness of systematic approach but also of flexible-methodical approach - too rigid or too unsystematic led to poor designs
Only some evidence for designers following analysis-synthesis-evaluation cycles; merging and mixing up of order also found
Opportunism
'Opportunistic' deviation from plan eg. study found engineers confirming solutions in early stages cos following plan has a cognitive cost
Avoid top-down, follow train of thought
Ball and Omerod's study suggests engineers follow top-down approach but deviations like rapid exploration of one solution to assess; researchers argues this still follows top-down approach cos top-down involves alternating between depth and breath first
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Modal Shifts
Akin and Lin identified 3 modes among designers' activities: thinking, examining, drawing. Modes occurred at same time, overlapped. When novel solutions were found, designers were alternating between modes rapidly.
Novice and Experts
Novice usually associated with depth-first approach but designers are likely to use of mix of depth and breadth first
Experts treat a problem as 'harder' than novices cos keep them ill-defined instead of going for easy solutions
EEG found experts use more of their spatio-visual regions of brain while novices used more of their verbal-abstract reasoning regions of brain. Experts rely on experience and visual cues more than reasoning