How designers transform keywords into visual images

摘要

In this paper, we describe two experiments for examining how designers think with drawings in order to generate visual images of the design object. In the first experiment, we assigned to subjects the task of designing a chair, which evokes a 'sad image'. An assumption of our work, based on previous experiments, is that an abstract keyword is more difficult to apply to a visual image of the design than using a concrete keyword. From the results of this experiment, several different paths in the thinking process were found and we concluded that the creative thinking process needs a high abstract level in transforming a goal description to its corresponding visual image. In the second experiment, the aim was to understand more details of the creative thinking process. We monitored the subjects' drawing process by using video cameras from two different angles. In this experiment, we adopted a method whereby the subjects verbalized about their actions during the design process. Based up the results ofthis experiment, we found several different search modes in the subjects' thinking processes. Finally, we propose a general thinking path model of creative design.