Researching the thinking process in design teams - an analysis of team communication

摘要

The thinking process of designers is not yet fully understood. Design theory and methodology [e.g. 1,2] postulate a sequence of steps that designers should follow in the process of product development. A similar sequence is postulated for general problem solving processes in cognitive psychology [3]. Our research reveals, however, that the actual thinking process of design teams seldom matches the postulated step sequence. Despite the fact that the thinking process does not follow this postulated step sequence, regularities can nonetheless be observed that shed light on the "natural" thinking process of design teams. A two-process-theory of thinking in design is being proposed capable of explaining the thinking process we have observed empirically.