Design Thinking: A Method or a Gateway into Design Cognition?

摘要

The main claim launched in Lindgaard and Wesselius’s paper1 is that design thinking should be (re)considered in light of current developments in cognitive science, particularly theories of metaphor and embodied cognition. As the title of their article suggests, they conclude that design thinking must relate to feelings more than has been the case up to now. Here I will distinguish between different construals of design thinking, and address the term from a design point of view—albeit one divorced from the methodological meaning it has acquired in recent years. I will also consider the role of comparisons as carriers of meaning in design ideation, and comment on the significance of analogy alongside metaphor, with an emphasis on good fit. These musings I also relate to embodiment and visual thinking, especially sketching.