Expertise and the use of visual analogy: implications for design education

Casakin, H. & Goldschmidt, G.

A challenge of design education is the question of how to help designers develop skills in design problem-solving. How can designers be taught to use relevant prior knowledge to solve new design problems? To answer this question we must know more about differences between experts and novices regarding the use of prior knowledge to solve ill defined problems. In design, visual analogy is used as a powerful problem-solving strategy; the evidence, however, is hitherto mostly anecdotal. In this study our objective is to determine empirically whether, and how, the use of visual analogy can improve design problem-solving by both novice and expert designers. Our results indicate that the use of visual analogy improves the quality of design across the board, but is particularly significant in the case of novice designers. These findings lead to conclusions regarding design training and education.

Visual typology in design: a computational view

Assessing the use of metaphors in the design process

Casakin, H. Assessing the use of metaphors in the design process. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 2006, volume 33, pages 253 ^ 268

Metaphors enable the understanding of a concept in terms of another concept which is generally not associated with it. In problem-solving tasks, reasoning by metaphors has a significant
influence in the development of innovative ideas. In the design domain metaphors help to structure thinking, and represent situations from a new viewpoint. Despite the frequent use of metaphors in design practice, no empirical work has studied in depth the role played by metaphors during the whole design process. In this research the aid and complexity of the use of metaphors are explored in the different phases of the design process. These phases deal with the definition of design concepts and framing of design situations, the generation of goals and constraints, and the mapping and application of structural relationships to the design problem.

City games as a framework for studying spatial information and the dynamics of urban design

Casakin, H. (2008). "City Games as a Framework for Studying Spatial Information and the Dynamics of Urban Design". From Negation to Negotiations – Solving the Puzzles of Development. In P. Maiti (Ed.). Pragun - DK Publishers Distributors, New Delhi. pp. 353-374.

Cognitive mapping is presented as an approach to analyze the interplay between internal and external spatial information during urban design activity. City Games is proposed for analyzing spatial information in a simulated urban environment, and for gaining insight in the dynamics of city development. Empirical results showed that students purposefully created spatial structures in the city according to clearly identifiable cluster formations. Two main cognitive strategies dealing with cluster after-cluster, and cluster-simultaneity developments were identified during the process of constructing a city. Each cognitive strategy generated different spatial organization patterns of the city.

What Features and Structural Relationships Make the Streets of Tel Aviv City Being a Legible? An Urban Design Perspective

Casakin, H. and Omer, I. (2008) "What Features and Structural Relationships make the Streets of Tel Aviv City being Legible? An Urban Design Perspective". From Negation to Negotiations – Solving the Puzzles of Development. In P. Maiti (Ed.). Pragun DK Publishers Distributors, New Delhi. pp. 375-391.

The way people represent visual information of an environment reflects the mental image that they have about it. The legibility of physical environments like cities has a strong influence on that the quality of such mental image. Two empirical tasks were conducted in order to study what are features and structural relationships that contribute to the imageability and visual quality of the streets of Tel Aviv city. Q-analysis was used as a methodological approach to assess visual information retrieved from sketch maps, and from a survey carried out by students. Results showed paths were the most imageable urban elements, followed by landmarks and nodes. Districts and border have a low-imageability. Additional findings that revealed that high-legible paths have combined features like: large number of business and offices, visible landmarks, major road system, public transportation, and easy accessibility. In contrast, low-legible streets were primarily characterized by the existence of repetitive dwelling buildings, vegetation, and a secondary importance in the city network. Under an urban design viewpoint, the study of relationships among the features of paths enabled to enhance our understanding on the spatial quality of the urban environment. Moreover, it provided an insight for designing more legible environments.

Metaphors in Design Problem Solving: Implications for Creativity

Casakin, H. (2007) "Metaphors in Design Problem-Solving: Implications for Creativity". The International Journal of Design. Vol. 1, No 2, pp.23-35.

Metaphors help designers to understand unfamiliar design problems by juxtaposing them with known situations. Retrieving concepts from metaphors demands creative thinking. While the importance of this heuristic has been acknowledged in design, more research is needed to appreciate its contribution to design practice. This investigation aims to assess metaphor use by students in design problem solving, with a particular focus on design creativity. Relationships between factors of creativity and factors of metaphors were submitted for statistical analyzes. Findings show that innovation is the most significant factor characterizing design creativity, followed by utility and aesthetics.
On the other hand, the synthesis of design solutions is the stronger factor of the use of metaphors, and conceptual thinking the weakest. Results also demonstrate that metaphors play an important role in design creativity. Analysis of design problems was the predictor that had a unique contribution to innovation and general creativity.

Factors of design problem-solving and their contribution to creativity

Casakin, H. (2008) "Factors of Design Problem-Solving and their Contribution to Creativity". Open House International, Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 46-60.

Design problems are unique, complex, and ambiguous. They are considered to be non-routine and ill-structured.
Since these kinds of problems require the production of innovative solutions, design problem-solving involves creative
thinking. Creativity is concerned with the capacity to restructure old ideas to produce novel solutions, and the ability to search for unusual design alternatives that transcend the known and familiar. In the recent years, there were attempts to gain insight in problem-solving activities that demand creativity, such as design. A question addressed in the current empirical research is how design students assess creativity in architectural design while solving housing problems. Redefining the role of housing in the contemporary city was a main concern. Major factors of design problem-solving, and their contribution to creativity are analyzed.
Results revealed that restructuring of housing design problems was the most significant factor of design problem solving, followed by search of design solutions. Retrieval of prior knowledge from memory was the weakest factor.
Furthermore, innovation was the most significant factor characterizing design creativity, followed by utility and aesthetics. Additional findings showed that restructuring of housing problems was the most correlated factor, and the predictor that had a unique contribution to all creativity factors. Search of housing solutions was a predictor that contributed mainly to innovation.

Individual learning styles and design performance in the metaphorical reasoning process

Casakin, H. & Miller, K. (2008) "Individual Learning Styles and Design Performance in the Metaphorical Reasoning Process". Accepted for publication in the Journal of Design Research.

Metaphor plays a key role in design practice. By framing problems in particular ways, metaphors not only impose structure on a design but they also determine the interpretations that can be made and approaches that can be taken. With the metaphorical reasoning process also requiring a wide range of skills essential for design, metaphors are suggested as a key area for investigating competencies that students may lack and, therefore, as a means of helping instructors direct support for individuals in the design studio. Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory (ELT), and the notion of learning styles, is proposed as a means of exploring the role of these competencies in different
phases of metaphorical reasoning, and for different kinds of individual learning tendencies. These relationships are then stated as hypotheses to be used in further investigations. Finally,
recommendations for design education are suggested.

Place attachment as a funciton of meaning assignment

Casakin, H. & Kreitler, S. (2008) "Place Attachment as a Function of Meaning Assignment". The Open Environmental Journal, Vol. 2, No.2, pp. 93-100.

By interacting with their environments individuals create bonds and links. In the course of this interaction, anonymous spaces are converted into places endowed with meaning, which serve as objects of attachment. Attachment is defined as a construct representing mainly the emotional bond to a location, but which includes also cognitions and meaning, and is related to personality tendencies of the individual. In this study, information processing tendencies of different
aspects of place attachment were investigated. Information processing tendencies were defined in terms of the
Meaning Theory that deals with identifying cognitive processes involved in the performance of diverse acts and were assessed by means of the Meaning Test. A focus was set on four aspects of place attachment dealing with: preferences for open or closed spaces, grasping place atmospheres, considering the matching of places to actions, and caring about orientation in space. These attitudes were assessed by a Likert-type questionnaire. The participants were 36 architecture students. Associations between place attachment and information processing tendencies were analyzed by t-tests. Results showed significant and meaningful relations between aspects of place attachment and processing tendencies. Implications for environmental design are proposed.

Correspondences and divergences between teachers and students in the evaluation of design creativity in the design studio

Casakin, H. and Kreitler, S. Correspondences and divergences between teachers and students in the evaluation of design creativity in the design studio. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 2008, volume 35, pages 666 ^ 678

The assessment of design creativity is a fundamental issue in the educational curriculum in schools of architecture. Assessment in the form of criticism is carried out in the design studio, where students acquire skills and knowledge, forge judgments about their design outcomes, and get feedback from their instructors. This study focuses on the assessment of creativity in design problem solving.
The major objective of this research was to test to what extent architects and design students share the same conceptions of creativity, and how similar they are. Contrasting differences were found between the two groups.While architects focused on innovation aspects, students paid more attention to operational aspects, such as dealing with design requirements. It is maintained that handling these
differences by means of intervention programs in the design studio may promote the acquisition of design processes and procedures by the students, and also that, it will contribute to bridging the gap between the way teachers and students perceive and evaluate design creativity.

Design Aided By Visual Displays: A Cognitive Approach

The use of visual displays is seen as a supportive tool for solving design problems.Throughout the design process, and particularly in the early stages of the process, designers are exposed to vast collections of visual displays. These are external representations, i.e., pictures, diagrams, or sketches, which provide designers with helpful explicit and non explicit references. Despite the importance of this pictorial
material, only a small number of researches have dealt with the spontaneous use of visual displays as an aid in design problem solving when no instruction to use analogy is given. Furthermore, no studies have been conducted to examine whether visual displays play a more significant role in solving ill-defined or well-defined design problems. The main goal of this work is to empirically research the use of visual displays in these two problem contexts, by studying the design process of groups of designers with different levels of expertise. Findings showed that both experts and
novices profited from the use of visual displays in ill-defined design problem solving, resulting in a significant enhacement of the quality of design solutions. Additional results showed that visual displays did aid experts, but not novices, to improve their performance in solving well-defined design problems. These findings may have Design Aided By Visual Displays: A Cognitive Approach consequences for design education. It is suggested that practicing with a large number
of within-domain visual displays (which belong to the same or very close realm of the problem) and a large collection of between-domain visual sources (which belong to a different or remote realm of the problem) can help designers in general, and novices in particular, to spontaneously retrieve meaningful information, and to enhance their design abilities.

M E T A P H O R S A S A N U N C O N V E N T I O N A L R E F L E C T I V E A P P R O A C H IN A R C H I T E C T U R A L D E S I G NN

Casakin, H. Metaphors as an unconventional reflective approach in architectural design. T H E D E S I G N J O U R N A L , V O L U M E 9 , I S S U E 1. PP. 37-50

Metaphors affect the way designers think, perceive, conceptualize and organize their knowledge. The vague character of metaphors allows for capturing the essence of a problem under different perspectives. In the design domain, this cognitive strategy can help to reflect on a problem situation and restructure it anew. This is particularly relevant in design problem-solving which by definition is illstructured.
Empirical research dealing with the use of metaphors as a supportive design tool was carried out. The investigation enabled an insight into the way metaphors helped students, and into the knowledge gained from the application of this tool in design problem-solving. Moreover, it was possible to identify
what were the most frequent difficulties found during the process, and what could be the role of metaphorical thinking in future design tasks. Metaphors are proposed as an alternative reflective approach and as an educational tool for the development of design skills.

Individual learning styles and design performance in the metaphorical reasoning process

Casakin, H. & Miller, K. Journal of Design Research, Vol. 7, No. 3, 2008

Metaphor plays a key role in design practice. By framing problems in particular ways, metaphors not only impose structure on a design, but also determine the interpretations that can be made and approaches that can be taken. With the metaphorical reasoning process also it requires a wide range of skills essential for design, metaphors are suggested as a key area for investigating competencies that students may lack and therefore, as a means of helping instructors direct support for individuals in the design studio. Kolb’s
experiential learning theory, and the notion of learning styles, is proposed as a means of exploring the role of these competencies in different phases of metaphorical reasoning and for different kinds of individual learning tendencies. These relationships are then stated as hypotheses to be used in
further investigations. Finally, recommendations for design education are suggested.