Design Thinking in Conceptual Design Processes: A Comparison Between Industrial and Engineering Design Students

Abstract

Design thinking is one of the most important issues in the fields of design research, as design expertise and creativity are mainly manifested through designers‘ cognitive processes when they are undertaking design activities, in particular during conceptual design stages [1, 2]. Majority of the design research community tend to model design thinking as a style of thinking underlining all design domains/disciplines, and complementary to scientific thinking and other non-design thinking [3-6]. Designing in fact comprises of various activities of multifac‐ eted nature [7]. Variations of the thinking styles between different types of designers have been reported in many empirical design studies [e.g., 8 10]. Literature suggests that tertiary educational programs may contribute to the characteristics of thinking styles. Lawson’s study indicates that design thinking may relate to learnt behaviors [7, 11]. Senior undergraduate architecture and science students demonstrated distinct problem solving strategies, while such disciplinary difference was not observed between first-year undergraduate architecture students and high school students [11]. Following the same rationale, this paper is interested in identifying possible effects of different design programs on shaping students’ design thinking styles and the associated design strategies.