Tacit knowledge in digital design: From master to student

Abstract

This paper discusses research that employed practice-led and action research methods to study the tacit knowledge of digital design practice and its application to teaching. Polanyi's theory of tacit knowledge is used to analyze the nonverbal, experience-based knowledge of masters and students to construct a discursive relationship between the practices of design and teaching. This study implemented an 8-week interface design program. Within the setting of the design studio, a series of the student's design processes/actions were created and documented. By analyzing the crucial and subsidiary knowledge of the design processes, several distinct patterns of action and thinking emerged. These patterns were synthesized into four modes of thinking, which integrate the mind, programs, skills, and materials. The outcome of the study is a preliminary model that describes digital design as a dynamic multimodal thinking process, integrating visual perception, digital technique, material actions, and expressive ways of thinking. The discussion includes a detailed description of the research methods, the data analysis, and the embodied nature of cognition in the digital design process.