Visual Analogy as a Cognitive Strategy in the Design Process. Expert Versus Novice Performance

Abstract

This study investigated the use of visual analogy in architectural design. Its purpose was to provide some understanding of the way experts and novices apply visual analogical thinking to generate satisfactory solutions during the design process. Although there are several anecdotal examples in the design literature that have reported the use of analogy, few studies have empirically explored the relationship between analogy and expertise in design problem solving. In order to provide empirical evidence, a series of controlled experiments were conducted to examine how this cognitive strategy contributed to the enhancement of design problem solving in each group of subjects. Students and architects were asked to solve a set of non-routine design problems stimulated by exposure to between-domain and within-domain visual displays, and were given explicit instructions to use analogy. Results showed that both novices and experts were able to reason by visual analogy and use deep analogs. It was found that experts identified and retrieved analogs from between-domain displays. Novices, however, identified a large number of between-domain displays, but retrieved analogs from between-domain and within-domain displays in the same measure. Novices, in contrast to experts, did not add constraints to the design problem, but produced a large number of solutions. These findings have important implications on design education. It is proposed that training novice students in the use of visual analogy can play a significant role to develop design skills in the architectural design studio. What are the differences between expert and novice performance in the domain of design? How can we help designers solve non-routine design problems while using familiar knowledge structures? The production of an unlimited number of unexpected solutions that are significantly different from earlier designs is a characteristic of non-routine design. Design problems are described as major examples of non-routine problems (Gero and Maher 1993). In design, visual analogy is a powerful problem solving strategy that can help explain new and non-routine problems in terms of familiar ones. Although there is some evidence that problem solvers have difficulty in making spontaneous use of this strategy, references concerning the use of analogy are mostly anecdotal. Moreover, differences in expertise as regards the use of visual analogy in design have rarely been reported. The main goal of this study is to provide empirical evidence regarding differences and similarities in the performance of expert and novice designers whose reasoning process involves visual analogy. Qualitative and quantitative results in the use of visual analogy during the design process are presented following a brief literature review.