Understanding senior design students' product conceptual design activities - A comparison between industrial and engineering design students

Abstract

This thesis aims to explore the cognitive processes behind product conceptual design. The designing processes of final-year of industrial design and mechanical design students were studied for two different classes of design requirements; one targeted the design for the existing market and the other was a visionary task for the future market. The protocol analysis methodology was employed as the primary investigation means. Results show that design cognition is influenced by both design disciplines and types of design tasks. In particular, the between-discipline differences seemed to be larger than between-task differences. It implies that, though design students adjust their strategies in response to different tasks, their educational background is the main factor influenced how they approach specific design problems. In terms of the designing styles, industrial design students demonstrated a problem-focused approach and were more concerned with the purpose of designs being produced; whereas engineering students were focused on the solution development.