Phenomenon Three:

Every medium possesses different characteristics that lead the analogical thinking process and design results to become diverse. It found that conventional media could assemble the analogical ideas and the computer media could broaden the possibilities of analogical thinking.

In this section, the author discusses how the characteristics of media affect analogical thinking process. Different characteristics of design media offer the variability of analogical thinking process. It could change the design process and design result. In this research, the author discusses analogical thinking in conventional media and computer tools. It found that using conventional media improves to collects different analogical ideas together, and using computer media can make the design result more variously.

According to previous review, many features of conventional media are very different from computer applications. The conventional media could help designers generate many sketches that learn the form of analogical source, capture the analogical features, or use them to develop design. It also means that designers using conventional media spend more time on mapping stage, which is pondering process. They spend much time on sketching sketches and diagrams. The freehand sketch possesses the characteristic of dense, ambiguous, and amorphous that can stimulate the ideas collection. In addition, the freehand sketch could be modified easier and draw faster than computer media that help designers change their thinking through simple sketching faster. At the beginning they draw some diagrams which are similar to the source organisms and finished off these diagrams with a few deft strokes of the brush. Because these free strokes contain the train of thought of the designers, every stroke may be the inspiration of the next sketch and designers could find interesting information form these diagrams. Then, they apply this information to draw new diagrams and transfer the original source to a new condition. The sketches they draw are gradually far from the original appearance of the source organisms to their own design concept.

For example, fig 4.2.3 a is the mapping process of subject B. He draws the jellyfish’s shape at firstly. He learns and copies the form of jellyfish to gain some source information. Next, he generates several diagrams to study jellyfish’s characteristics to not only improve his understanding about jellyfish but also stimulate his design ideas and combine these ideas together. It is the process that the designer learns the jellyfish’s form to transform it into his spatial analogy and integrate them into final concept. Fig 4.2.3 a is similar mapping process of subject A.

Fig 4.2.3 a the mapping process of subject B

Fig 4.2.3 b the mapping process of subject A

Therefore, designers using conventional media can draw many sketches and diagrams, and gather many analogical ideas together at one time. Assembling keywords and sketching sketches lead to designers clarify their various analogical ideas and improve their personal ability to integrate these ideas. After combining the ideas and accreting the analogical relationships, they start to generate their design concept and present the definite analogical transfers on the paper. It is also the main reason that most specific analogical ideas appear in latter stages on whole design process.

The studying method in conventional media helps designers to clean their thought and gather together the analogical ideas, but it could not aid to draw more complex design and has difficulties to present sense of three-dimensional space. The freehand sketch shows the design by only one angle and the real three-dimensional space still only exist in designer’s mind.

While the designer tries to draw complicated concept, the perceptual ambiguity of conventions sketching may occur when multiple two-dimensional views are used to represent more complex objects. Subject B using conventional media only finish his conceptual design in ambiguous condition since it is difficult to precisely present the complex concept through two-dimensional sketch, such as the flexible shape which could be changed freely. Thus, the final result of his design is too abstract to comprehend and the author could not understand easily without his explanation.

Fig 4.2.3 c Ambiguity of conventions sketching

Subject B also meets other difficulties in design process and try another possibility. He gets a revolving feature of jellyfish life history and tries to apply this feature to his design, but he draws some diagrams and could not develop his idea with sketching. Finally, he abandons the idea and chooses other new idea to develop his design.

Fig 4.2.3 d Difficulties of manipulate complex concept

Moreover, designing with conventional media reduce possibilities of spatial transformation because the next sketch come from the previous sketches. The final result is the accumulation of the previous works. It is difficult that the final result has huge differences from the designer’s expectation at first. In addition, the thinking with conventional media is abstract because designer draw their sketches with few angles and the blur lines are difficult to ascertain their design concept.

As given above, conventions sketching make designers draw many diagrams or sketches.

However, it becomes easier to consider the shape as a preliminary one which is under constant revision, rather than as a fixed shape. Therefore, computer media make the analogical thinking process become different from the traditional process.

According to phenomenon two, analogical thinking using computer media has very different process from conventions sketching. The designers use computer media to expand their design with only one model, and add every analogical idea to their design in different phase of design process. They seek a key analogy to start to generate their design and then add put other transfers individually in whole process. In addition, designers using conventional sketching spend much time on sketching many sketching which process also called mapping

process, but they using computer media sometimes consume much time on trying that is involved in the learning stages in analogical thinking process.

Computer media improve the possibilities and diversities of design results. When designers generate their design with conventional media, what they draw affects their next step of their design. It is a step by step process that the final design result is decided by the previous study.

Every word they write, every stroke they draw and every move they make influence their design result. The concepts are developed gradually by the designers. However, computer allows the designer to explore numerous creative solutions to problems, overcoming design fixation or limitation of conventional wisdom by generating these alternative solutions for the designer. When designers create their design with computer media, they know the design direction but cannot expect the possible final result about their design. The designers proficient at computer media manipulate the application’s commands and parameters to change the form or other spatial functions. Using mathematical algorithms, the computing tool has an enormous capacity to describe things of extremely diverse nature. For example, one function of three-dimensional application, a NURBS (non-uniform rational B-splines) modeller, means that 3D free-form organic surfaces and solids can be created intuitively and quickly at the early design stage, a serious limitation of the traditional polygon modellers.

When designers adjust a parameter or input a command, the design may become a new look that they cannot imagine before it. Figure 4.2.3 e shows that Subject B change the shape of his model by control parameter.

Fig 4.2.3 e Subject B change the shape of his model by control parameter

Nevertheless, computer has its own limitation. The character of computer broadens analogical transfers but it is only for some designers conversant with one or more complex applications.

The better analogical thinking design is not only affected by the designer’s ability but also influenced by familiarization of computer media. The more commands or parameters the designers know how to use, the more analogical possibilities they show. To cite one example, subject A and subject B handle the computer applications well and both of they use 3Ds Max

to be their main design media. 3Ds Max possesses complex interface and has sorts of functions to build any kinds of models. Both of them often design with only computer and think the computer media make their design results more deeply and broadly. They finish their design with a complete model and their analogical design is complicated than their previous one with conventional media. In contrast, the design situation of subjects differ from Subject A and B. Subject C indicates that the thinking process of two phases is similar. Even in different media, he captures the same kinds of spatial key words from the source material and connects them with design topic. But the limitation of Sketch Up which the application he use does not proficient at generate free form sharp, he has difficulties in creating the imaginary sharp which he want with only computer media. It is an obstacle to interrupt his analogical thinking.

Table 4.2.3 f shows the tools and applications that three subjects use and indicates the obstacles some of them encounter in design process.

Phase one( conventional media) Phase two( computer)

A Fountain pen 3Ds Max

He could not create the image he really holds in mind with computer.

Table 4.2.3 f Obstacles the subjects encounter at design process

Table 4.2.3 g shows the analogical ideas that three subjects generate in two phase. Subject C generate more analogical ideas with conventional media. Subject A and subject B generate more analogical ideas with computer.

Phase One ( conventional media) Phase Two (computer)

P F Fu Str Fr Sum P F Fu Str Fr Sum

A 1 1 3 1 0 6 2 1 5 3 0 11

B 1 2 1 2 0 6 3 3 2 1 0 9

C 3 1 6 1 0 11 2 1 2 2 0 7

Table 4.2.3g

Moreover, because the designers need to spend much time on different analogical possibilities, the process is more time consuming. Designers spend much time on studying different commands or parameters to pursuit their design results. On the other hand, they also spend much time on observe their design model and rotate their model with different view or scale.

The computer media could help designers know more about the relationship of space and spatial dimensions. Designer can examine their design models with different scale and view.

It also helps the designer build complex model.