Study on Searching-retrieving Behaviour in Designers` Ideation Process

Abstract

In design studies, many researchers argue that the designers need to perceive a great deal of visual stimuli to generate ideas in the ideation process, but how the behaviour of searching for or retrieving relevant precedents influence designers` ideation procedure seems a key issue to be explored. Therefore, this study chiefly examined the role of Searching-retrieving (S-R) behaviour throughout the ideation process through the methods of in-situ observation with six practicing graphic designers, so as to explore how designers search for reference materials to generate ideas. The findings show that first, most designers spend about one-third of their ideation time to search for or retrieve relevant reference materials and the designers tend to have this behaviour from the beginning to the end. Second, the behaviour of creating new sketches has a strong connection with searching and retrieving behaviour in the designers` ideation process, and the interaction between these two behaviours is a necessarily connective activity for designers to form ideas in the designing procedure. Third, the designers` searching and retrieving behaviour in the pre-stage and mid-stage mainly supports the function of ideas conceptualizing.