Structuring Design Problem Space throughout the Design Process

The solution of the today\u27s complex design problems needs teams instead of individual design experts. “How does a designer design?” is a key research topic in design methodologies after the 1960s. Recently, the question “How do designers design together?” gains more interest. Design processes basically consists of problem space and solution space. Although it is not easy to separate those two spaces it can be stated that divergence and convergence thinking are occurring simultaneously all over the design problem solving process. Problem space is a cognitive progress which aims defining and structuring design problem by considering constraints and requirements related to the design issue. Mainly most of the design knowledge implicit and need to be configured through the design problem solving process. In this study is conducted in order to understand the cognitive patterns of the design problem structuring processes and formation of the decisions given during conceptual design phase. Developing and structuring of the design problem is vital for the design solution because the boundaries of the design solution space are determined at this stage. Each decision taken in defining design problem excludes a number of possible alternative design solutions which might be the more effective result. From these point design decisions, particularly problem definition decisions, have been analyzed and the cognitive patterns have been revealed. The research based on protocol analysis method to explore structural components and patterns of cognitive behaviors. The study of a design team by analyzing design problems, in relation to problem structuring activities, needs deeply analysis of every cognitive behaviors of the designers within team. To analyze the problem structuring among the design process first it is needed to separate every meaningful mental behavior that occur during the teamwork. After defining cognitive segments, every segments coded with a Coding schema that enables to identify diversity of cognitive acts. Study concentrated on two goals: Determining number and frequency of problem structuring activities, Analyzing the cognitive patterns of design problem structuring Furthermore a theoretical framework for problem structuring have been proposed depending on the results gained form the empirical study