Thinking through design is creative and inspiring : the why and how

• Main Authors: Leung, Angela K.-Y., Qiu, Lin
• Other Authors: School of Social Sciences
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: Social sciences::Psychology; Design Thinking; Creativity
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/146594
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The article by Karin Lindgaard and Heico Wesellius sheds a novel light on the psychology of design by applying theoretical perspectives of metaphor, embodied cognition, and visual thinking, to explicate why design thinking, or “thinking through design,” is a embodied process to induce creative solutions. It highlights that our very fundamental human cognition is in part originated from sensory perception, bodily movement, and physical interaction with the external world. These embodied experiences aid understanding of abstract concepts, sense making of complex situations, and generation of meaning and insight. Design thinking engages individuals in activities such as sketching or prototyping to make ideas visible and tangible. These strategies naturally embody abstract ideas in concrete artifacts through physically presenting, manipulating, and simulating ideas, thus making it easier to materialize solutions to design problems. Such an embodied process explains why design thinking affords the generation and actualization of creative ideations.