An Exploration of the cognitive processes of design teams to inform design education and practice - Research Paper

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by nayy☆

Study investigates cognitive processes within design teams during early product design phases to inform design education and practice. Through case studies and content analysis of team conversations across problem definition, ideation, and concept development, the research examines how creative thinking, knowledge processing, critical thinking, and metacognition are activated. Findings show creative leaps matter, yet multiple cognitive modes occur with different emphases by phase, with implications for teaching and team creativity promotion.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages20

Reading Time50 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Background

The cognitive processes in design teams

Three phases of the front end of design

Problem definition

Ideation

Concept development

An Exploration of the cognitive processes of design teams to inform design education and practice Louise Kiernan, University of Limerick, Ireland Ann Ledwith, University of Limerick, Ireland Raymond Lynch, University of Limerick, Ireland Abstract While design is associated with novelty and creativity, few studies have explored the cognitive processes employed during team interactions. Design practice is collaborative where designers work in multidisciplinary teams. Along with the cognitive skills involved in designing, designers also need skills to work in teams, share information, and negotiate decisions. The aim of this study is to understand the cognitive processes used by design teams during the early phases of product design. This study uses case studies and applies content analysis to examine the conversations of design teams during the problem definition, ideation, and concept development phases of the design process. Creativity has been described in terms of sudden bursts of ideas described as creative leaps and is associated with creative thinking. The findingsin this study shows that while creative thinking is essential to creative teams, other cognitive modes such as knowledge processing, critical thinking, and metacognition are engaged in more frequently. The emphasis of each cognitive process also varies depending on the phase of the design process. These findings have implications for how design students are educated, the skills required and how we promote creativity in design teams. Keywords Cognitive processes, creative thinking, critical thinking, metacognition, knowledge processing, design Background Creativity is the driver of competitive advantage within organizations to stay ahead of competitors (Parjanen, 2012) . While being focused on creativity, contemporary design practice demands collaborative problem-solving skills, made up of critical thinking, creativity and communication (Tang et al., 2020) . The front end of product design is typically considered to be highly creative (Bowen et al., 2016; D'souza & Dastmalchi, 2016; Guo et al., 2017) . Many problems faced by designers are ill defined and involve techniques beyond what is achievable by one discipline so are typically solved by interdisciplinary teams (Cross, 2006; Jonassen & Hung, 2008) . Recently, team design processes have gained greater attention and have focused on the social aspect of design (Bucciarelli, 1994) and on the analysis of language in design, for example,(Dong et al., 2005; Dong et al., 2013; Lloyd, 2000) . In design education, studios provide an important environment for collaborative learning where students learn to experiment and work together, using each other as a resource to iteratively generate and refine design solutions (McMahon & Kiernan, 2011; Park, 2020) . Students also experience collaboration through periodic reviews known as critiques with both tutors and other group members (Gunday Gul & Afacan, 2018) . However while there are efforts to provide collaborative projects both within and outside of the design studio, there is no agreed approach on how interdisciplinary teamwork should be implemented (Chou & Wong, 2015; Kiernan & Ledwith, 2014) facilitated or assessed within design education (Self & Baek, 2017) . Newell and Bain (2020) found that while collaboration and teamwork is recognised as being important in design education, many design educators were not knowledgeable of the cognitive and social skills required or the structures and processes necessary to facilitate collaborative team practice. Chou and Wong (2015) argue that design education must facilitate dialogue to encourage knowledge sharing and experience, to solve more complex design challenges and generate holistic solutions. However, the management of dialogue has had limited focus in education (Mercer and Littleton 2007) . Examples of such studies are; an analysis and comparison of the conversation activities between experts and nov

FAQs

What is the main aim of the study?

To understand the cognitive processes used by design teams during early phases of product design.

How does the study analyze design team work?

It uses case studies and content analysis to examine conversations during problem definition, ideation, and concept development.

Which cognitive modes are found to be used besides creative thinking?

Besides creative thinking, the study reports knowledge processing, critical thinking, and metacognition engaged more frequently, with emphasis varying by phase.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by nayy☆