A Protocol Study of Cognitive Chunking in Free-Hand Sketching During Design Ideation by Novice Designers

This paper reports a human-subject protocol study aimed to study (1) cognitive chunking during free-hand sketching of design ideas in engineering and (2) correlation between chunks and the functions of the design perceived by the designer. Voluntary participants are presented with a previously unfamiliar design problem and asked to (1) identify the intended functionality of the solution, (2) draw concept sketches of the solution structure, and (3) label the sketches. The data is captured by a smart pen: a computerized pen that records pen strokes and surrounding audio in sync . Time study of these pen strokes and naming of components reveal clear evidence of temporal clustering of pen strokes during the first two tasks, indicating that the physical structure of the design solution is perceived by the designer in small chunks, rather than in continuous streams. Further data suggest that the chunks formed during ideation are based on functional needs perceived by the designer.