初探設計類比思考之三種現象- 傳統媒材與數位媒材

Abstract

類比思考在設計領域中一直扮演著重要的角色，設計師常會轉化其他領域的事物作為靈感的來源。然而在設計領域中目前尚未有一套完整的類比思考理論，其理論多半引用於其他領域。此外，設計類比思考在過去也一直與傳統媒材中的手繪做連結，鮮少探討其他媒材發展類比思考的可能性，例如近來最常被注意到的電腦媒材。因此本研究針對設計思考的議題，並從媒材的角度出發，去探討兩個問題，其一，設計領域中類比思考的共通性；其二，在傳統媒材和電腦媒材中類比思考過程的差異性。為了達到這個研究目的，本研究分成數個部分，包含邀請受測者完成兩階段實驗、以口語分析結合視覺資料來分析數據、最後提出三種現象。從實驗中的三種現象中瞭解到類比思考是一種設計者、類比來源、設計目標、和媒材的互動關係，設計者在這個過程中扮演最重要的角色，他們可以決定並轉化他們有興趣的來源，而設計者的設計能力和創意力也決定了類比的深度。媒材在這過程中扮演輔助的角色，意謂媒材可以間接的改變設計過程和設計結果，媒材本身的特質更讓類比思考過程有更多變化性。此研究結果希望對於設計領域研究設計師設計思考議題有另一個方向的認識。但因本研究為初探性質的研究，所以所選用的受測者人數較少，在未來的研究中會邀請更多設計者的參與，做更廣泛的類比思考的研究，並期望提出一套設計領域類比思考的模式。

In this research, the author proposes three phenomena of analogical thinking in design. Analogy has been ascribed a key role in the architecture design. Until now, there is no a complete theory describing how analogical thinking process works in design domain. Moreover, analogical thinking always relates to freehand sketches and rarely connects with other medium. Therefore, this research attempted to investigate the analogical thinking from the perspective of design media. Two purposes in this research are to study the common points of analogical thinking in design field, and the differences of analogical thinking process in conventional media and computer. In order to achieve the objectives, there are three parts consisted in this research including two phases of experiment, analyzing the data and addressing three phenomena of analogical thinking. According to the results of analysis, analogical thinking is an interaction between designers, analogical sources, design target, and design media. Designers play the most important role in analogical thinking process because they can choose and transfer the idea which they are interested in. The analogical depth also depends on the designer's imagination and creativity. On the other hand, the design media play a supporting role in analogical thinking process. It means that the characteristics of design media not only affect design process and design result but also offer the variability of analogical thinking design. The contribution of the research is a preliminary understanding of analogical thinking in design field. The limitation of the research is owing to few numbers of subjects and still no theory describe how analogical thinking works in this field, the author use the common research method of investigating design process. The research discusses some phenomena of analogical thinking in design field. Our further study will focus on broad approach of analogical thinking and offer a framework of analogical thinking process.