The Unknown Position of Intuition in Design Activity

Abstract

Although the concept of intuition is quite popular within design research today, it still needs to be thoroughly investigated. The paper in this sense aims to discuss the concept of intuition and examine how designerly activities resonate with the well-known theories on intuition. Inspired by Sinclair's 'integrated framework of intuition', this study aims to conceptualize a framework, then identify intuitive functions as direct matching, associative matching, incremental synthesis and radical synthesis. Those theoretical assumptions are then tested with an exploratory study by tracing the design behaviours of novice and expert designers. By doing this, the paper seeks to reveal 'design moves' that go hand in hand with the cognitive features of intuition. In a broader perspective, this study aims to contribute to the theory of intuition and thus provide an alternative perspective to the 'unprincipled' behaviours of the designer.