Many designers find computer-based tools are not as effective during the early stages of design as manual sketching. However, to abandon the computer in these conceptual stages denies designers the computer‟s capability to translate and supplement imaginative design thinking. Recent design studies address conceptual design. What is the impact of computer-based drawing and sketching on designers‟ cognition and productive reasoning? This research focuses on the relationship between the characteristics of sketching using the drawing environment of the computer and the productivity of the conceptual design phase. I provide a theoretical framework that identifies and clarifies both sketching and productivity. Previous specialized studies are selective and sometimes only descriptive in defining this relationship. A review of these studies reveals a gap in our understanding of those aspects of sketching that relate to visualization, imagination and the generation of design ideas. The thesis addresses three objectives: (i) to build a comprehensive theoretical framework that on one hand defines the characteristics of sketching that might affect the generation of design ideas, and on the other hand defines the productivity of conceptual design and its indicators; (ii) to apply this framework in a practical study; and (iii) to extract implications for the relationship. To address the problem of computer-based sketching, I indentify the continuity within the dynamic field of images usually generated while designers sketch as the most effective characteristic of the computer sketching process. I establish a measure of continuity defined by (i) the degree of ease in projecting design images, (ii) the degree of continuity of displaying images due to changing the status of the design objects and due to navigation around the objects, (iii) the degree of provision of a holistic view (i.e., the total view of the design objects on the computer screen). Then I define productivity within this framework in terms of the cognitive operations of dialogical reinterpretation. When sketching, designers seem to perform key operations such as interpreting, reframing and restructuring. I present the case that a process rich with these cognitive operations is productive. The study makes use of the fields of free hand sketching, literature, cognitive psychology and Gestalt theory. Four indicators emerge from this study: the occurrence of pattern discovery, conceptual reinterpretation, alternation of thinking, and restructuring. I identify key variables that define the degree of continuity of the dynamic field of images which relate to designer‟s performance to verify their relationship with productivity. I study ten design participants who are given a design task that involves sketching with various CAD systems. The study involves 21 hours of recorded video analyzed using a method adapted from Goldschmidt's “linkography” tool for representing design protocols. I identify where patterns of relationships between variables exist, and where they do not apply. Not all the selected variables of continuity of the dynamic field of images, nor all the indicators of productivity in the conceptual design phase, support these patterns of relationships. This indicates that there is a special group of characteristics of sketching that maintain the pace of continuity within the dynamic field of images can improve the productivity in the conceptual phase.

Abstract This survey can be seen as quite multidisciplinary research. The basis for this study has been inapplicability of different CAD user interfaces in architectural design. The objective of this research is to improve architectural design from the creative problem-solving viewpoint, where the main goal is to intensify architectural design by using information technology. The research is linked to theory of methods, where an internal approach to design process means studying the actions and thinking of architects in the design process. The research approach has been inspired by hermeneutics. The human thinking process is divided into subconscious and conscious thinking. The subconscious plays a crucial role in creative work. The opposite of creative work is systematic work, which attempts to find solutions by means of logical inference. Both creative and systematic problem solving have had periods of predominance in the history of Finnish architecture. The perceptions in the present study indicate that neither method alone can produce optimal results. Logic is one of the tools of creativity, since the analysis and implementation of creative solutions require logical thinking. The creative process cannot be controlled directly, but by creating favourable work conditions for creativity, it can be enhanced. Present user interfaces can make draughting and the creation of alternatives quicker and more effective in the final stages of designing. Only two thirds of the architects use computers in working design, even the CAD system is being acquired in greater number of offices. User interfaces are at present inflexible in sketching. Draughting and sketching are the basic methods of creative work for architects. When working with the mouse, keyboard and screen the natural communication channel is impaired, since there is only a weak connection between the hand and the line being drawn on the screen. There is no direct correspondence between hand movements and the lines that appear on the screen, and the important items cannot be emphasized by, for example, pressing the pencil more heavily than normally. In traditional sketching the pen is a natural extension of the hand, as sketching can sometimes be controlled entirely by the unconscious. Conscious efforts in using the computer shift the attention away from the actual design process. However, some architects have reached a sufficiently high level of skill in the use of computer applications in order to be able to use them effectively in designing without any harmful effect on the creative process. There are several possibilities in developing CAD systems aimed at architectural design, but the practical creative design process has developed during a long period of time, in which case changing it in a short period of time would be very difficult. Although CAD has had, and will have, some evolutionary influences on the design process of architects as an entity, the future CAD user interface should adopt its features from the architect's practical and creative design process, and not vice versa.

A master thesis about visuaualization techniques in the lighting design process.

This is an arts-based research study on the effects of applying extensive and diverse sketching techniques to the development of a cohesive body of work, which reflects the significant and meaningful events of the artist-researcher’s life. The research techniques employed and studied consist of looking at historical exemplars, sketching, reflecting, critiquing, and revising. The results of the research were then reflected upon and applied to the field of art education in an attempt to discover the benefits for both teaching and learning in kindergarten through 12th grade curriculums.

The project is dreamed as a monumental edifice standing beside the rail corridor of South-Western Virginia. Two pairs of towers rise from the earth transitioning from squares to ellipses. The towers are cut mid-ascent to shape an eastern face, orienting the project and the rail traffic beneath. / Master of Architecture

<p>  </p> <p>Sketching is a valuable skill in engineering for representing information, developing design ideas, and communicating technical and abstract information. Design thinking is supported through sketching as a means of translating between internal and external representations, and creating shared representations of collaborative thinking. Sketching is also an important means of developing spatial abilities which are predictive of success in STEM fields. Computer-based design visualization tools have largely replaced freehand sketching in undergraduate engineering classrooms, but the shift has negatively impacted students’ design thinking and spatial reasoning skills. While many published classroom assessments of engineering and engineering design sketching skill exist, few are linked to theory of mental rotation and mental imagery, and the validity evidence for these instruments is scarce. This dissertation reports the development of a new instrument to assess sketching skills in engineering education based on spatial reasoning skills. </p> <p>The first study is a systematic literature review of engineering education literature on sketching assessment, sketching constructs and metrics were identified across existing tests, as well as cognitive theory which informed their use and wider learning contexts and purposes for sketching assessment. From content analysis after abstract and full paper sorting and review, metrics on accuracy, perspective, line quality, annotations, and aesthetics were found to be most prevalent. Cognitive skills included perceiving the sketch subject, creatively sketching ideas, using metacognition to monitor the sketching process, and communication. Sketching assessment varies by discipline and relies on feedback and scores or grades as well as expert review. </p> <p>From these findings, a new Object Assembly Test of Sketching was developed to evaluate sketching skills on 3-dimensional mental imagery and mental rotation tasks in 1- and 2-point perspective. The second study describes two rounds of pilot testing and revisions to the Object Assembly Test over Fall 2021 and Spring 2022 in two sections of an undergraduate mechanical engineering course. Initial inter-rater reliability values were low and rubric categories had inconsistent performance, and mean scores suggested line quality metrics were more difficult for students than shape quality metrics. Revisions to rubric categories were made after consulting with subject matter experts in engineering design, industrial design, and assessment, and a second round of pilot testing showed improvement in reliability between raters with similar patterns of mean scores. </p> <p>The third study presents reliability and preliminary validity evidence for the Object Assembly Test’s use in undergraduate mechanical engineering design graphics courses. Correlation and repeated-measures ANOVA were used to investigate pre-post score differences before and after sketching classroom learning intervention. A linear relationship between Object Assembly scores and intelligent tutoring software sketching metrics was also modeled for pre-post scores. Inter-rater reliability was improved through two rounds of grading and discussion. Correlations were moderately positive between scores and metrics, with more complex exercises negatively related to Speed. Post-test scores were significantly higher than pre-test scores but did not interact significantly with skill. Linear regression results showed some significant prediction of Precision and Smoothness by shape quality metrics, and a clear speed-accuracy tradeoff with negative prediction of Speed by nearly all sketching skills. </p> <p>We anticipate future use for this instrument where instructors and researchers may implement the sketching exercises and rubric in engineering classrooms alongside 3-dimensional drawing software. The Object Assembly Test can provide students with opportunities to practice perspective sketching before using computer design tools, as well as apply mental imagery and mental rotation cognition when manipulating complex solid shapes for sketching. Ongoing validation studies with this instrument will expand to a more diverse test-taking population and develop a theoretical model of mental rotation and mental imagery skills to inform object assembly sketching. </p>

This thesis is concerned with the art and act of sketching existing architecture. "Drawing an Education" refers to both educating the line by the practice and habit of drawing and to allowing the line to be the educator by drawing from buildings and places, disclosing relationships, structure and meaning. "Influence and evidence" refers to the influences that affect the process and the evidence as exhibited in a finely tuned intuition. This thesis is arranged as a three-part inquiry: • Drawing: how sketching facilitates an intimate connection between the architect and the place, the effect on the collective reality and cultural transmission, and sketching in relation to the photograph, both as a device and as a source; • Influences: how six major influences impact the drawing process, each investigated individually and in relationship to one another, both in an historical as well as a poetic context - eye and perception; interpretation; representation; hand and discipline; media and format; and the line itself; • Implications: how an architect's drawing an education through sketching the built environment is evidenced as a developed intuition and imagination. It is intended that the reader will have a greater awareness of the process of architectural sketching and be encouraged to draw more, perceive more, and understand more as he sketches along the way, as well as when he embarks on his own Grand Tour. / Master of Architecture

The way in which environmental designers design neighborhood spaces has a role to play in the quality of outdoor spaces that shapes and directs daily outdoor social activities as well as creates a bridge between individuals and the local community. The high quality design of outdoor spaces is fundamental in fostering social cohesion among users/residents in order to produce a healthy social atmosphere, whereas a decline in the quality of outdoor spaces can contribute to antisocial behavior. Today, In Jeddah City, Saudi Arabia, in many cases of new neighborhoods, the outdoor space has become abandoned, and empty, or is avoided. Within this setting, these spaces do not provide opportunities for families with their children to gather and play, to sit and socialize with neighbors, to gather in outdoor activities, to walk to the mosque or school, or to do their daily grocery shopping without being threatened by dangerous car traffic. Moreover, even if users and residents experience problems in their neighborhood, and have their own needs and visions to solve the problem, they do not have the experience to mentally visualize and resolve these problems. Through this qualitative research, the researcher proposes a new approach in incorporating users' imagination in the ideation process of design in order to examine to extend the current normative theory through the development of a more "collaborative ideation process."In this new collaborative process, the representation of ideas becomes more iterative and knowledge exchange between researcher and users becomes more seamless. Through incorporating the researcher's sketching skills as a process of "collaborative-sketching," possible ideas and solutions are explored that are responsive to the needs and desires of users. Using a number of photographs of an outdoor residential space as an example, the objective of this study is to examine the use of collaborative sketching as a way of taping into users' imagination as a rich source of their needs and desires to empower the design process. The findings showed that applying a collaborative sketching process in the early ideation stage of design can result in a rich exchange between designers and user, enabling the designer to have a better and more realistic understanding of needs and desires from the perspective of the user. Through this collaborative-sketching process, the users were continuously, iteratively, and instantly stimulated to not only to narrate their needs and desires, but to visually provide realistic and specific details about the social activities and physical elements including their affordance, rationale of using, value of use, and how social interactions might occur within the different settings. / Ph. D.

PhD / In design literature, how designers think and how they design have been identified as a reflection of how they interact with their sketches. Sketching in architectural design is still a central concern which shapes our understanding of the design process and the development of new tools. Sketching not only serves as a visual aid to store and retrieve conceptualisations, but as a medium to facilitate more ideas, and to revise and refine these ideas. This thesis examined how mental imagery and sketching is used in designing by conducting a protocol analysis study with six expert architects. Each architect was required to think aloud and design under two different conditions: one in which s/he had access to sketching and one in which s/he was blindfolded (s/he did not have access to sketching). At the end of the blindfold condition the architects were required to quickly sketch what they held in their minds. The architects were able to come up with satisfying design solutions and some reported that using their imagery could be another way of designing. The resulting sketches were assessed by judges and were found to have no significant differences in overall quality. Expert architects were able to construct and maintain the design of a building without having access to sketching. The analysis of the blindfold and sketching design protocols did not demonstrate any differences in the quantity of cognitive actions in perceptual, conceptual, functional and evaluative categories. Each architect’s cognitive structure and designing behaviour in the blindfold activity mimicked her/his cognitive structure and designing behaviour in the sketching activity. The analysis of links between the design ideas demonstrated that architects’ performance in idea development was higher under the blindfold condition, compared to their sketching condition. It was also found that architects’ blindfold design performance was improved when they were more familiar with the site layout. These results imply that expert designers may not need sketching as a medium for their reflective conversation with the situation. This study indicates that constructing internal representations can be a strong tool for designing. Future studies may show that designers may not need sketching for the generation of certain designs during the early phases of conceptual designing.

Freehand sketching is both a natural and crucial part of design, yet is unsupported by current design automation software. We are working to combine the flexibility and ease of use of paper and pencil with the processing power of a computer to produce a design environment that feels as natural as paper, yet is considerably smarter. One of the most basic steps in accomplishing this is converting the original digitized pen strokes in the sketch into the intended geometric objects using feature point detection and approximation. We demonstrate how multiple sources of information can be combined for feature detection in strokes and apply this technique using two approaches to signal processing, one using simple average based thresholding and a second using scale space.