View in EDS

Do Design Sketches Tell Us How Designers' Ideas Are Related? A Comparison of Functional Similarity Assessment and Designer Concept Mapping.

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Title: Do Design Sketches Tell Us How Designers' Ideas Are Related? A Comparison of Functional Similarity Assessment and Designer Concept Mapping.
Authors: Das, Madhurima1 jmeza@mit.edu, Meza, Jessica2 lgunther@andrew.cmu.edu, Gunther, Lucy3, Yang, Maria C.2 mcyang@mit.edu
Source: Journal of Mechanical Design. May2026, Vol. 148 Issue 5, p1-15. 15p.
Subjects: Concept mapping, Tablet computers, Association of ideas, Engineering design, Creative thinking
Abstract: As design evolves, there is great interest in using new design tools to evaluate and interpret design artifacts such as sketches. This study explores whether or not assessing sketches for functional similarity is an effective way of understanding how designers' ideas are related to one another. This work studies the influence of digital tablets for sketching on concept evolution patterns and investigates whether sketches made on tablets provide a more accurate picture of how designers' ideas are related than sketches made on paper. We explore differences between designers' understanding of how their ideas are related and the way that interrelatedness is represented in their sketches as standalone artifacts. We also ask if there are any differences in designers and design reviewers' assessments of concept evolution patterns between tablet and paper sketching. We find that designers' and design reviewers' assessments of idea interrelatedness did not match, which implies that looking at sketches alone is not enough for understanding a designer's ideation process. Rather, there needs to be communication between the designer and the observer to understand the full extent of relations between concepts. We also find no difference between sketching tools in the level of agreement between designers' assessments of their ideas and design reviewers' assessment of sketches. All in all, these results point to the idea that assessing functional similarity alone may not be enough to claim full understanding of the relationship between a series of concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Copyright of Journal of Mechanical Design is the property of American Society of Mechanical Engineers and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
Database: Engineering Source
FullText Text:
  Availability: 0
Header DbId: egs
DbLabel: Engineering Source
An: 192950406
AccessLevel: 6
PubType: Academic Journal
PubTypeId: academicJournal
PreciseRelevancyScore: 0
IllustrationInfo
Items – Name: Title
  Label: Title
  Group: Ti
  Data: Do Design Sketches Tell Us How Designers' Ideas Are Related? A Comparison of Functional Similarity Assessment and Designer Concept Mapping.
– Name: Author
  Label: Authors
  Group: Au
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Das%2C+Madhurima%22">Das, Madhurima</searchLink><relatesTo>1</relatesTo><i> jmeza@mit.edu</i><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Meza%2C+Jessica%22">Meza, Jessica</searchLink><relatesTo>2</relatesTo><i> lgunther@andrew.cmu.edu</i><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Gunther%2C+Lucy%22">Gunther, Lucy</searchLink><relatesTo>3</relatesTo><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Yang%2C+Maria+C%2E%22">Yang, Maria C.</searchLink><relatesTo>2</relatesTo><i> mcyang@mit.edu</i>
– Name: TitleSource
  Label: Source
  Group: Src
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="JN" term="%22Journal+of+Mechanical+Design%22">Journal of Mechanical Design</searchLink>. May2026, Vol. 148 Issue 5, p1-15. 15p.
– Name: Subject
  Label: Subjects
  Group: Su
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Concept+mapping%22">Concept mapping</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Tablet+computers%22">Tablet computers</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Association+of+ideas%22">Association of ideas</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Engineering+design%22">Engineering design</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Creative+thinking%22">Creative thinking</searchLink>
– Name: Abstract
  Label: Abstract
  Group: Ab
  Data: As design evolves, there is great interest in using new design tools to evaluate and interpret design artifacts such as sketches. This study explores whether or not assessing sketches for functional similarity is an effective way of understanding how designers' ideas are related to one another. This work studies the influence of digital tablets for sketching on concept evolution patterns and investigates whether sketches made on tablets provide a more accurate picture of how designers' ideas are related than sketches made on paper. We explore differences between designers' understanding of how their ideas are related and the way that interrelatedness is represented in their sketches as standalone artifacts. We also ask if there are any differences in designers and design reviewers' assessments of concept evolution patterns between tablet and paper sketching. We find that designers' and design reviewers' assessments of idea interrelatedness did not match, which implies that looking at sketches alone is not enough for understanding a designer's ideation process. Rather, there needs to be communication between the designer and the observer to understand the full extent of relations between concepts. We also find no difference between sketching tools in the level of agreement between designers' assessments of their ideas and design reviewers' assessment of sketches. All in all, these results point to the idea that assessing functional similarity alone may not be enough to claim full understanding of the relationship between a series of concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
– Name: AbstractSuppliedCopyright
  Label:
  Group: Ab
  Data: <i>Copyright of Journal of Mechanical Design is the property of American Society of Mechanical Engineers and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.</i> (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
PLink https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=egs&AN=192950406
RecordInfo BibRecord:
  BibEntity:
    Identifiers:
      – Type: doi
        Value: 10.1115/1.4069970
    Languages:
      – Code: eng
        Text: English
    PhysicalDescription:
      Pagination:
        PageCount: 15
        StartPage: 1
    Subjects:
      – SubjectFull: Concept mapping
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Tablet computers
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Association of ideas
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Engineering design
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Creative thinking
        Type: general
    Titles:
      – TitleFull: Do Design Sketches Tell Us How Designers' Ideas Are Related? A Comparison of Functional Similarity Assessment and Designer Concept Mapping.
        Type: main
  BibRelationships:
    HasContributorRelationships:
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Das, Madhurima
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Meza, Jessica
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Gunther, Lucy
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Yang, Maria C.
    IsPartOfRelationships:
      – BibEntity:
          Dates:
            – D: 01
              M: 05
              Text: May2026
              Type: published
              Y: 2026
          Identifiers:
            – Type: issn-print
              Value: 10500472
          Numbering:
            – Type: volume
              Value: 148
            – Type: issue
              Value: 5
          Titles:
            – TitleFull: Journal of Mechanical Design
              Type: main
ResultId 1