Analogies in design decision-making

Design is becoming the decisive factor in whether a product is a commercial success, like Windows XP, or a critical failure, like Microsoft Bob. To leverage this factor we need to have a greater understanding of the cognitive processes behind Interaction Design. While there are a wide array of disciplines that fall under the umbrella of design, there are several cognitive processes that are common to all strata of design. Decision Making has been identified as an important factor in the design process but remains woefully under-explored. This paper aims to understand Design Decision-making (DDM) in the light of more recent developments in the wider decision-making field. Two studies were conducted, consisting of an initial theoretical thematic analysis to update the outdated models of design decision-making, and a follow-up quantitative study to validate the findings of the first study. Results indicate that while the current models of DDM do well to explain elements of the decision-making process they do not account for such things as the persistence of analogies across all stages of the decision-making process.