The differences between retrospective and concurrent protocols in revealing the process-oriented aspects of the design process

Abstract This paper presents the results of studying a single designer using protocol analyses and examines the implications of the results on studies of design thinking. It contrasts two types of protocols: concurrent protocols and retrospective protocols. The results indicate that concurrent and retrospective protocols both produce very similar outcomes in terms of exploring the process-oriented aspects of designing. As a result, it is argued there is no associated interference with the ongoing design process when using concurrent protocols.

[1]  John S. Gero,et al.  An approach to the analysis of design protocols , 1998 .

[2]  Donald A. Schön,et al.  The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. , 1987 .

[3]  Herbert A. Simon,et al.  The Sciences of the Artificial , 1970 .

[4]  John S. Gero,et al.  Understanding conceptual electronic design using protocol analysis , 1998 .

[5]  G. Goldschmidt.  The dialectics of sketching , 1991 .

[6]  Masaki Suwa,et al.  Macroscopic analysis of design processes based on a scheme for coding designers' cognitive actions , 1998 .

[7]  D. Broadbent,et al.  On the Relationship between Task Performance and Associated Verbalizable Knowledge , 1984 .

[8]  Jane Darke,et al.  The primary Generator and the Design Process , 1979 .

[9]  J. Dill,et al.  Intelligent computer aided design , 1993 .

[10]  Herbert A. Simon,et al.  Why a Diagram is (Sometimes) Worth Ten Thousand Words , 1987, Cogn. Sci..

[11]  Nigel Cross,et al.  Analysing design activity , 1996 .

[12]  P. Lloyd,et al.  Can concurrent verbalization reveal design cognition , 1995 .

[13]  D. Schoen,et al.  The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action , 1985 .

[14]  Donald A. Sch.  The reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action , 1983 .

[15]  K. A. Ericsson,et al.  Protocol Analysis: Verbal Reports as Data , 1984 .

[16]  John S. Gero,et al.  Behaviour: A link between function and structure in design , 1992 .

[17]  Kees Dorst,et al.  Comparing paradigms for describing design activity , 1995 .

[18]  Masaki Suwa,et al.  What do architects and students perceive in their design sketches? A protocol analysis , 1997 .

[19]  Maarten van Someren,et al.  The Think Aloud Method: A Practical Guide to Modelling Cognitive Processes , 1994 .