Design thinking via model making: Physical versus digital media

There is a relation between design tools/media and the designing. This relation affects what we design and how we design. Although there are many means of designing, the employed tools/media are very limited. Sketching is one of the significant tool/medium that has been used extensively for over the many years. Since sketching is an integral part of process the cognitive role of this tool/medium has been explored thoroughly in design studies. Those studies proved that sketching is a kind of cognitive tool/medium to think about and to reason about design. On the other hand the digital tools/media has become more prevalent than sketching and physical model-making with the aim of technological developments. Recently, numerous researches about the use of digital tools/media in design processes are being conducted. On the other hand there are limited studies about physical model-making and its cognitive aspects in the design process. There has also been interest in relationships between cognitive style, design process and design tools/media. Sketching, physical model-making and digital modeling suggest diversified means of designing. Due to their nature sketching is considered to be two dimensional compared to physical model-making and digital modeling. In this study the aim is to understand the design thinking via physical model-making and digital modeling processes. In the study reported here, a fuller analysis has been made to understand under three research topics: first, the design issues considered; second, design activities and strategies and the third, design productivity of design processes via physical model-making and digital modeling. The data from protocol studies of three experienced architects, performing similar tasks both on physical model-making and digital modeling, were analyzed to identify the issues stated above. The results are discussed in terms of research topics: differences and similarities in design issues, activities, strategies and productivity of physical model-making and digital modeling.