PATTERNS OF TACIT KNOWLEDGE BASED ON

GRAPHIC THINKING IN PRODUCT DESIGN

LUO Shijian¹  PAN Yunhe¹  ZHU Shangshang²

(1. College of Computer Science and Technology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027;
2. College of Arts, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310023 )

Abstract: From industrial design, an approach of graphic thinking is proposed to study users’ and designers’ patterns of tacit knowledge in product design. The concepts and attributes of graphic thinking are introduced and explored. Taken the sporting mobile phone form design as an example, protocol analysis is adopted with graphic thinking in three experiments to analyze users’ and designers’ tacit knowledge presentation processes from abstract level to concrete level. Based on data offered by the experiments, two types and patterns of tacit knowledge in the scheme design about form are proposed, and the relation with design requirements and design results is discussed. The findings show that: ① There is a distinct difference between users’ patterns and designers’ patterns of tacit knowledge. ② Users are apt to presentation by image, designers are apt to both image and abstract. ③ Users’ tacit knowledge representation is intermittent, but designers’ is continuous and reticular.

Key words: Product design Graphic thinking Tacit knowledge Sketch Protocol analysis

CLC No: TH166

国家自然科学基金(60503068), 国家高技术研究发展计划(863计划, 2006AA04Z103)和浙江省自然科学基金(Y104256, M603059)资助项目. Received 20061031, received in revised form 20070122