A Distributed Approach to Design Sketching

Abstract

There has been much work towards understanding design sketching, its role and utility for design thinking. However, there remains little explanatory theory to structure our discussion of sketching and its importance. Drawing upon reflective practice as design paradigm and adopting a distributed theory of mind, I position sketching as distribution of design thinking. I provide an operational definition of the design sketch as particular type of design representation that includes sketch as articulation of future solution opportunities, variation in the expression of design intent through representational ambiguity, and the sketch as iconic representation. I locate the design sketch through a distributed lens to better illustrate its relation to design thinking in practice. The article contributes as framework and thesis argument for a distributed approach to understand design thinking through sketching. The paper concludes by providing a theoretical foundation and departure point for future studies of distributed design thinking through sketching.