Mental Imagery as a Design Tool

The role of visualization and mental imaging during the early creative phase in design problem solving is neither fully understood nor recognized. The experiment reported in this paper explores the role of imaging by using an experienced industrial designer and blindfolding him during the act of design. The results obtained clearly indicate that the subject was able to use his mental imagery to assist in his thinking process almost like other depictive displays such as sketching. The findings offer some clues to the designer's internal mental world. The designer created a virtual model in his ''mind's eye,'' manipulated and altered it, assisted all along by his hand gestures. The way he was able to willfully bend the contents of the mental images and make them behave according to his wishes during the develop ment of his ideas appears more impressive and richer than what has been documented so far in the research literature on imagery.