2. Design Methods

It is customary to refer the expression cognitive science, since the end of the seventies, to all the disciplines that relate to the interdisciplinary scientific study of the mind and its processes. Cognitive science focuses on how information is represented, processed, and transformed (in faculties such as perception, language, memory, attention, reasoning, and emotion) in human and animal minds and machines. Let’s apply these concepts to the analysis of the methods that are developed in the design process. The cognitive theory emphasizes the relationship between design thinking and memory. The tools for memory management are writing and drawing actions necessary to transfer experiences and mental processes to new subjects involved in the design process. Basically, we can say that design is a technical but also a humanistic process because it is related to a human problem solving process. Design in its most effective form is a process, an action, more than an object. It is a protocol for solving problems and discovering new opportunities. Every design process has common elements. Over the last fifty years, methods for understanding the nature of design have been discussed and proposed. While the design processes are distinctive in specific ways depending on the different fields (mechanical, precision engineering, electronic and software engineering, etc.), a common cognitive base of different methods exists.