How designers think creatively: an exploratory study in the use of visual and emotional mental imagery

Abstract

Mental Imagery is a focus for design cognition research, with most research focusing on visual mental imagery, it has been highlighted that mental imagery encompasses more aspects than visual, including emotion known as multimodal mental imagery. So as researchers and educators we need to understand the cognitive process and how to best stimulate it. This paper looks at design students use of visual and emotional mental imagery and its impact on their ability to produce creative outcomes during the ideation stage of the design process.