How Do Design Narratives Play a Role in Cognitive and Social Processes? An Explorative-Systematizing Expert Interview

Abstract

Narratives have increasingly come to the forefront of both design and innovation management. As a fundamental scheme of the human cognitive process and mode of communication, the role of narratives has been emphasized in relation to design and innovation processes. Although recent contributions have explored some characteristics of narratives and storytelling in both design and innovation, the literature remains lacking in understanding how narratives by design can affect innovation processes. Drawing from the creative process literature and narratives in design and innovation studies, this study analyzes how design experts employ design narratives at both the personal-cognitive and social-collaborative levels of creative process. The study aimed at building a basic analytical construction of the roles of design narratives in creative processes. Through an explorative and qualitative study, the authors explore the roles of design narratives through the lens of the collective knowledge of 17 design experts. Data collection was conducted using an explorative-systematizing expert interview, supplemented by secondary data, such as existing interview data and archival data, in the three design foundations in Italy. As a result, three aggregated personal-cognitive themes were identified: taking original perspectives as frame tales, weaving problem and solution pairs, and making storyworlds and senses. On the social-collaborative level, three themes emerged: orchestrating idea recombination, an imaginary and aesthetic manner of tension and conflict management, and contextualizing and generating narrativity. This study contributes to the design and innovation literature in terms of narratives by exploring and constructing basic themes regarding the role of design narratives in creative processes.