A Study on Cognitive Actions and Imagery Development Skill: Towards a Pattern Language For Novice Designers

The theme of this thesis is to evaluate the possibility of utilizing pattern language to assist designer's preliminary idea. According to Alexander’s proposition, the concept of pattern language is to help novice architects to study design through the systematic process. This study is to investigate whether novices would have a great improvement in idea sketching toward a pattern language. The experiment in this study includes two principal parts. The first part is to find a systematizing method to generalize pattern language by inviting experts to join a design workshop to edit a series of systematic pattern language through the discussion. The pattern language is made by the picture card, containing four key elements: 1.Name, 2.Picture, 3.Question, 4.Solution, it make novice easier to learn by it. The second part is to prove pattern language could promote its picture idea and develop novices’ ability through the process of studying. By dividing into the experiment group and the contrast group, the experiment group sketch toward pattern language; and the contrast group chooses the catalog method by watching a large number of pictures. We would compare and analyze the difference between these two methods through the information what video camera recorded. The result of this investigation finds that the cognitive actions in both groups are similar; it may be because the both groups are all novices. However, there is a huge diversity of the cognitive thinking way organized by the cognitive action in both groups. The novices utilizing pattern language have the continuous and systematic cognitive thinking that consisted of the cognitive action .The thinking of the other novices on catalog method is discontinuous and inefficient. According to the evaluation of the experts’ assessment, the novices utilizing pattern language is more efficient than the novice designers on catalog method.