Sixteenth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices

Abstract

Without thought design was first proposed by Naoto Fukazawa in Japan. It aims to capture people’s subconscious actions and behaviour to transform them into visible objects. Within product design, scholars have constructed the deep influence of without thought design through user experience, in the field of higher education, user experience is committed to shaping the relationship between product-human-environment. Thus, we argue without thought design is one of the methods to improve user experience, also to support the future design education based on human behaviour. The purpose is to produce design models and tools to guide this learning procedure. We produce the model Loose Parts as a testing tool, it is composed of scenario cards, tool cards and three geometric assembly modules with different materials. The experiment is divided into two parts: model building and usability testing. The “affordance” theory of cognitive science and design is used as the theoretical basis for experiments. To verify the usability of Loose Parts, we randomly invited ten non-professionals for participation, with designers acting as observers to record and observe potential without thought design opportunities, including usability testing and observation. As a result, Loose Parts can effectively stimulate subjects’ unconscious needs, help designers collect information and promote the design innovation of relevant products. This study provides a preliminary educational approach to the experiment tool and a set of user instructions and guidelines.