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Studying Visual and Spatial Reasoning for Design Creativity

Abstract

While most kinds of design are rooted in geographic space, information systems design is rooted in network space in which logic, not distance, is key. Yet visualization and spatial reasoning are heavily used throughout design activity, sometimes clarifying, sometimes confusing. Current understanding about spatial reasoning in information systems, and future challenges, are discussed through the analysis of four different spaces of increasing abstraction that designers work in: geographic, network, design, and evaluation. New ways of exploring design space to are discussed, in particular the use of the crowd to generate, modify, and evaluate creative ideas. The value of the crowd may come through combination: human and computational design networks together may lead to new kinds of logical form.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, IIS-0725223, IIS-0855995, and IIS-0968561.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, USA

    Jeffrey V. Nickerson

  2. Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, USA

    Barbara Tversky & James E. Corter

Authors
  1. Jeffrey V. Nickerson
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  2. Barbara Tversky
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  3. James E. Corter
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jeffrey V. Nickerson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study, Fairfax, Virginia, USA

    John S. Gero

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© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Nickerson, J., Tversky, B., Corter, J. (2015). Showing Connection. In: Gero, J. (eds) Studying Visual and Spatial Reasoning for Design Creativity. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9297-4_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9297-4_2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-017-9296-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-9297-4

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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