Abstract
During the Fuzzy Front End (FFE), the early and uncertain stage of the design process, creatively framing design problems plays a critical role in shaping direction and originality of outcomes. While the value of problem framing is well established, the cognitive mechanisms for innovation developed through industrial experience by which expert designers navigate ambiguity, remain comparatively underexamined. Guided by the C–K Theory, this study examines how expert designers leverage experiential knowledge when transitioning between concept (C) and knowledge (K) spaces. Using a qualitative approach, we conducted semi-structured interviews and real-time framing tasks with 12 expert designers (5+ years of practice). Visual mapping and temporal-bracketing analyses reveal three experience-mediated reasoning modes of alternating exploration and consolidation. The findings advance understanding of experiential design cognition gained from practical industrial experiences, offering insights for adaptive AI-supported design tools that respond to shifting cognitive modes, and new pathways for structured design thinking education.
Keywords
Problem Framing; Fuzzy Front End (FFE); C–K Theory; Expert Design Cognition
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1126
Citation
Hu, D., Woods, T., Zhang, W., Li, Z., and Li, H. (2026) Framing the fuzzy: Mapping expert designers’ problem framing through C–K theory, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1126
Creative Commons License
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Included in
Framing the fuzzy: Mapping expert designers’ problem framing through C–K theory
During the Fuzzy Front End (FFE), the early and uncertain stage of the design process, creatively framing design problems plays a critical role in shaping direction and originality of outcomes. While the value of problem framing is well established, the cognitive mechanisms for innovation developed through industrial experience by which expert designers navigate ambiguity, remain comparatively underexamined. Guided by the C–K Theory, this study examines how expert designers leverage experiential knowledge when transitioning between concept (C) and knowledge (K) spaces. Using a qualitative approach, we conducted semi-structured interviews and real-time framing tasks with 12 expert designers (5+ years of practice). Visual mapping and temporal-bracketing analyses reveal three experience-mediated reasoning modes of alternating exploration and consolidation. The findings advance understanding of experiential design cognition gained from practical industrial experiences, offering insights for adaptive AI-supported design tools that respond to shifting cognitive modes, and new pathways for structured design thinking education.