Architects and Engineers Differences: A comparison between problem solving performances of architects and engineers in the ideation phase of an analogy-based design

This study examines how analogy affects problem-solving in ideation phase of design among architects and engineers. For this purpose, a design problem was given to master and Ph.D. students of engineering and architecture. They were given two optional analogy sources to choose and be inspired by one. From the analysis of design sessions, using different coding groups and the application of the Protocol analysis, the following results were achieved. Choosing different analogies would cause application of different levels of abstraction by designers in design, considering their discipline. Also, choosing between two analogies would affect mainly the behaviour of engineers in the problem space. For architects choosing between different analogies do not affect their problem solving or structuring so much but it affects their problem space monitoring mainly. Finally, architects benefit from analogy mostly for problem solving.