Abstract
By researching the existing literature for the abilities and conditions necessary for people to successfully solve engineering design problems, this chapter uncovers a consistent pattern of the cognitive processes involved and explains many of the intrinsic behaviors displayed by designers. Limitations in working memory size explain the use of several design-solution achievement devices: pattern matching; early single-solution conjecture; iteration; co-evolution of problem and solution; and intuition. In addition, learning and creating are found to be similar processes, with both requiring and building upon domain experience, in this case actual designing. Similar too are the processes of seeing and imagining, so that von Helmholtz’s dictum that ‘visual sensations are stronger than acts of the intellect’ can be applied to the solving of engineering design problems. This leads to an explanation for another set of intrinsic designer behaviors: a preference for visualizing solutions (over using abstract analysis); single-solution conjectures; object fixation; and found-object designing. Such explanations should help guide future education and research in design.