The intersection of poetry and design

Abstract

Despite parallels between the structure of poetry composition and design tasks, no research has explored these correspondences to better understand the skilled behaviour in these two domains. In Study 1 expert poets were interviewed about their creative practices and a thematic analysis was conducted comparing these practices to key findings concerning the nature of design expertise. In Study 2, poets wrote poems while completing a 'think aloud' protocol and in Study 3 award winning expert poets were interviewed in light of the findings of earlier studies. The results were examined in regards to: (1) the role of "sources of inspiration" [4] in contextualizing activity and informing the creation of novel solution ideas; (2) the involvement of "primary generators" [3] in scoping tasks to core objectives; and (3) the nature of self-questioning and the role that questions take in forming solutions.