The impact of design media on cognitive load during architectural ideation process

Architectural design can be viewed as a process of solving ill-defined problems, requiring a constant dialogue between internal (or mental) representations and external representations based on the use of different media (sketches but also technologies) [4]. During the ideation phase or conceptual phase, this dialogue uses the resources of the working memory, which has to be discharged to process new information elements [1]. The objective of this research is to document whether different types of media traditionally used in architecture (physical models, freehand sketch or the use of a 3D software -- in this case Sketch-Up) impose anadditional cognitive load to the designer during the design process. To address this topic, an experiment was conducted with 25 students in a school of architecture. Two kinds of measures of cognitive workload were performed: an objective measure using the paradigm of dual task and a subjective measurement based on a modified version of the questionnaire NASATLX. The results showed no significant difference between media but the quantitative and qualitative measures allow us to point out tendantial differences between them.