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Figure 9.9

A powerful way to engage ourselves with our designs is through the body (Figure 9.9). Our understanding of design and learning is elevated when we work through problems with our hands and eyes. Physical delivery of products needs labor and physical resources. An essential step in design is learning how our ideas can constrain workers. Learning design by making provides a platform to explore the mind-body problem. This is the idea that the mind, the body, and our consciousness are related. Learning design requires physically engaging our bodies to understand the outcomes of our ideas. Full-scale digital fabrication engages the mind through the body by physically assembling elements with rubber mallets.

Philosophers believe that the body is part of the learning process and that we are more than our heads. Embodied cognition is the engagement of the mind and body as part of design challenges decision-making. The body also picks up on experiences and physical interactions based on the environment and the situation. Cognition, in this case, is situated and related to time. The mind and the body experience time and the environment as part of the learning cycle. Too much time and thinking through hundreds of components during the assembly of an object elevates cognitive overload and exhaustion. Good designers of do-it-yourself furniture create simple assembly systems to reduce cognitive overload. The idea of numbering elements for assembly by providing simple instructions is a way to engage the builder without much mental overload. This is considered offloading. These types of bodily actions body are explained in varying ways by many in the field of Embodied cognition (Wilson 2002).

Design for Embodied Cognition

Cognition is situated.
Cognition depends on time.
The environment is part of the learning process.
Work should be off-loaded from the user.

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Figure 9.10 Design for Assembly method by Geoffrey Boothroyd