Studying the Impact of Immersion on Design Cognition

With the recent developments in information and communication technologies, designers have adapted digital tools and new ways of designing into their practice. In order to develop efficient systems for designing, the adaptation of new tools and techniques in design practice requires a better understanding of how designers employ the digital medium and what impact the digital medium have on designers’ cognition. The latter one is the subject of this paper. The paper presents the methodology and the initial results of a pilot to investigate the impact of immersion on design cognition. The initial result of the pilot study indicates that the designers were able to adapt to each design environment which affords different kinds of activities and requires different cognitive load.