A visualization tool to investigate the interplay of external and internal processes.

This paper explores the potential of a newly devised visualization tool to facilitate empirical studies related to external and internal design processes. It also highlights the importance of viewing the designing process through the lens of embodied cognition, how designer’s mind–body (design) environment system and its interactions should be considered as holistic design strategies. Protocol data of one forty-minute sketching session and twenty-four design sessions of novice designers are utilized to illustrate the possible use of the visualization tool in different grains of analysis. It is observed that with access to externalizations, the cognition boundary between internal and external might be shifted. This is due to design tools (in this paper, the pen) which play a significant role in how designers can recognize affordances exhibited
by drawing marks or design environment. It is proposed that design affordances
and design effectivities are fundamental notions to the interplay between internal and external processes.