Perspectives toward the stereotype production method for public symbol design: a case study of novice designers

This study investigated the practices and attitudes of novice designers toward user involvement in public symbol design at the conceptual design stage, i.e. the stereotype production method. Differences between male and female novice designers were examined. Forty-eight novice designers (24 male, 24 female) were asked to design public symbol referents based on suggestions made by a group of users in a previous study and provide feedback with regard to the design process. The novice designers were receptive to the adoption of user suggestions in the conception of the design, but tended to modify the pictorial representations generated by the users to varying extents. It is also significant that the male and female novice designers appeared to emphasize different aspects of user suggestions, and the female novice designers were more positive toward these suggestions than their male counterparts. The findings should aid the optimization of the stereotype production method for user-involved symbol design.