The Use of Intuitive Thinking in Product Design Semantics: From Chinese Characters to Product Design

Intuitive thinking is a creative way of thinking that abstracts people's life experiences and talents into expressive symbols or forms, enabling people to have an immediate knowledge of something before thinking and studying it logically. In product design, if designers can use the intuitive thinking in design activities, making products associated with the user's experience, then it will greatly reduce the user's learning difficulties, resulting in a more pleasant experience. Chinese characters is a rational product with intuitive thinking that created in ancient China. It not only has a high degree of simplicity and abstraction, but also reflects people's lives with a strong cognitive. From the pictographic in very beginning, people have created varied Chinese characters by six basic formations, which is an outstanding example of intuitive thinking. The creation of Chinese characters provides practical guidance and reference for the modern creation. This paper analyzed the corresponding relationship between the “Six Categories of Chinese Characters” and the modern design technique, and we also analyzed the common function of intuitive thinking in the creation of words and products with designing cases. At last we organized the Intuitive Thinking Schema. By using the Intuitive Thinking Schema, designers can associate the user experience with product design semantics, which can provide users with a more intuitive product experience and provide a reference for later design practice.