https://doi.org/10.1177/1478077119834694 International Journal of Architectural Computing 1–19 © The Author(s) 2019 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/1478077119834694 journals.sagepub.com/home/jac Pen-and-paper versus digital sketching in architectural design education Parvin Heidari and Çiğdem Polatoğlu Abstract This study aimed to compare and evaluate the digital-based sketching versus conventional pen-and-paper sketching through conducting an experiment via protocol study in educational field. To this aim, the linkography analysis technique was used to obatin the related data from the protocol study. Linkography technique allows analyzing design as a system and is capable of tracing the design ideas and their connections; therefore, it facilitated the purposes of the current study. The results demonstrated that designers had a richer design process and more opportunities for generating ideas in the pen-and- paper sketching versus digital sketching. Furthermore, the designers’ performance in the digital media with two-dimensional sketching software was more satisfactory than the digital session with three-dimensional sketching software. However, digital media encouraged designers to make more integration among the ideas. Keywords Conceptual design, pen-and-paper sketching, digital sketching, linkography Introduction In the architectural design, a designer focuses on the conceptual stage. In this stage, the designer generates and explores new ideas based on analyzing the problem. Traditionally, the early stage of design begins with sketching and making model to explore the ideas and solutions. Sketching is regarded as one of the most explored activities in design cognition studies. The results of sketch studies indicated that ambiguity is one of the sketching aspects, which gives some specific characteristics. All of the researchers who explored and defined the act of sketching believe that the ambiguity of the sketch is related to the reinterpretation, which enables unexpected discoveries to explore new design ideas. 1–5 Since the lines drawn by freehand sketches are ambiguous, they can be interpreted differently. The designer may get new insights, see new relations as well as make new inferences and meanings by reinterpreting these lines, leading to the discovery of new ideas. 4,5 In addition, it may prevent the early fixations of ideas. 1,3 Thus, designers use sketches by both expressing their ideas and generating new ones. Department of Architecture, Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey Corresponding author: Parvin Heidari, Department of Architecture, Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey. Email: pheydari50@gmail.com 834694JAC 0 0 10.1177/1478077119834694International Journal of Architectural ComputingHeidari and Polatoğlu research-article 2019 Research Article