Uncharted Research
Visual Thinking Design Patterns

In this paper we introduce Visual Thinking Design Patterns (VTDPs) as part of a methodology for producing cognitively efficient designs. We describe their main components, including epistemic actions (actions to seek knowledge) and visual queries (pattern searches that provide a whole or partial solution to a problem). We summarize the set of 20 VTDPs we have identified so far and show how they can be used in a design methodology.