Abstract: Design is the process in which designers use their expertise and experience to acquire design decisions. Most design results can only exhibit what the design is, but cannot reveal how and why an artifact is designed the way it is. Design intent is the motivation, rules and reasons behind design activities. The representation of design intent for design thinking process modeling is addressed. Design thinking process model is described by design intents, operations, justifications and the interaction among them. The basic elements and categories of design intents are discussed in detail and six types of segments of the design thinking process are identified by the relationship between design intents and design operations. The design thinking process model is represented formally by BNF. A prototype system, MindDigger, is developed for design thinking process modeling. An example of the original design of an automatic teller machine(ATM) is taken to embody and validate the model.

Key words: Design intent, Design process modeling, Design thinking process