Abstract: In the industrial design area, a method of tacit knowledge acquisition for the concept design process is put forwards to expand the design knowledge space. With the discussion on the basic definition of design knowledge and the tacit knowledge, the concept design process is the important resource of tacit knowledge, which integrates specific problem, scenario and design experience. According to the characteristics of the tacit knowledge production and transformation, the knowledge acquisition strategies are established，including collecting the date from the bottom cognitive behavior, defining full concept system and processing the information by degrees. During the tacit knowledge acquisition process, the information on designer’s individual activities is captured on the basis of oral reports, QOC(Question, Option, Criterion) and sketch explanation method. The design states are divided according to the sketch scheme, and items of information are collected and arranged. Based on the knowledge transformation principle of the pre-concept defining information, the target knowledge of design object and process is expressed by the knowledge meta-model and the ontology configuration. The innovation degree of transformed knowledge is evaluated by the combination method of objection and subjection. Finally, the knowledge acquisition system is established to verify the above methods by the cases of USB flash disk form tacit knowledge acquisition for USB flash disk form design.

Key words: Concept design, Knowledge acquisition, Oral report, Tacit knowledge