Education
His Doctor of Philosophy on ‘Human and Machine Roles in Computer Aided Design’ was expanded into the book The Automated Architect (1977), which was critical of some of the computer-aided architectural design work of that time.
His Doctor of Philosophy on ‘Human and Machine Roles in Computer Aided Design’ was expanded into the book The Automated Architect (1977), which was critical of some of the computer-aided architectural design work of that time.
He is one of the key people of the Design Society. Nigel Cross began his design research in the 1960s with studies of "simulated" computer-aided design systems where the purported simulator was actually a human operator, using text and graphical communication via CCTV. Cross later referred to this as a kind of Reverse Turing test. In interaction design this kind of study later became known as a Wizard of Oz experiment.
He also applied early forms of protocol analysis to these experiments.
In 1971, Cross co-organised the first major conference of the Design Society (DRS), on Design Participation. He continued to play significant roles in DRS, and since 2006 has been its President.
Early interests in design methods led to an edited book of foundational papers, Developments in Design Methodology (1984) and a textbook of Engineering Design Methods (1989, now in a 4th edition). Subsequently his research interests turned more to design cognition or design thinking.