Analogies play a key role in the design process. However, the explosive growth of online data poses significant challenges to the retrieval and use of analogies by a single designer or several designers, limiting the development of the analogical design. Although some scholars have attempted to enhance the effectiveness of analogical design through crowdsourcing platforms, there is a lack of work in both theory and practice. The main aim of this work is to improve the quality of analogical design solutions by exploring collaborative analogical design methods between designers and crowds in the crowdsourcing context. This study reviews analogical design research and its important related areas, specific analogical design methods, and the current research landscape. A preliminary empirical study demonstrates the validity of an extended linkography method to describe and analyze the designers’ activities during the analogical design process. This method provides the technical foundation for this study.

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