視覺設計與產品設計是二種不同的設計領域，針對不同設計主題、不同目標、不同使用者、不同的表現媒材、甚至是不同製造的過程；然而想像力對於視覺與產品設計過程的每一個階段都是相當關鍵的能力，本研究主要探討的主題為何種環境因素是設計師們認為最能激發想像力。本研究將透過文獻，整理出與可能激發想像力的環境因子，共十個形容詞組，透過語意差異法將十組環境因素，以單一樣本t檢定、各設計階段之配對樣本t檢定、及獨立樣本t檢定，同時比較四個不同設計階段，視覺設計師與產品設計師之間激發想像力之環境因素的異同。實驗結果顯示，在設計第一階段的研究與分析，視覺設計師與產品設計師相同的因素為「上司壓力」；第二階段的構思中，二者相同的因素為「上司壓力」及「喜歡同儕互動」；在第三設計階段的製圖打樣，相同的為「安靜空間」及「多樣化生活經驗」；在最後的第四階段的發展與最佳化中，其中「安靜空間」，「多樣化生活經驗」，「上司壓力」等三個因素是相同。

Visual design and product design are two different kinds of design domains; they are different in design targets, design processes, end-users, design media, and even manufacturing processes. Nevertheless, imagination acts as a critical capability of designers in both visual and product design processes. Thus, this study focuses on what environmental factors are considered to be the most important factors for stimulating the imagination among different design phases. Moreover, in order to organize environmental factors to stimulate the imagination during design process, some literature has been reviewed in this study, ten paired-adjectives are proposed based on those environmental factors and then the semantic differential method is applied in ten paired- adjectives. By doing so, the data scored by both visual and product designers during the four design stages are evaluated by t-test, paired t-test among the four stages, as well as the independent t-test for analyzing the differentials and similarities of environmental factors between visual and product designers and among four design stages. Experimental results show the top-4 environmental factors of visual and product designers, in which there are some identical and some different factors among the four design stages. In the first phase of design, research and analysis, one identical environment factor between visual and product designers from the top-4 factors is ＂feel pressure from superior＂; in the second stage of the design, conceiving ideas, there are two similar factors between both designers from the top-4 factors, ＂feel pressure from superior＂ and ＂like interact with colleagues.＂ Moreover, in the design drawing and prototyping stage, two same factors from the top-4 environment factors between visual and product designers are ＂staying in a quiet room＂ and ＂various living experiences＂; finally, the fourth design stage, development and optimization, the identical environmental factors for stimulating imagination are ＂staying in a quiet room,＂ ＂various living experiences,＂ and ＂feel pressure from the superior＂ between visual and product designers.