Thus a Swiss Army Knife is a design paradigm illustrating the concept of a single object that changes configuration to address a number of problems.
Design paradigms have been introduced in a number of books including Design Paradigms: A Sourcebook for Creative Visualization by Warren Wake,[1] and discussed in Design Paradigms: Case Histories of Error and Judgment in Engineering but never defined by Henry Petroski.
Problem solving occurs through a process of abstraction and characterization of design solutions, with subsequent categorization into problem solving types.
Design paradigms then can be seen as higher order metaphors; as the often three-dimensional distillation of a working relationship between parts, between groups of things, between the known and the unknown.
In this sense, a bridge is a paradigm of the connection between the known and the unknown, and the functional equivalent of a physical bridge is consequently used in many fields from computer hardware to musical composition.