Analysing Design Activity

by Cross, Nigel; Christiaans, Henri; Dorst, Kees

• ISBN13: 9780471960607
• ISBN10: 0471960608
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-01-23
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

Design encompasses some of the highest cognitive abilities of human beings, including creativity, synthesis and problem solving. A substantial and varied range of research methods has been developed and adopted for the analysis of design activity, but until now it has been difficult to compare the work of different researchers using different methods. This book contains the results of an international workshop held in Delft, The Netherlands, which focused on one particular research method, that of protocol analysis. Researchers from seventeen different leading centres around the world were invited to analyse the same video recordings of designers working on an engineering product design. The 20 chapters in this book are the records of that workshop, providing rich insights into the design process and an overview of accumulated knowledge on design from these researchers. There is also a discussion of the properties and limitations of protocol analysis as a research technique for analysing design activity. The book is a substantial contribution to developing understanding of the nature of design activity, and is of value to researchers, teachers and practitioners of design.

Author Biography

Nigel Cross is a professor and leading international figure in the world of design research and methodology. He is a long-time member of the academic staff of the UK's pioneering, multimedia Open University, where he has been involved in developing a wide range of distance-education courses in design,. He has also held visiting appointments in The Netherlands, Australia and the USA. His research interests are principally in understanding the nature of design ability, and the development of design skill from novice to expert. Professor Cross is also editor-in-chief of Design Studies, the international journal of design research.

Henri Christiaans is a professor and Dean of the School of Design & Human Engineering at the Ulsan National Institute of Science & Technology. He is also an invited professor at the School of Architecture of University in Minho, Portugal. He has earned a master's degree in psychology and a PhD in Industrial Design Engineering.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Delft Protocols Workshop	1	(16)
Nigel Cross
Henri Christiaans
Kees Dorst
1 History of Protocol Analysis	2	(2)
2 Workshop on Analysing Design Activity	4	(1)
3 Experimental Procedure	5	(4)
4 The Experiment Assignment	9	(2)
5 Data Analysis	11	(2)
6 Results	13	(1)
Acknowledgment	14	(1)
References	14	(3)
1 The Design Problem and its Structure	17	(18)
Kees Dorst
1 On the Design Task	17	(3)
2 On the Design Assignment	20	(5)
3 On the Problem Structure: Routes to a Solution	25	(7)
4 Conclusions	32	(1)
Acknowledgments	33	(1)
References	33	(2)
2 Design Protocol Data and Novel Design Decisions	35	(30)
Omer Akin
Chengtah Lin
1 Data in Design Protocols	36	(4)
2 Experiments	40	(2)
3 Analysis	42	(13)
4 Conclusions	55	(4)
5 Discussion	59	(3)
References	62	(3)
3 The Designer as a Team of One	65	(28)
Gabriela Goldschmidt
1 Individual and Team Problem Solving	66	(1)
2 Design Thinking and Verbalization	67	(1)
3 Design Productivity	68	(1)
4 The Bicycle Rack Design	69	(3)
5 Linkography: Structural Variables and Their Notation	72	(6)
6 Productive Designers: Dan and the Team	78	(11)
7 A Team of One?	89	(2)
Acknowledgments	91	(1)
References	91	(2)
4 Ingredients of the Design Process: a Comparison Between Group and Individual Work	93	(24)
Srinivasan Dwarakanath
Lucienne Blessing
1 Analysis Method	96	(2)
2 Findings	98	(11)
3 Limitations	109	(4)
4 Conclusions	113	(1)
References	114	(1)
Appendix A Ingredients of the Design Process: Definitions	115	(2)
5 Investigation of Individual and Team Design Processes	117	(16)
Joachim Gunther
Eckart Frankenberger
Peter Auer
1 Record-keeping Procedure	119	(3)
2 Protocol Interpretation	122	(8)
3 Discussion	130	(1)
Acknowledgements	131	(1)
References	131	(2)
6 Design Strategies	133	(18)
Can Baykan
1 Background	134	(1)
2 Method	134	(1)
3 Task Analysis	135	(1)
4 Assumptions	136	(1)
5 Hypotheses	137	(7)
6 Analysis of Individual's Protocol	144	(4)
7 Discussion	148	(1)
8 Conclusion	149	(1)
References	150	(1)
7 Understanding Information Management in Conceptual Design	151	(18)
Vinod Baya
Larry J. Leifer
1 Information Management	151	(4)
2 Information Handling Behaviour Framework	155	(3)
3 Analysis Procedure	158	(4)
4 Results	162	(4)
5 Summary	166	(1)
Acknowledgments	167	(1)
References	167	(2)
8 Analysis of Protocol Data to Identify Product Information Evolution and Decision Making Process	169	(18)
David G. Ullman
Derald Herling
Alex Sinton
1 Goal	169	(4)
2 Procedure	173	(2)
3 Reduction Results	175	(4)
4 Observations	179	(4)
5 Conclusions and Comments on the Exercise	183	(1)
References	184	(3)
9 Analysis of Design Protocol by Functional Evolution Process Model	187	(24)
Hideaki Takeda
Masaharu Yoshioka
Tetsuo Tomiyama
Yoshiki Shimomura
1 Function-Behaviour-State Modelling	188	(3)
2 Functional Evolution Process	191	(2)
3 Analysis of the Protocol Data	193	(15)
4 Summary	208	(1)
References	209	(2)
10 Design Activity Structural Categories	211	(14)
Vesna Popovic
1 Protocol Analysis	212	(4)
2 Designers' Interaction	216	(4)
3 Sketch of a Design Team Mode	220	(1)
References	220	(1)
Appendix A Protocol Sequences of the Individual Design Team Members	220	(5)
11 The Data in Design Protocols: The Issue of Data Coding, Data Analysis in the Development of Models of the Design Process	225	(28)
Terry Purcell
John Gero
Helen Edwards
Tom McNeill
1 The Development of the Coding Scheme	227	(2)
2 A Description of the Content of the Coding Scheme	229	(4)
3 Method	233	(5)
4 Results and Example Analyses	238	(12)
References	250	(1)
Appendix A Excerpt from the Final Coding of the Design Session	251	(2)
12 Comparing Paradigms for Describing Design Activity	253	(18)
Kees Dorst
Judith Dijkhuis
1 Two Paradigms for Describing Design Activity	253	(2)
2 Criterion: Describing the Design Situation	255	(3)
3 Applying the Two Paradigms of Design Methodology	258	(8)
4 Describing the Design Activity as a Process of Reflection in Action	266	(3)
5 Overall Conclusions	269	(1)
References	269	(2)
13 Use of Episodic Knowledge and Information in Design Problem Solving	271	(20)
Willemien Visser
1 Protocol Analysis in Search of Problem-solving Reuse: Identification of Episodic Data	272	(2)
2 Reuse of Problem-solving Elements	274	(5)
3 Use of Other Episodic Data	279	(4)
4 Discussion	283	(4)
Acknowledgments	287	(1)
References	288	(3)
14 Observations of Teamwork and Social Processes in Design	291	(28)
Nigel Cross
Anita Clayburn Cross
1 Roles and Relationships	293	(3)
2 Planning and Acting	296	(7)
3 Information Gathering and Sharing	303	(4)
4 Problem Analysing and Understandin	307	(2)
5 Concept Generating and Adopting	309	(4)
6 Avoiding and Resolving Conflicts	313	(3)
7 Conclusions	316	(1)
References	317	(2)
15 Collaboration in Design Teams: How Social Interaction Shapes the Product	319	(24)
Margot F. Brereton
David M. Cannon
Ade Mabogunje
Larry J. Leifer
1 Video Analysis Method	320	(1)
2 Analysis Overview	321	(1)
3 Roles and Solution Preferences	321	(4)
4 Making Progress - Foci and Transitions Mediated through Social Interaction	325	(14)
5 Conclusion	339	(1)
Acknowledgments	340	(1)
References	340	(3)
16 Concurrency of Actions, Ideas and Knowledge Displays within a Design Team	343	(22)
David F. Radcliffe
1 Methodology	344	(2)
2 Preliminary Observations	346	(5)
3 Systematic Methods and Emergent Ideas	351	(7)
4 Knowledge Displays	358	(4)
5 Concluding Observations	362	(1)
Acknowledgments	363	(1)
References	364	(1)
17 Design as a Topos-based Argumentative Activity: a Protocol Analysis Study	365	(24)
Brigitte Trousse
Henri Christiaans
1 Theory	366	(4)
2 Hypotheses	370	(1)
3 Method	371	(3)
4 Results	374	(7)
5 Discussion	381	(1)
Acknowledgment	382	(1)
References	382	(2)
Appendix A Topical Models of the Team Members, Agents I, J and K	384	(3)
Appendix B Identification of the Process Steps in the Team Protocol	387	(2)
18 Representing Design Workspace Activity	389	(28)
Maryliza Mazijoglou
Stephen Scrivener
Sean Clark
1 The ROCOCO Project	391	(2)
2 Representing Design Workspace Activity	393	(8)
3 Analysis of the Design Workspace Representation	401	(7)
4 Computer Assisted Design Workspace Representation Development	408	(1)
5 Conclusions	408	(1)
References	409	(2)
Appendix A Drawing Act Types and Sub-types	411	(1)
Appendix B Discourse Categories, Sub-categories and Code	412	(1)
Appendix C Drawing Act Data for ROCOCO and Delft Protocol	413	(1)
Appendix D Page DPW.94.1.14.2.24 Segmented into Six Drawings	414	(3)
19 A Bike in Hand: a Study of 3-D Objects in Design	417	(20)
Steve Harrison
Scott Minneman
1 Design Objects	419	(1)
2 How we Looked	419	(2)
3 What we Saw	421	(2)
4 The Dimensions of Objects	423	(8)
5 Activities Before, During and After	431	(1)
6 The Experience of Design	432	(3)
7 Conclusions	435	(1)
Acknowledgments	435	(1)
References	435	(2)
20 Can Concurrent Verbalisation Reveal Design Cognition?	437
Peter Lloyd
Bryan Lawson
Peter Scott
1 The Elicitation of Design Thinking	438	(1)
2 Protocol Analysis	439	(4)
3 The Mapping of Words to Thoughts	443	(9)
4 Capturing a 'Real' Design Episode	452	(8)
5 General Discussion	460	(2)
References	462