Clinical— experimental analysis of design problem solving (original) (raw)

The effects of experience during design problem solving

Design Studies, 1997

Behavioral and physiological experiments to analyze the development, influence and application of experience during design problem solving are described. The results of the behavioral experiments show, that while novices try to solve assignments through deductive reasoning, experts prefer to apply their experience directly. The electrophysiological experiments indicate, that as a manifestation of this, the regions activated in the human brain during problem solving vary according to the experience a test person has. Novices show a longer activity in the frontal regions whereas the experts seem to have longer activity in the parietal regions of the brain.

A Design Experiment on Intuition and Analysis

2012

466 467 ABSTRACT This paper offers an assessment of two methods for design—one based on intuitive design skills, the other on feedback from performance analysis—offered within a course with a biomorphic focus. The project demands a design solution that operates on two levels, function and aesthetics; students focused on proposing an “elegant” building component without compromising structural efficiency. The results are discussed with regard to aesthetic theory, as indicators toward integrating analysis tools in creative processes and also understanding different learning paradigms for students. Furthermore, the students’ perception of the process within two different rule-based systems is discussed. Finally, the evolution of this experiment within a clinical framework by collaborating with neuroscientists is contemplated, with the scope of collecting quantifiable data about aesthetics and establishing a connection with data-driven design processes. CONDITIONING ELEGANCE: A DESIGN E...

Characterising the relationship between practice and laboratory-based studies of designers for critical design situations

Experimental study of the designer plays a critical role in design research. However, laboratory based study is often poorly compared and contrasted to practice, leading to a lack of uptake and subsequent research impact. The importance of addressing this issue is highlighted by its significant influence on design research and many related fields. As such the main aim of this work is to improve empirical design research by characterising the relationship between practice and laboratory-based studies for critical design situations. A review of the state of the art of methods in design research and key related fields is reported. This highlights the importance and commonality of a set or core issues connected to the failure to effectively link study of practice and study in the laboratory. Further to this a technical review and scoping study was carried out to establish the most effective capture strategy to be used when studying the designer empirically. Subsequently three studies are reported, forming a three-point comparison between practice, the laboratory (with student practitioners) and an intermediary case (a laboratory with practitioners). Results from these studies contextualise the critical situations in practice and develop a detailed multi-level comparison between practice and the laboratory, which was then validated with respect to a number of existing studies. The primary contribution of this thesis is the development of a detailed multi-level relationship between practice and the laboratory for critical design situations: information seeking, ideation and design review. The second key contribution is the development of a generic method for the empirical study of designers in varying contexts – allowing researchers to build on this work and more effectively link diverse studies together. The final key contribution of this work is the identification of a number of core methodological issues and mitigating techniques affecting both design research and its related fields.

Experiments in Design and in Research

In design practice and in design research the term ‘experiment’ is widely used and often misused. To some extent, this can be ascribed to the fact that the experimental method comes close to or partly overlaps the approaches of ‘trial and error’ and ‘reflection-in-action’, as defined by Donald Schön. Nevertheless, these methods or rather approaches differ in regard to their aims, results, and context of application. Based on an investigation in design literature and various case examples from practice-led doctoral research, this paper attempts to highlight the differences between scholarly experiment,‘trial and error’ and ‘reflection-in-action’. The initial point of this investigation is from the perspective of the so-called New Experimentalism: a branch of the philosophy of natural science, and from the work of Ian Hacking that redirected and broadened the traditional conception of experiment. Hence, the role of creative practice in design research will be scrutinized from the perspective of New Experimentalism. The goal is to justify the role of artefacts in practice-led design research and in making and doing (action, intervention) as an experimental practice that contributes to the creation of knowledge and the construction of theory.

New experimentalism in design research

Revised and extended version of the Nordes'13 paper "Characteristics and interferences of experiments in science, the arts, and in design research" Published in Artifact Special Issue on "Experiments in Design Research", Vol 3., No. 2 (2014)

A methodology for studying design cognition in the real-world

Proceedings from the First Nordic Design Research …, 2005

The in vivo research methodology holds promise to improve some of the limitations of typical design cognition methodologies. Whereas typical design cognition methodology use protocol analysis (utilizing special 'think-aloud' instructions and/or artificial settings) or retrospective analyses, in vivo research attempts to study design thinking and reasoning 'live' or 'online' as it takes place in the real world. No special instructions are used since the method relies on natural dialogue taking place between designers. By recording verbalizations at product development meetings (or other suitable objects of study), transcribing, and coding the data, it is possible to test hypotheses about design cognition in the real-world. This promises to improve the ecological validity over typical design cognition studies. Problems with the methodology include labor-intensiveness leading to small samples (possible sampling errors). To deal with this problem, it is recommended to supplement in vivo research with traditional larger sample laboratory studies.

HUMAN BEHAVIOUR IN DESIGN

kemi.sitecore.dtu.dk

Engineering designers cannot perform their tasks without obtaining supporting information, so how effectively and efficiently they do this is of tremendous importance. Research into how engineering designers interact when obtaining information is described. The argument is based on the results of two observational studies undertaken in the aerospace industry. The first study observed teams of four designers to see how they obtained their information; the second observed experienced and novice designers to identify differences in the way they approached design tasks. A conclusion from the first study was that in the vast majority of cases designers preferred to obtain their information from other individuals rather than from documents; and a conclusion from the second study was that novice designers did not know what strategies to adopt and which questions to ask when seeking information. These conclusions are important when planning future information storage and retrieval systems. Court A, Culley S, McMahon C (1996) Information access diagrams: a technique for analysing the usage of design information. Journal of Engineering Design, vol 7 (1), pp 55-75 Frankenberger E, Badke-Schaub P (1996) Influences on engineering design in industry. Report, TH Darmstadt, Germany Marsh JR (1997) The capture and structure of design experience. Ph.D. thesis, Cambridge University Engineering Department Marsh JR, Wallace KM (1995) Integrity of design information. In: International Conference on Engineering Design (ICED 95), Prague, 4, pp 1449-1454

Design Problem-Solving: Understanding the Significance of Iterative-Behaviour in Design

PLANNING MALAYSIA JOURNAL

Different concepts and definitions associate iterative-behaviour with repetition. This study consider iterative-behaviour simply means as the act that involve repetition of activities to improve the evolving design. The research further investigate the significance of designer iterative behaviour in design using sketching as the media for design interaction. The retrospective protocol analysisof the video data have identified and measure designer iterative behaviour in design, through a sketching and scoring sessions by five (5) final year undergraduate students and five (5) design tutors, all from the Department of Architecture, University of Technology Malaysia. The design and score were qualitatively and quantitatively compared using close group discussion and the Pearson correlation coefficient analysis. The result shows that in design problemsolving, designer iterative-behaviours were not statistically significant in determining the quality of design.