Correlation research on early-stage Design Data Search Strategies and Design Quality

Design thinking involves divergent and convergent thinking towards a satisficing solution with issues such as rationalization, creativity and how it functions during the process with design activities. The goal of this research is to understand design activities and cognitive processes during design phases through comparative analysis of novice and expert visual communication designers under theoretical framework. Research method for the study consists of three stages; 1) literature review, 2) experiment, and 3) analysis. After reviewing design thinking, visual communication design, and design activities and cognitive processes in design phases, a visual communication design task is performed by novice and expert designers in an experimental setting. Collected data includes concurrent self-reporting, writings, sketches, computer iterations, retrospective interview and researcher`s observational notes. Data assembled in one-minute time frames were examined by two coders for verbal and visual analyses. For the design process, all expert designers went through the phases of problem structuring, concept generation, concept visualization, design refinement, and detailing whereas two of the novice designers jumped into visualization followed by refinement and detailing. Experts worked on detailed design in between phases instead of at the end which indicates the ability to segment and conquer design task according to confronted circumstances. In reflection to design activities, novice designers produced significantly larger number of sketches compared to expert designers. Expert designers produced small number of sketches but they made substantial progress during the process. Novice designers used graphic software as a confirmatory tool whereas expert designers started working with computer from preliminary design phase for exploratory purposes. As for cognitive processes, expert designers exhibited more divergent thinking compared to novice designers. Expert designers went through divergent to convergent thinking for concept generation, and repeated the process one more time during visualization until meeting a satisficing design solution. Novices who overlooked concept generation went through divergent to convergent thinking during sketching and visualization using computer. The goal of this study was to investigate the thinking processes of visual communication designers during the entire design phases through comparative analysis of novice and expert designers. This study contributes to the comprehensive exploration of the design phases as most of the prior researches concentrated on the conceptual stage of design process. This sets example for examining design disciplines according to the design objectives, functions, artifacts, and how designers operate while designing. For the future research, specific issues found from the study need to be further investigated with larger number of participants for finding patterns of visual communication designers` thinking processes.

This research project focused upon the design strategies adopted by expert and novice designers. It was based upon a desire to compare the design problem solving strategies of novices, in this case key stage three pupils studying technolgy within the United Kingdom National Curriculum, with designers who could be considered to have developed expertise. The findings helped to provide insights into potential teaching strategies to suit novice designers. Verbal protocols were made as samples of expert and novice designers solved a design problem and talked aloud as they worked. The verbalisations were recorded on video tape. The protocols were transcribed and segmented, with each segment being assigned to a predetermined coding system which represented a model of design problem solving. The results of the encoding were analysed and consideration was also given to the general design strategy and heuristics used by the expert and novice designers. The drawings and models produced during the generation of the protocols were also analysed and considered. A number of significant differences between the problem solving strategies adopted by the expert and novice designers were identified. First of all, differences were observed in the way expert and novice designers used the problem statement and solution validation during the process. Differences were also identified in the way holistic solutions were generated near the start of the process, and also in the cycles of exploration and the processes of integration. The way design and technological knowledge was used provided further insights into the differences between experts and novices, as did the role of drawing and modelling during the process. In more general terms, differences were identified in the heuristics and overall design strategies adopted by the expert and novice designers. The above findings provided a basis for discussing teaching strategies appropriate for novice designers. Finally, opportunities for future research were discussed.

Recent theories of creative thinking propose that the generation of creative ideas by design novices and experts is restricted by the emergence of intuitive cognitive biases. To overcome these biases and explore expansive solutions, biased ideas must be discriminated from those with creative potential. Although studies in the field of reasoning have shown that biased participants tend to detect an incongruency between their provided solutions and the expected solution, the use of conflict detection in creativity has never been studied. Two experiments were conducted to determine the extent to which conflict detection occurs during creative idea generation and whether this mechanism is available for design novices (Experiment 1) and/or experts (Experiment 2). The results indicated that both groups of participants detected their fixation bias and managed to overcome it by switching from intuitive to deliberate thinking. In addition, we discussed implications for popular current (dual process) models.

This paper documents a research pilot study; it is a comparative investigation between an expert designer and a novice designer. The study used protocol analysis to examine design cognitive actions whilst using 3D digital media during the conceptual stage of design. The empirical study found novice designers capable of managing a design process of complex objects due to the increase in their contribution of design strategies to the overall process. The possible reason for this may be due to using free-form modelling with accuracy aids found in computing facilities. This provides evidence to suggest automated computing should be encouraged within the pedagogical framework of architectural design.

Given the design of a sheet metal component that is to be produced by pressworking, there can be more than one design for the die to produce that component. It will be desirable if a mechanism exists to identify the better of the design alternatives. A method referred to as Die Producibility Evaluation Method (DPEM) is presented in this paper to evaluate the design of a given pressworking die. The method involves identification and classification of the parameters involved in the design and operation of the pressworking die. These parameters are categorized as design cost factors and process cost factors. For a given die design, the design and process cost factors are identified and the results are tabulated in the DPEM table. In order to illustrate the method, a particular sheet metal component is chosen. A set of dies required to produce this component is then designed by a novice designer. This design is referred to as the initial design. The Die Producibility Evaluation Method is applied to the initial design, the DPEM table is updated, and an improved design is identified based on the evaluations recorded in the DPEM table. In order to provide a measure of quality, a second design is carried out under the guidance of an expert designer and is referred to as the reference design. It is shown that the improved design closely matches the reference design, thus illustrating the level of performance and applicability of the Die Producibility Evaluation Method.

The art of ‘stepping back’: Studying levels of abstraction in a diverse design team

In many literature reviews, we find that sketching is confirmed as an activity of generating and developing ideas. The sketching activity is also a key factor of influencing idea generation. However, the focus of conceptual design is to develop the promising new concepts. We are primarily interested in finding a creation process and thinking by analysis of sketching activity in conceptual design. The aim is to support the validation of the importance of the sketch in conceptual design and to further explore an appropriate method for improving the efficiency of ideation activities. In addition, it is important to find the distinct differences between the novice and expert sketching activities during conceptual design. Through a cognition experiment and a protocol analysis, this study investigates four elements: the total number of sketches generated, the transformation interaction (lateral thinking and vertical thinking) within the sketching, the complexity of sketches, and three types of concept generation. With this information, we can propose the ideal approach for concept generation; furthermore, providing a method for interpreting novice and expert visible sketching in conceptual design.

While creativity is often stressed in the conceptual phases of design, it is rarely considered during the concept selection process. Before effective methods can be developed to aid in creative concept section, however, differences in the perceptions of creativity between expert and novice designers and the influence of creativity evaluation methods on the process must be considered. Therefore, this paper was developed to address these questions by studying 11 expert and 11 novice designers. Specifically the study was developed to understand if experts' and novices' perception of a concepts creativity aligned, to introduce and compare the utility of our tool for assessing semantic creativity (TASC) to existing creativity evaluation methods, and to identify if our TASC method could be used as a proxy for expert evaluators. Our findings reveal that experts and novices generally had similar perceptions of a concept's creativity and that the TASC method was tapping into similar constructs of human perceptions of concept creativity. The results of this study contribute to our understanding of the factors that influence the selection or filtering of creative ideas after idea generation and provide a framework for research in this field.

Many design projects, including human-centered design (HCD) projects, incorporate multiple teams cooperating within what is referred to as a Multiteam System (MTS) environment. These teams mutually rely on resources and processes provided by other teams. As an MTS increases in complexity, knowledge is distributed to more individuals. While effectively distributed knowledge increases creativity and productivity, it is also can hinder team effectiveness. Team members may fail to exchange relevant information or to integrate pertinent information into reasoning for design decisions. Our research addresses information sharing among teams and individuals in HCD by examining interactions between and within the MTS (i.e., instructional team, novice designer or student team, and stakeholder team) in an interdisciplinary design course. Specifically, we used a thematic analysis of design reviews to investigate the influence of information requests toward the quality of the information exchanged, the influence of meeting structure and flow on design team interactions and meeting outcomes, and the influence of information sharing on cooperation within the HCD process. The findings align with previous studies about information sharing in a MTS and also contribute to a broad understanding of how an integrated interpretation of information sharing can influence a cooperative design process, such as HCD. Our analysis also suggests that designers must promote a cooperative decision-making process by eliciting open and unique information relevant to the design goals. Finally, design educators can support the development of novice engineers by improving their understanding of how to elicit information from, and share information, with other teams and stakeholders.

As the need for sustainable designs grows, there are ongoing efforts to integrate environmental considerations into engineering design. Creative stimuli could encourage sustainable ideas in concept generation, evaluation, and selection. External evaluations regulate designers’ motivation, and consequently, the outcomes of their creative processes. However, little research has investigated the effects of the design goals on the creativity and sustainability of designers’ ideas. We investigated this research gap through an experimental study with novice designers. We compared the ideas generated by designers when given a design problem with either a creativity- or sustainability-focused design goal. Our results indicate that the design goal neither influenced the creativity nor the environmental sustainability of the designers’ ideas. However, ideas generated by designers who received the sustainability-focused design goal showed more positive and significant correlations between creativity and sustainability. The temporal precedence of providing the design goal before idea generation provides evidence that sustainability-focused design goals could encourage the better-integrated application of creativity and sustainability in idea generation. Moreover, while creative stimuli would encourage sustainable design, a focus on creativity may overshadow the emphasis on sustainability in the design process. Therefore, designers and design educators must be careful not to over-emphasize creativity in sustainable design.

We propose and explore a novel method for fusing personas and storyboards in iteration by novice and expert designers. Personas have been shown to provide benefits to designers in understanding their users and keeping them in mind while designing. Storyboards have been shown to facilitate the communication of process between designers and users, and between designers and developers. Our process demonstrates the power and limitations of personas and storyboards, seeking to improve the design artifacts’ ability to inform the analysis of a product, and the resulting design implications. We describe the application of our process in a product design exercise. Through our study we saw the fusion of personas and storyboards facilitate the teaching of design.KeywordsPersonasStoryboards

In recent years, the availability and use of prototyping and usability testing tools has increased massively in practice. In parallel, research introduced multiple novel approaches and tools to assist novice and expert designers in prototyping. However, existing research has not looked into how to assist designers in conducting usability tests and making the collected quantitative data directly available in prototyping tools. In this paper, we distill three design goals from literature and propose a novel quantitative test-driven prototyping approach. The approach in its current form consists of a process and two user interface artifacts supporting selected actions of our process. We conducted a formative study to gather feedback from potential users on our approach. We use the collected feedback to refine our approach, identify trade-offs, and propose future research directions. We contribute by providing a novel quantitative test-driving prototyping approach that tightly connects prototyping with asynchronous usability testing.

Purpose This research investigates how human interaction with the interactive genetic algorithm (IGA) influences the formation of design outcomes. It aims to: (1) assess designers’ perceptions of the effectiveness of three different interaction modes of IGAs in achieving subjective and diverse outcomes, (2) understand how interaction patterns influence the pursuit of subjective goals and (3) examine differences between novice and expert designers. Design/methodology/approach A design experiment with 26 international participants used Snowflake, a multi-mode IGA tool, to evolve urban morphologies. Post-experiment surveys and interviews were conducted to address six research questions. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were employed to examine participants’ preferences, perceptions and interaction patterns. Findings Results showed that interaction modes influenced the evolutionary process in distinct ways and revealed differing perspectives, biases and factors that impacted evaluations across varying levels of design experience. Research limitations/implications Due to the small sample size and focus on the conceptual design phase, generalizability remained limited. Future studies are encouraged to extend these propositions to later design stages and broader contexts. Practical implications IGAs can reshape professional practice and design pedagogy by enabling architects and students to engage with design as a process of structuring problems and objectives rather than generating final forms. Through defining and interacting with the system, designers retained agency over the evolutionary direction of outcomes. Originality/value This research offeres the first empirical comparison between the new IGA interaction modes and demonstrated how integrating quantitative and qualitative objectives can support diverse design intentions across varying expertise levels.

As the global demand for renewable energy continues to rise, biogas production has emerged as a promising solution for sustainable energy generation. This review article presents the advantages of biogas technologies (mainly agricultural, based on waste of animal and plant origin) and extensively discusses the main principles of biogas production in the anaerobic digestion (AD). In this respect, the main parameters of the process, which require monitoring and decisive for its efficiency are described, therefore: temperature, pH value, retention time and organic loading rate (OLR). The principles of substrate selection are also discussed and the necessity and advantages of the use of organic waste according to the model of a circular economy and the concept of sustainable development, are indicated. It is emphasized that according to the new European regulations, the crops classified as food cannot be considered energy crops. The part on biogas production is summarised with an explanation of the necessity to treat and purify biogas. Biogas purification is important from the point of view of the efficiency of its conversion into electricity. A special place in this paper is devoted to the design, construction, functioning and operation of biogas plants, based on both scientific and practical aspects. In conclusion of this chapter, the economic aspects and profitability of operating biogas plants are discussed. Cost and benefit analyses are the major tool used for the systematic evaluation of the financial costs and potential benefits associated with the operation of biogas plants. The important fact is that the return on investment can be achieved within a few years, provided the activities are well-planned and executed. In addition to the fundamental issues of the operation of biogas plants, this article presents the global situation regarding the development of biogas plants, discussing in detail the specific needs and limitations on different continents. It is a interesting and extensive part of this article. The global agricultural biogas market is at very different levels of development. Most such installations are located in Asia and Europe. China has the highest number of biogas plants, with more than 100,000 biogas plants, followed by Germany with over 10,000 plants. In addition to the 100,000 biogas plants, China also has a large number of household biogas units, which gives a total of approx. 40 million operating units. The article concludes with a discussion of opportunities and barriers to the development of biogas plants, pointing to: financial issues, access to feedstock, political regulations, public awareness and the geopolitical situation. The most frequently cited reasons for investment failure include economic problems, lack of professional knowledge.

Software design problems are often characterized as ill-structured because the requirements are not clearly defined. These problems offer various solution paths and the criteria used to select the solution may not be known initially. The expertise and experience of designers play a crucial role in determining the quality of software design. Less experienced designers often tend to prematurely narrow down their options to a single solution without fully exploring the problem-solution space. This tendency has a negative impact on the overall quality of software design. Studies have shown that systematically expanding the problem space before reducing to problem formulation and exploring the solution space before reducing it to a single solution (expand-reduce skills) improves the quality of the design. We have designed and developed a technology-enhanced learning environment (TELE) named Fathom for scaffolding expand-reduce (ER) skills in software design problems in a data structures course. In this paper, we present three cycles of design, development, and evaluation of Fathom based on the design-based research (DBR) approach. In the first DBR cycle, we identified and evaluated Fathom’s pedagogical features in learning ER skills. In the second cycle of DBR, the aim was to improve the design of Fathom for the learning and transfer of ER skills. Fathom was revised in the third cycle of the DBR to scaffold metacognitive skills. The main contribution of this research is pedagogical design for facilitating the learning of expand-reduce skills in solving software design problems.