Lost in Translation: Examining the Complex Relationship Between Prototyping and Communication

2021 ◽  
Vol 143 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandeep Krishnakumar ◽  
Catherine Berdanier ◽  
Christopher McComb ◽  
Jessica Menold
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Communication Strategies ◽  
Rhetorical Patterns ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering ◽  
Engineering Design Process ◽  
Novice Designers ◽  
Design Ideas ◽  
Lost In Translation

Abstract Prototyping plays a pivotal role in the engineering design process. Prototypes represent physical or digital manifestations of design ideas, and as such act as effective communication tools for designers. While the benefits of prototyping are well-documented in research, the fundamental ways in which the construction of a prototype affects designers' reflection on and evaluation of their design outcomes and processes are not well understood. The relationships between prototypes, designers' communication strategies, and recollection of design processes is of particular interest in this work, as preliminary research suggests that novice designers tend to struggle to clearly articulate the decisions made during the design process. This work serves to extend prior work and build foundational knowledge by exploring the evaluation of design outcomes and decisions, and communication strategies used by novice designers during prototyping tasks. A controlled in situ study was conducted with 45 undergraduate engineering students. Results from qualitative analyses suggest that a number of rhetorical patterns emerged in students' communications, suggesting that a complicated relationship exists between prototyping and communication.

How Engineering Design Students’ Creative Preferences and Cognitive Styles Impact Their Concept Generation and Screening

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katie Heininger ◽  
Hong-En Chen ◽  
Kathryn Jablokow ◽  
Scarlett R. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Idea Generation ◽  
Risk Tolerance ◽  
Concept Generation ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering ◽  
Engineering Design Process ◽  
Individual Traits ◽  
The Impact

The flow of creative ideas throughout the engineering design process is essential for innovation. However, few studies have examined how individual traits affect problem-solving behaviors in an engineering design setting. Understanding these behaviors will enable us to guide individuals during the idea generation and concept screening phases of the engineering design process and help support the flow of creative ideas through this process. As a first step towards understanding these behaviors, we conducted an exploratory study with 19 undergraduate engineering students to examine the impact of individual traits, using the Preferences for Creativity Scale (PCS) and Kirton’s Adaption-Innovation inventory (KAI), on the creativity of the ideas generated and selected for an engineering design task. The ideas were rated for their creativity, quality, and originality using Amabile’s consensual assessment technique. Our results show that the PCS was able to predict students’ propensity for creative concept screening, accounting for 74% of the variation in the model. Specifically, team centrality and influence and risk tolerance significantly contributed to the model. However, PCS was unable to predict idea generation abilities. On the other hand, cognitive style, as measured by KAI, predicted the generation of creative and original ideas, as well as one’s propensity for quality concept screening, although the effect sizes were small. Our results provide insights into individual factors impacting undergraduate engineering students’ idea generation and selection.

Categorization of Information Loss During the Dissemination of Design Ideas

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria Zhao ◽  
Conrad S. Tucker
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Information Source ◽  
Information Loss ◽  
Design Solution ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Comprehensive Review ◽  
Engineering Design Process ◽  
Design Idea ◽  
Design Ideas

Information is transferred through a process consisting of an information source, a transmitter, a channel, a receiver and its destination. Unfortunately, during different stages of the engineering design process, there is a risk of a design idea or solution being incorrectly interpreted due to the nonlinearity of engineering design. I.e., there are many ways to communicate a single design idea or solution. This paper provides a comprehensive review and categorization of the possible sources of information loss at different stages of the engineering design process. Next, the authors present an approach that seeks to minimize information loss during certain stages of the engineering design process. The paper i) explores design process and dissemination methods in engineering design; ii) reviews prior work pertaining to these stages of the engineering design process and iii) proposes an information entropy metric that designers can utilize in order to quantify information loss at different stages of the engineering design process. Knowledge gained from this work will aid designers in selecting a suitable dissemination solution needed to effectively achieve a design solution.

Toward Implementing Quantifiable Social Justice Metrics in the Design Process

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas L. Van Bossuyt ◽  
Jered Dean
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Design Space Exploration ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Design Space ◽  
Space Exploration ◽  
Colorado School ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering ◽  
The Social ◽  
Promising Area

The recent increased popularity in teaching social justice in an engineering context has revealed issues related to implementing social justice criteria in a design process. Recent experiences with undergraduate engineering students from a variety of disciplines at the Colorado School of Mines indicate that quantifying the six social justice criteria may aid in the understanding and acceptance of social justice in the design process. This paper presents our efforts toward quantifying the social justice criteria and implementing that quantification into the design process as a set of metrics that can be tracked and potentially used as part of a design space exploration or optimization effort. While the implications of quantifying and using social justice criteria as part of the design process may at first seem ripe for misuse or misunderstanding, we have found our students more receptive of social justice as an integral part of engineering design when presented in the proposed quantified manner. Much work remains to be done to fully integrate social justice into the design process. The initial efforts to more strongly link social justice with the design process and findings of that effort are presented in this paper and indicate that this is a promising area of further research.

Dissection Versus Incubation: The Within-Subject Effects of Product Dissection Activities on Design Variety

2019 ◽  
Vol 142 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth M. Starkey ◽  
Mohammad Alsager Alzayed ◽  
Samuel Hunter ◽  
Scarlett R. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Solution Space ◽  
Idea Generation ◽  
Personality Test ◽  
Educational Tool ◽  
Incubation Condition ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering ◽  
Design Ideas

Abstract Product dissection is a popular educational tool in engineering design due to its ability to help students understand a product, provide inspiration for new design ideas, and aid in product redesign. While prior research has investigated how dissecting a product before idea generation impacts the creative output of the ideation session, these studies failed to look at the types of ideas generated before dissection or how the type of product dissected impacts this. Thus, the goal of the current study was to examine how product dissection impacts the solution space explored by students. Fifty-five undergraduate engineering students participated in the experiment; 40 participants virtually dissected a product, while the remaining 15 completed a personality test. The results of the study highlight that students explored new types of ideas during the second ideation session for all conditions and at all levels, with students having the biggest increase in embodiment variety when they dissected analogically far products. Overall, there were no differences in design variety between students in the dissection condition and the incubation condition. This study highlights how incubation can impact design variety and calls for further investigation of the interaction between product dissection and incubation.

Stimulating appropriate uses of simulation in design

1998 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-54
Author(s):  
JAMES J. ROSENBERG
Keyword(s):  
Computer Simulation ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Appropriate Use ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering ◽  
Simulation Based

This article addresses the issue of educating undergraduate engineering students in the appropriate use of computer simulation in the design process. The premise that poorly designed assignments involving simulation can actually impair understanding is addressed. A set of goals for simulation-based exercises is suggested, and some tactics for meeting these goals are introduced. Finally, a specific example of a half-term assignment that is used to meet these goals is provided for illustration.

scholarly journals "Thus, I had to go with what I had": A Multiple Methods Exploration of Novice Designers' Articulation of Prototyping Decisions

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher McComb ◽  
Jessica Menold ◽  
Catherine Berdanier ◽  
Emma Hocker ◽  
Lisa Gardner
Keyword(s):  
Mental Model ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Controlled Study ◽  
Communication Tools ◽  
Design Decisions ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering ◽  
Novice Designers ◽  
Difficult Challenge ◽  
The Relationship

Effectively communicating designs to stakeholders or end users is a critical step in the design process yet can be a difficult challenge for engineers. Prototypes are unique tools that can enhance communication between these two groups, as prototypes are physical manifestations of the designer’s mental model. Previous work has demonstrated that novice designers often struggle to use prototypes as communication tools. We argue that it is critical that engineering students learn to fully leverage prototypes, and thus the current work sought to understand the relationship between argumentation, prototyping, and design decisions. In order to understand the communication patterns of novice designers during a prototyping task, a controlled study was conducted with a total of 46 undergraduate engineering students. The analysis of quantitative and qualitative data point to the intricate linkages between how students make material decisions and how they justify those decisions.

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