Interdisciplinary Design Teams Translating Ethnographic Field Data Into Design Models

Author(s):  
Jeni Paay ◽  
Leon Sterling ◽  
Sonja Pedell ◽  
Frank Vetere ◽  
Steve Howard

Translating ethnographic field data to engineering requirements and design models suitable for implementing socio-technical systems is problematic. Ethnographic field data is often “messy” and unstructured, while requirements models are organized and systematic. Cooperation and communication within an interdisciplinary design team makes the process even more complicated. A shared understanding between ethnographers, interaction designers, and software engineers is vital to ensure that complex and subtle social interactions present in the data are considered in the final system design. One solution for supporting team conversations uses the quality goal construct as a container for complex and ambiguous interaction attributes. Quality goals in system modelling promote shared understandings and collaborative design solutions by retaining a high level of abstraction for as long as possible during the design process. This chapter illustrates the effectiveness of abstract goals for conveying complex and ambiguous information in the design of a socio-technical system supporting social interaction between couples.

Author(s):  
Jeni Paay ◽  
Leon Sterling ◽  
Sonja Pedell ◽  
Frank Vetere ◽  
Steve Howard

Translating ethnographic field data to engineering requirements and design models suitable for implementing socio-technical systems is problematic. Ethnographic field data is often “messy” and unstructured, while requirements models are organized and systematic. Cooperation and communication within an interdisciplinary design team makes the process even more complicated. A shared understanding between ethnographers, interaction designers, and software engineers is vital to ensure that complex and subtle social interactions present in the data are considered in the final system design. One solution for supporting team conversations uses the quality goal construct as a container for complex and ambiguous interaction attributes. Quality goals in system modelling promote shared understandings and collaborative design solutions by retaining a high level of abstraction for as long as possible during the design process. This chapter illustrates the effectiveness of abstract goals for conveying complex and ambiguous information in the design of a socio-technical system supporting social interaction between couples.


Author(s):  
Ralph O. Buchal

 Abstract – Many design courses require students to maintain a paper-based personal design notebook or journal. The potential advantages of a digital notebook have been described in the literature, but few reports can be found on the use of digital notebooks in practice. This paper describes the design and implementation of a cloud-based collaborative workspace to provide a shared team design notebook. The shared workspace uses Microsoft SharePoint sites and Microsoft OneNote notebooks as the main components. SharePoint sites were created for 34 design teams in a 2nd-year engineering design course. Each site had a team notebook, document library, discussion forum, and task scheduler. Instructions and training were provided at the beginning of the course. Students were able to use the tools with little difficulty, and were able to use them as an effective replacement for a paper notebook. However, many teams did not make full use of the available capabilities, and there was little evidence of higher-level collaborative activities. The described implementation is technically and financially feasible, is scalable to large classes, and satisfies most of the requirements of a collaborative design notebook. However, scaffolding and training are needed to ensure that students collaborate effectively.


Author(s):  
Meisha Rosenberg ◽  
Judy M. Vance

Successful collaborative design requires in-depth communication between experts from different disciplines. Many design decisions are made based on a shared mental model and understanding of key features and functions before the first prototype is built. Large-Scale Immersive Computing Environments (LSICEs) provide the opportunity for teams of experts to view and interact with 3D CAD models using natural human motions to explore potential design configurations. This paper presents the results of a class exercise where student design teams used an LSICE to examine their design ideas and make decisions during the design process. The goal of this research is to gain an understanding of (1) whether the decisions made by the students are improved by full-scale visualizations of their designs in LSICEs, (2) how the use of LSICEs affect the communication of students with collaborators and clients, and (3) how the interaction methods provided in LSICEs affect the design process. The results of this research indicate that the use of LSICEs improves communication among design team members.


Author(s):  
Santiago V. Lombeyda ◽  
William C. Regli

Abstract This paper presents an approach to support computer-aided conceptual design of mechatronic assemblies in a collaborative, multi-user environment. We describe a system, Conceptual Understanding and Prototyping (CUP), that allows a team of design engineers, collaborating over the Internet, to develop a high-level structure-function-behavior (S-B-F) description of an assembly in a VRML-based virtual environment. Our goal is to enable users to navigate intricate product data management (PDM) and case-based design knowledge-bases, providing the ability to perform design at conceptual level and have intelligent CAD tools that can draw on details from large repositories of previously archived designs. This work furthers research efforts in computer support for collaborative design activities — drawing on work in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Computer Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW). We envision CUP to be a network interface to next-generation of engineering PDM systems and CAD databases. We are deploying CUP as query interface to the National Design Repository (http://repos.mcs.drexel.edu). This will enable CAD users to interrogate large quantities of legacy data and identify artifacts with structural and functional similarities — allowing designers to perform case-based and variant design.


Author(s):  
Li Zhu ◽  
Barbara R. Barricelli ◽  
Claudia Iacob

As collaboration in creating software systems becomes more complex and frequent among multidisciplinary teams, finding new strategies to support this collaboration becomes crucial. The challenge is to bridge the communication gaps among stakeholders with diverse cultural and professional backgrounds. Moreover, future uses and issues cannot be completely anticipated at design time, and it is necessary to develop open-ended software environments that can be evolved and tailored in opportunistic ways to tackle co-evolution of users and systems. A conceptual meta-design model, the Hive-Mind Space (HMS) model, has been proposed to support multidisciplinary design teams’ collaboration and foster their situated innovation. The model provides localized habitable environments for diverse stakeholders and tools for them to tailor the system, allowing the co-evolution of systems and practices. The authors explore the possibility of utilizing boundary objects within the HMS model to facilitate the communication amongst stakeholders as well as their participation in the creative distributed design process. Two concrete case studies, a factory automation and the Valchiavenna Portal, demonstrate the implementation of the HMS model and provide a possible solution to overcome the complex, evolving and emerging nature of the collaborative design.


Author(s):  
Yujing Yang ◽  
Natalie Brik ◽  
Peter de Jong ◽  
Milene Guerreiro Goncalves

AbstractFraming is a crucial skill for connecting problem and solution spaces in the creative design process, both for individuals and teams. Frames are implicit in individuals’ cognitive thinking, but the creation of shared frames plays a vital role in collaborative design. Many studies have attempted to describe the framing process, but little is still known about how to support designers in framing, specifically in teams. This paper addresses this gap, by exploring the connection between sketching and framing within interdisciplinary teams. Following a qualitative and explorative approach, we have investigated the process and outcome of five interdisciplinary teams. We identified that sketching assists in the creation and elaboration of frames. Furthermore, in tandem with discussion and reflection, sketching helps increase the chance of a frame to survive within the design process. Our findings have practical and educational implications for improving the creative design process in interdisciplinary teams.


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